About us

Brighton Swimming School was founded in 1988 by Paul Smith, D.M.S., and he continues to oversee its programme up to this current day often including being present at the swimming pools during lesson times.

Paul is passionate about swimming. In his youth he was a competitive swimmer and remains a keen pool and sea swimmer today. He was also formally the swimming coach at Brighton College. Paul is particularly interested in the continued skill development of swimming teachers and created an “Apprenticeship” in Swimming Teaching in 2001. Almost 1000 swimming teachers have undertaken this programme across the South East of England since its inception.

“Learning to swim ensures a lifesaving skill that every parent must prioritise for their child. As each child becomes a stronger swimmer, a wider door opens to a range of water sports as diverse as Sailing to Scuba Diving. Swimming contributes to a healthy lifestyle and can easily lead to employment - opening up endless possibilities in life”

Brighton Swimming School started as a small one week intensive course held at Brighton College and has slowly grown ever since into the wide, varied and successful programme you can see today.

We provide three, twelve week terms a year with over 700 swimmers benefitting from our lessons every term. In addition, during the summer school holidays, we operate three one week intensive courses at Brighton College. This is attended by many of our regular swimmers and several new ones. It is seen as an excellent holiday activity as well as a great boost to children’s swimming skills.

Brighton Swimming School has always been developed with quality at the forefront of every initiative and our greatest asset is our staff. They are always carefully selected to ensure that we maintain our high standards of quality teaching and safety, and that they will continue to promote the excellent relationship we already enjoy with our swimmers and their parents.

Our teachers hold either an ASA/UKCC Level 2 or STA teaching qualification with nearly all having achieved or are currently working towards a City & Guilds NVQ Level 2 in Swimming Teaching.

Our assistants either hold or are working towards an ASA/UKCC Level 1 assisting qualification as well as continuously gaining valuable experience under the guidance of our teachers and supervisors.

Whilst the quality of our swimming lessons is naturally at the forefront of our plans, safety is just as important to us. For this reason all of our sessions have up to two lifeguards, RLSS or NARS qualified, maintaining a safe environment and there is a supervisor to oversee the whole session and staff, ensuring that everything is running in line with our company policies. Supervisors are qualified teachers and first aiders and have a good working knowledge of swimming and swimming pool environments.

At Brighton Swimming School we pride ourselves on the high standard of qualifications our staff hold and the continuous training opportunities we provide for them. We believe this approach adds to the natural enthusiasm and friendliness they project into their lessons and feel this is clearly reflected in the services we provide.

Brighton Swimming School Staff

Paul Smith is also the Managing Director of two other local companies, whose work only offers further support and development for the swimming school.

The first is Brighton Swimming Teachers Centre which operates one of the largest programmes of Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) and Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) courses in the UK. It has an innovative and pioneering approach to training and was recently awarded a GRADE 2 – (GOOD) for their first OFSTED inspection in August 2008.

The second company is Pavilion Training which offers courses in Paediatric First Aid, First Aid at Work, Emergency Aid for Appointed Persons, Food Hygiene and Health & Safety. They provide high quality tuition at the most affordable prices possible and have grown to become an established training organisation working in association with Northbrook College.

For further details on either of these companies please visit their websites at:

www.brightonswimmingteacherscentre.com

and

www.paviliontraining.com