We are delighted to announce that our lovely teacher Louise Mather has won our Local Teacher of the Term award Summer 2017
The winning nomination was picked by Shirley Towle, the owner of the Family Grapevine in Nottinghamshire who was particularly impressed by the fact Louise adapts the activities to suit the child to ensure she brings out the best in them. All of our teachers at Puddle Ducks train for over 300 hours before they can become an accredited Puddle Ducks teacher so you can be confident your little ones are in very safe hands!
Thank you so much to Claire (and Sophia) who sent the winning nomination in and here it is:-
"My nomination is Louise Mather (DW Fitness Mansfield on a Saturday).
We have been swimming with Louise since January when we moved to the Saturday class. Sophia has always been a water baby and enjoyed her Puddle Ducks lessons but since learning with Louise her confidence and skill has gone from strength to strength! Louise really encourages all the children in the class spending time reassuring the swimmers who are nervous and stretching others, correcting techniques and giving helpful hints! Sophia at just turned 2 did her first independent swim (a very emotional moment for me!) and I genuinely don't think she'd be doing this without Louise!"
Huge congratulations to Louise Mather as very well deserved!
We had several other nominations too also detailed below and our judge Shirley had a hard job to chose as all of our teachers are fantastic and so passionate about what they do. All of our teachers at Puddle Ducks train for over 300 hours before they can become an accredited Puddle Ducks teacher so you can be confident your little ones are in very safe hands whoever your teacher is!
"We would like to nominate Ashley for Teacher of the Term. She has been teaching Dayne from when he was 6 weeks old and saw him through Floaties, Splashers and now at Kickers.Ashley goes out of her way to make the children feel confident, comfortable and her teaching techniques are fun and memorable. She always has a smile and never has an 'off' day. She is 100% committed and we missed her when she took a short break from teaching last year" - nominated by Jade and Dayne
"I would like to nominate Louise Gillott from Tuesdays at Freshfield Spa in Worksop. Louise is an incredible swimming teacher. My daughter, Nia, attends one of her Splashers class and loves every minute. Louise ensures the children are busy and learning the whole lesson, she is very clear when giving instructions and praises the children often. She knows each of the children well and adapts the lessons to support and extend every swimmer in the water. Just brilliant! Thank you so much Louise for all your hard work!" - nominated by Laura and Nia
"I would like to nominate Jayne as teacher of the term because Jayne's patience with me as a nervous mum and enthusiasm for her job has turned a 6 week old baby into a 21 month old water baby who last month LOVED his first holiday abroad, splashing in the pool, sliding down the water slides and swimming with his dad. This is due to the skills he's learnt at Puddle Ducks. My son loves his lessons with Jayne, he has a smile on his face every time she takes him for his duckling dive and that is because she has been a great teacher from his first lesson to now. Thank you Jayne!" nominated by Cathrine.
"We would like to nominate Rachel (Sheffield momentum leisure on Saturdays) as teacher of the term. Our daughter has been having swimming lessons for 4 months and in that time we have seen her progress from Floaties to Splashers and has grown in confidence. Delphi is now holding her breath, kicking to the surface, holding onto the side as well as blowing bubbles and lots and lots of splashing! This is all down to Rachel, Delphi loves her! Rachel always takes the time to say hello to Delphi when she gets in the pool and is so encouraging throughout the lesson. On the odd occasion that Delphi is having a down day she'll make sure she's alright and even makes sure she gets a hug at the end of the lesson. Rachel is a brilliant teacher and we are so happy with her and the Puddle Ducks programme- we can't wait for Delphi to continue her swimming" - -nominated by Tom and Delphi
"Please can we nominate Alison Lewis-Dale. What can we say! We love her! My 3.5 year old daughter has been swimming since 7 weeks old and loves being in the water! She is flourishing thanks to Ali, who is so caring and determined in enabling my daughter to succeed. Imogen looks forward to swimming with Ali every week and reenacts her lessons at home with Marvin, her toy rabbit! Her lessons are always full of fun! So much so, I wanted my 5 month old son, Jude, to have the same experience with Ali and he has been swimming with her since 8 weeks and like his sister, also loves the water! It's amazing to watch them both and it is a credit to Ali for what they have achieved so far! Thank you so much!" - nominated by Gemma, Imogen and Jude.
Well done to all the nominees and thanks to those parents who took the time and trouble to nominate as it means such a lot to our teaching team.