The 2018 Swim School had the largest turn out ever with 10-15 boys from Years 9 to 11 showing up regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays lunch times.

This increase in numbers is due to Swim School being more actively promoted around the school. The instructors encouraged all students to come Tuesday and Thursday lunch times and to give it a go. This was done through PE teachers, class notices and posters around the school.

The Instructors were Riley Taylor (Year 13), Reed Stevenson (Year 13), Jack Sands (Year 12) and Will Tudgey (Year 10) who are all national level swimmers.

At the beginning of the lessons, the boys were asked about what they wished to gain from swim school, whether it be improvement on current skills, or how to swim in general. Most of the boys’ answers were around the development of speed, as most boys wished to get faster for their Year 9 or 10 PE Challenge which includes running and swimming. Some of the boys were also working on the Year 12 PE Aquathon assessment.

Another answer to this question was to improve survival sculling. Survival sculling is essentially staying afloat upright so their head is out of the water and they are able to breathe easily. They do this for 6-10 minutes in the diving well to represent how to survive in deep water such as the ocean or large lakes.

Coaching will be continuing next year, as Jack Sands and William Tudgey have already volunteered to continue swim school throughout their future schooling. This will hopefully lead to future development with students that still wish to increase their skills. Through all of this training, all of the students who have attended are now able to swim a length of efficient freestyle in the 33m Timaru Boys’ High School pool without touching the bottom or stopping for a period of time. This made swim school in 2018 a very successful activity for the swimmers as the goal was to simply improve their confidence, skills and knowledge.