Face lift for 90-year old school pool in Wakanui

The school pool in Wakanui, Ashburton was first built in 1930 in the interests of the health of the youth of the district.

This focus hasn’t changed much over time with Wakanui School and the community still placing great value on their almost 90-year-old pool.

This year the pool has had a bit of a face lift with brand new fencing, change rooms, shade sail and a heat pump installed.

Wakanui School have had regular professional development and poolside support from Swimming New Zealand for many years. This year the teachers learnt about Water Skills for Life and different activities to practice the competencies.

Education Operations Manager Tracey Hickman recently visited the school and with the pool at 19-degrees she was able to show teachers how to keep children warm, happy and learning in the water when it was a bit cooler.

Keep them moving, have fun and create incidental learning was Tracey’s advice. Making waves and whirlpools the children discovered the strength of the water, floating then diving to the bottom was a little harder than many anticipated.

The children and teachers all came away feeling inspired and excited about their aquatics programme and in the words of one of the students “that was awesome, can we do it again next time?”

If you are interested in having the Swimming New Zealand Education Team visit your school find your nearest Education Advisor here and get in touch with them today.