Starfish Swim School

‘A fresh new start for Starfish Swim School’

Located off Centre Road, Bentleigh, BJ Lamm opened Starfish Swim School in 2008 in a run down, 12 metre by 4 metre pool. Bj and his team began to get quite a following through their nurturing and well rounded curriculum. To facilitate the demand, in 2013, the old pool was knocked down, and the new facility was purpose-built and opened in 2014 with the latest amenities in swimming technology and customer comfort.

BJ believes that by listening to his clients and understanding their needs, the new facility will cater to all clientele and will represent his vision of the perfect, purpose built Swim School.

Our school strives to:

★ Teach children a life skill in which they will treasure and use for fun, exercise and to stay safe in and around any aquatic environment;

★ Provide this skill in the most encouraging and nurturing environment, with challenges and rewards when excellence is mastered; and

★ Provide an efficient and effective program that understands each child’s needs and ability.

Why Choose Starfish?

Starfish Swim School has a great reputation for making learning fun. Children grow in water confidence, safety and technique through a detailed curriculum.

We believe that swimming lessons are critical for all children and that they continue to learn beyond just being water safe. We take our role as educators seriously and design programs that reward and encourages children to work hard and reach their full potential.

All instruictors are qualified either by Austswim or Swim Australia and have ongoing inhouse training to keep both themselves and their students at the forefront of the industry. Whilst our facilities are state-of-the-art, it’s our reputation and warm environment that sees so many families come back year after year.

PROGRAMS

★ Infant & Toddler Classes

• Baby classes

Introduce young children to water through fun and educational activities, games and songs. The emphasis is on water awareness, familiarization, mobility and safety.

• Toddler

These classes have a bigger emphasis on independence, treading, kicking, propulsion, submersion’s and jumping. The class is still taught through fun and educational activities, games and song.

★ Learn to Swim (LTS)

Our ‘Learn to Swim’ levels are structured into 8 levels, ranging from complete beginners to competent swimmers in freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and basic butterfly.

★ Water Safety

During water safety weeks children come to swim in clothes without goggles and a cap. This mimics a more realistic scenario to prepare the children for different dangerous situations and scenarios.

We teach activities such as:

• Rescues

• Entries

• Survival strokes

• Treading water

• Fitting PFDs (personal flotation device, or ‘life jackets’)

• Signals

We also encourage children to ask questions and we talk to them about safety indifferent aquatic environments. The importance of water safety is critical for both children and parents so they understand and respect the aquatic environments.

★ School Swimming

We run a comprehensive school swimming program for the local schools and kinders in the area. The benefit of school groups running their swimming program at our facility is we know so many of the students already as we teach them on a weekly basis. We know their correct levels, strengths and weaknesses.

The kids get a real buzz when they see us during school hours and also during their weekly swimming lesson.

★ Squad

• Pre-Squad

Starfish Swim School offers a Pre-Squad for those who have completed the Learn to Swim program. The focus is on increasing endurance, refining stroke technique, development, turns, starts and finishes for all four strokes. We introduce the kids to competitive swimming.

• After Squad

Starfish Swim School has partnered with Rodney Skudar, owner of Academy of Swimming. This partnership allows our students the ability and facilities necessary, once they have outgrown the Starfish pool, to further their progression and development in swimming.