State Kiwi Swim Safe programme helps Bethlehem Tertiary Institute students acquire new skills

Second year students from the Bethlehem Tertiary Institute (BTI) in Tauranga recently participated in the State Kiwi Swim Safe programme and now feel much more confident when out at schools and when they will be teaching themselves.

This is the fourth year that Swimming New Zealand has worked with the BTI students.

The students from BTI participated in theory sessions which covered the foundation aquatic skills, ability grouping and how to manage their class in the water and work on dry land activities too.  This was followed by a pool session which assisted in cementing the foundation aquatic skills.

With a big thank you to the primary teachers and students at Bethlehem College the BTI students took a real class for their swimming session.  We had a great variety of ages and abilities from Bethlehem College which was fantastic for the BTI students to learn from.  The teachers from Bethlehem College were also fantastic as they shared their swimming experiences, both good and bad and answered many questions from the BTI students.

Many students commented that the day of teaching was a real eye opener, the biggest difficulty was being prepared and organised with the whole class in the water, so class management strategies were the focus of the day.

All of the students are really looking forward to getting out there and assisting schools with their newly acquired skills.