Byford swim school, SuperKids Aquatic was recently announced the winner of the 2021 National Swim Australia award of excellence for the best SwimSAFER water safety program. The Swim Australia awards ceremony, usually held on the Gold Coast annually, was held virtually via zoom this year due to covid restrictions.
SuperKids Aquatic owners, Peter & Katii Traeger say they were thrilled to receive the accolade after having opened their business just over 2 years ago.
“Receiving the award is a great acknowledgement of what we are doing & that we are doing it well, as we were in a category with swim schools much larger than ours that have been operating for many years. We pride ourselves on being a family business and teaching children to swim correctly & with fitness & confidence. This is what will help them should they get in trouble in or around water”.
Peter & Katii built the indoor swim facility in Byford and developed the program from scratch. “Running a generic program is ok for some centres, but we wanted to offer more. When we were developing our business, we researched many successful swim schools over East and found they all ran independent programs. We knew we could develop a great program & brand and wanted the flexibility to run things our way”. Katii said.
SuperKids Aquatic runs swimming lessons for babies from 4 months – 14 years, adult beginners and Autism swimming lessons. Our regular weekly program builds the confidence & skill in swimmers that is supported by water safety weeks where we take children out of their comfort zone and practice other safety techniques that aren’t covered in weekly lessons. We also run ‘mix it up’ weeks where the children practice their weekly skills but in different ways. Taking away this familiarity builds their strength & confidence as accidents generally aren’t familiar. “Being able to swim from platform to platform in a lesson is one thing, but we want to make sure kids have the confidence to use their skills away from a structured lesson”.
SuperKids Aquatic also creates opportunities for people to build water confidence & knowledge outside of swimming lessons as they say every bit of water exposure contributes to water safety. “We attend local child care centres to deliver water safety talks that align with the Kids Alive do the 5 messages, we host water safety sessions at the Secret Harbour Surf Lifesaving Club for families who aren’t familiar or comfortable going to the beach to raise their awareness of the important surf lifesaving messages to keep them safe. We run aquatic playgroups for mums with babies & pre-schoolers so they can build water confidence as well as multicultural women's only classes that includes learning to swim, CPR and basic rescues. This is important as many mums sit & watch their kids swimming at the beach or home pool but may not actually know what to do or look for when somebody in their care needs help”.
SuperKids Aquatic is registered with Swim Australia and the Australia Swim School Association ensuring their Centre & Staff meet strict regulations for swim schools & place great emphasis on being family friendly. “We love that when the kids walk in the door, they are usually calling out to us before they have even come through the gate. We love that they tell us that they are going to grandma’s for lunch or the smile on their faces when we recognise they have new bathers on. We work hard to create a community feel. It’s important that families feel they belong & kids can relate to the Instructors as this promotes a positive learning environment”.
