As the club continues to grow with more sessions being provided over the last year, we need to grow our teaching group.  We are requesting if any parents/guardians are interested in helping on poolside, please make yourself known to one of our teachers or the desk.  We will train you and ensure you go through all the checks and assurances to qualify you to teach/coach.  You can help with just one session or more, it is up to you.  We just need a reasonable amount of consistency to enable us to plan our session delivery.  The quality of th progression of our swimmers relies on the quality of our teachers, therefore you can directly help our club progress if you volunteer.

Thank you, Paul Armstrong (Club Chair and Chief Coach).

Following the significant disruption that Covid-19 has had on all our lives, including the effects on our children and their participation in swimming within our swimming club, we thought to take the opportunity to communicate our plan for return to swimming and how we will support you in these difficult times.

Our plan was to return at the start of January, initially with the selected length swimmers that had been training before the Christmas break following the phase-return to the pools [British Swimming Association (BSA) guidelines]. Unfortunately, our plans to invite more swimmers were blocked again with the new Covid-restrictions and closure of the pools/gyms. Upon the leisure centres re-opening (unknown yet), we would expect a staged return back to pre-covid, normal length and width swimming and learn to swim, that will occur over a number of months from our initial return.

This time of year, we collect our annual membership fees, which cover our club members through the governing body (ASA) insurances, and the affiliation with region and county associations. The fees must be paid to the ASA by February, and if not paid we are not allowed to operate as an affiliated club, with the insurances that are required to be in place. As we recognise that most people who had paid memberships in January last year had very little opportunity to benefit from that membership, we acknowledge that asking for payments again this year will be wrong on a number of levels, although the BSA-ASA require the payment. We will therefore freeze your membership within our club and your position will be maintained. It is our intention that your membership will be renewed on your return to training or learn to swim sessions as soon as we are safely allowed to do so.

We recognise that this situation we all find ourselves in is not down to our making, and we all have to pull together in these difficult times. This club believes in a grass roots participation in swimming, and we hope this token enables your children to return to our club when the time is right.

Thank you and Stay Safe

Bridgefield Swimming Club