Swim for Life coach appointed

NEW COACH: Swim for Life Tairawhiti Charitable Trust manager Carl Newman, Swimming NZ education manager Chris Morgan and SFLT chairwoman Rochelle Somerton yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding for SNZ to contract a coach — Mrs Somerton — to provide professional development and train teachers and instructors involved in the trust’s programme. Picture by Liam Clayton

SWIM For Life Tairawhiti Charitable Trust (SFLT) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the country’s top swimming organisation.

The trust signed the MOU with Swimming New Zealand (SNZ) yesterday, to provide a swimming coach who will lead professional development for schoolteachers and trust swimming instructors.

Comet Swim Club Learn to Swim manager Rochelle Somerton has been coaching for more than a decade. She has been contracted by SNZ to take on the role under the agreement.

Mrs Somerton is chairwoman of the SFLT board.

“It is really exciting because I will be doing what we have been wanting to do for a while now. We have been talking about creating a role like this for years,” she says.

SFLT was formed in July, providing students on its school roster with 10 free learn-to-swim swimming lessons each year, throughout primary school.

So far it has 2000 students in the programme, from 27 schools in the region.

Great choice for the roleSNZ national education manager Chris Morgan says Mrs Somerton is a great choice for the role.

Having someone within the community is sustainable — it makes sense to have someone based here doing it.

“We are excited Gisborne has taken on board what we are offering.”

The MOU is not the only milestone the trust has ticked off the list since July.

It finished trialling a Water Safety New Zealand pilot programme at the end of term one. The pilot focused on water survival competency, rather than learning to swim.

About 300 students from Central, Waerenga-o-Kuri, Mangapapa and Muriwai School took part.

SFLT manager Carl Newman says it was very successful and Water Safety New Zealand got some good information from it.

WSNZ is now working on introducing the programme nationwide.

The trust mainly deals with primary schools, but this term Lytton High School students are undertaking their first round of SFLT lessons.

This comes a year earlier than when SFLT thought they would have the capacity to extend their programme into high school waters.