Accolades for swim school
More than 700 young swimmers hit the water at Prouse Swim School each week, with instructors often taking lessons from early morning until evening on weekdays.
The Horsham-based school was a finalist in two categories at an Australian Swim Coaches and Teachers Association Conference on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Prouse Swim School was named the winner in a marketing, promotion and customer service category.
It was also a finalist in a Swimsafer Award for its ‘Safety Week’ lessons, which involves students swimming in everyday clothes and covering topics including river and dam safety.
Owner Kerryn Prouse said the school had come a long way since setting up operation in her backyard pool in 2014, with the help of her daughters as instructors.
“It is way bigger than we thought it would ever be – one of my daughters is now a teacher, the other is a nurse,” Mrs Prouse said.
She said the school was now booked up with enough lessons to be able to be open from 7.30am to 7pm on weekdays, and had branched out to take lessons at Nhill.
“I’m really passionate about teaching babies to swim, and we start them off from six weeks of age,” she said.
“In Nhill, we teach the Karen community and the ladies there really love it. “Most of our staff are young.” Mrs Prouse said the school’s work on social media and use of word-of-mouth to bring people into the school had contributed to the award win.
She said the annual conference brought together swim school owners, teachers and coaches from across the country.
“It’s a good benchmark to see how you are performing, to network with people in the same industry and share ideas,” she said.
“We are in quite a unique situation using the pool in our backyard, but there are quite a few schools like this.”