Pool lesson with Suzanna Hext
Just a few days ago, Treloar School’s Team Water had the pleasure of spending the morning with their Team Ambassador, Suzanna Hext, at the newly refurbished pool.
Treloar’s School community is made up of four teams: Fire, Water, Air and Earth. The use of Teams fosters a friendly, competitive spirit, a sense of belonging and comradery. Suzanna, who is a Paralympic swimmer and an accomplished equestrian, was an obvious choice to represent Team Water. Other Ambassadors include Martin Sinclair (Team Earth), Ali Smith (Team Air) and David Smith (Team Fire). Their role is to inspire and motivate students to take up and get more interested in sports.
On Tuesday, 21st February, Suzanna not only officially opened our swimming pool, but also joined Team Water in the pool for a number of swimming sessions. Together with the Swim Team, Suzanna participated in all the water activities, from playing water games to completing lengths of the pool.
Susan Bryan, Head of Physiotherapy, commented on the importance of swimming for Treloar’s students:
Being in the water is hugely important for our students as it gives them the freedom of movement and independence that they simply wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience in other mediums. Swimming and hydrotherapy also provide so many benefits for our students and people with disabilities, including improving cardio respiratory fitness, strengthening muscles and helping to reduce pain.
After the renovation, the deep end of the pool is much shallower which means that the whole pool can now be used during lessons: the PE and the Swim Team can work closely with the physiotherapists in the water and students feel more confident about swimming lengths. Moreover, the new changing rooms with hoists tracts leading directly to the pool have transformed the way the pool is being used—more students can be taken into the pool during each session, and staff can also evacuate everyone much more quickly and efficiently.
Suzanna said she loves the time she spends at Treloar’s every time she visits. She has first-hand knowledge of the huge benefits of being in the water, and sharing this experience with Treloar’s students meant a lot to her.
Swimming at Treloar’s
Having a fully refurbished pool makes a huge difference—the changes made to the pool during the renovation provide significant health and wellbeing benefits to students, local families who use the swimming pool for lessons and disability charities who use the facilities during the holidays.
The pool is not only the place for swimming lessons and hydrotherapy—it is also a place where our Swim Team practises. (read more about our swimming achievements)
Thanks to generous donations from our supporters, we were able to make the following essential changes to the pool:
- Adding five new changing rooms with direct tracked hoists to the pool
- Reducing the depth of the pool at the deep end to allow more students to be supported in the water by their carer
- Improving ventilation to reduce fatigue
- Re-tiling the pool to help the visual needs of students
With your support, we can unlock our students’ future
It is your donations that allow us to achieve this and your money is used to support our students in many different ways. Find out more how you can help by following this link.
