Spotlight on Quality Swim Schools - Bev Mitchell Swim School

Bev Mitchell has been a teacher of swimming since the early seventies, as a competitive swimmer herself and still at high school she had the opportunity to learn to teach school-age children by the great Bert Cottrell.

From 1977-1982 Bev moved Brisbane and was employed by Graceville State Primary school to teach afterschool and on Saturday mornings.

In the early 90’s Bev moved back to New Zealand and again worked under Bert now at the Onekawa Aquatic Centre and was introduced to baby swimming by Bert’s wife Pam.

At this time Bert’s swim school catered for around 120 students. Over the next few years Bev purchased the current swim school from Pam and Bert and proceeded to grow it with classes and numbers reaching almost 600 on a weekly basis.

Between 2003-2010 Bev Managed her swim school now operating from Marineland Motel which due to restrictions of times available to use the pool and the size of the pool could only cater for around 250 most of which were babies and preschool.

In February 2011 Construction of Bev’s own pool began and in June that same year opened for business and she never looked back.

Her pool has now been operating for 2 years and caters for around 400 including parent and child classes, preschool, school age, private, adult classes and swimmers with disabilities.

The pool is 12.5 m long, 5m wide and 1.2m deep with a teaching ledge down one side 200mls deep perfect for little ones.

The pool itself uses a Magna Pool Chlorinating system – mineral water comprised of magnesium & potassium chloride, glass crystal filtration media and a hydroxinator which naturally produce a synthetic chlorine all of which help keep the pool clean & clear and gentle on the skin and eyes.

Bev manages 4 other staff who all hold Swimming New Zealand qualifications and the swim school continues to grow with both term classes and school holiday programmes.

Bev offers on-going support and training with all her staff, and we look forward to working further with Bev and her team.