Growing Gills Swim School

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there showing up for their kids. 💪 Hope you have a great day.

Messages like this are so special. 🥰

Learning to swim really is a journey. It’s not a one or two-term process, and it’s definitely not just a summer-only process.

Master 8 has been on that journey with me since he was a baby in my backyard pool. It’s hard to describe what it feels like to watch a baby, completely vulnerable to the water and relying on you to keep them safe, grow into a thriving 8-year-old swimming confidently in a mini squad.

And then there are all the little stages in between. 💜

The first submersions. The first independent swims. Learning to breathe. Building strength. Learning the strokes. Growing in confidence. Until one day, you look over and that little baby isn’t so little anymore — they’re just a really capable swimmer.

My heart always hurts a little when they reach the age where lessons eventually come to an end, for whatever reason. After so many years, you really do become attached to these little people and their families. I also taught his older brother who finished up a couple of years ago.

But at the same time, my heart grows knowing there’s another child walking away with a skill they will use for the rest of their life.

What a privilege it is to be part of that journey. 🥰🏊‍♂️💜

☀️ As the days start to warm up, the enquiries are coming in hot and fast!

Every enquiry we receive is added to our waitlist. However, at this stage, it looks like availability for Term 4 will be extremely limited.

We currently have 22 children heading off to school next year, which means there are no afternoon places available for new students at this point. I’ll soon be reviewing the afternoon timetable to see what options I can offer our about-to-be kindergarteners.

These changes will create approximately 22 morning places. However, we already have 17 siblings waiting for lessons—plus another four siblings who were only born last week and are already on the waitlist! 😆💜

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean those 17 children will suit the ages, abilities and lesson times of the 22 available places. There may still be some opportunities for new families to enrol.

I’m posting this because I’ve received approximately 68 emails this week regarding children starting school, sibling enrolments and new-family enquiries. I may not manage to respond to every email individually, but please know:

💜 Children starting kindergarten have been noted.
💜 Siblings have been added to the priority waitlist.
💜 New-family enquiries have been added to our general waitlist.

My apologies if you don’t hear back from me directly. I’m working through a very big timetable puzzle and will contact families as suitable places become available.

Thank you for your patience and understanding! 🏊‍♀️💦

☀️ The weather is warming up… and judging by the enquiries coming through, everyone is thinking about getting ready for summer! 🏊‍♀️💦

We’ve been busy going through our enquiries and sending out emails. If you’re currently waiting for a place, please check your junk folder — our emails have been known to sneak in there on occasion!

If you’re hoping for a spot, please feel free to check in with us. You can even nag us a little 😉 We’ll do our best to find a place that works.

💜 A little reminder for our new families…

Sometimes the first swimming lesson doesn’t go to plan.

And sometimes the second or even the third lesson doesn’t either.

For some little swimmers, starting lessons is a big, scary, brand-new adventure. New people, a new environment and being asked to do things they’ve never done before can feel overwhelming.

That’s okay. Crying is okay!

Please, please DO NOT apologise to us if your little one is upset. We expect it, we understand it, and it doesn’t bother us one bit.

They might look across and see a couple of very happy, confident little swimmers in their class — but there’s a very good chance those same children were once standing exactly where your child is now. In fact, it probably wasn’t that long ago!

Our job is to help your little one feel safe. We’ll go slowly, reassure them and give them time to learn that we are someone they can trust. 💜

Confidence doesn’t always happen in one lesson. Sometimes it takes a little patience from all of us 😉 But watching a nervous little swimmer become a happy, confident one makes it completely worth it.

Our goal is always the same — to make them feel safe and give them the very best learn-to-swim experience we can. 🐟💦

This article is right... However as a mum that once had a 1, 3 and 5 year old, I say "put the floaties on!" Use that little bit of support to keep kids safe.
My recommendation is that 10 minutes before your due to finish your swim take off floatation devices. Let kids swim without them. If they want to jump in, let them. Let them experience the feeling of sinking while your standing there watching because this article is right. It gives them false confidence and they may expect the same result. For them to understand the floaties are helping them, they need to experience swimming without them as well.

𝗨𝗻𝗽𝗼𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 "𝘀𝘄𝗶𝗺 𝗮𝗶𝗱𝘀" 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗵. 🗑️🏊

Parents spend hundreds of dollars on floaties, puddle jumpers, vests, kickboards, noodles, swim trainers, and every new gadget promising to help kids learn to swim.

Here’s the truth…

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘄𝗶𝗺.

Many of these products actually encourage body positions and movement patterns that make independent swimming harder to learn. Even more concerning, they can create false confidence, both in children and the adults supervising them.

Far too many drowning tragedies happen after “swim time” is over. A child who has spent the day floating around in a swim aid may believe they can swim independently, then later jumps or falls back into the water without it. The confidence remains…the flotation doesn’t.

Save your hard-earned money.

Instead of buying another “swim aid,” invest in quality swim lessons that teach real skills. Those skills last a lifetime.

No gadget teaches swimming.

Trained instructors do.

💙 Real Skills. Real Safety. Real Confidence.

This is the kind of story why I don't like the question "are they ready to stop lessons"
So much so I think I'm going to refuse to answer. You as a parent can make that judgement. I can say "To swimming around a pool safely, even a beach, river, damn. Then yeh they can swim to save themselves..... If they stop now, will they be able to swim 4 hours through rough seas to save their family?!?! Don't know."
Time, family commitments, kids enthusiasm and financial situation is what determines when you stop lessons. And that's a question only you can answer. If you want to know if they are "drowning proof" to every situation life might thrown them then the answer will probably be no... Because who could of predicted this 13year old would have to do this!!

She had to ask her son something no mother should ever have to ask.

After 8 hours adrift off the Australian coast, swept four kilometers out to sea by a sudden weather shift, darkness closing in, no rescue in sight, Austin's mother looked at her 13-year-old and asked if he thought he could swim to shore.
He said yes.

For 2 hours he swam with a life jacket. Then he made a decision on his own, the jacket was slowing him down and time was running out. He took it off.
Two more hours in rough open water. Waves he described as massive. No flotation. Just a teenager telling himself to keep going when every part of him had reason to stop.
He made shore at 6 p.m. and collapsed on the beach.

Rescuers launched immediately. A helicopter found his mother and two younger siblings still clinging to a paddleboard, now 14 kilometers from the coast after nearly ten hours in the water.
They survived.
His mother later described the moment she sent him as the hardest decision of her life. She said she was confident he would make it, but as the sun went down and help hadn't come, doubt crept in the way it does when you have sent your child into the ocean alone.
He made it.
He always was going to.