Swim School

Alison Ogden’s Water Babies franchise caters for over 1,600 youngsters a week in 20 neighbourhood pools. Trevor Johnson reports

Alexander Palmer enjoyed his swim. His mother and his teacher, Alison Ogden, agreed he had taken to swimming like a duck to water, but 20 minutes in the pool was probably long enough for a first time. After all, Alexander was only 23 hours old.

‘Start them young’ is the underlying philosophy behind Water Babies, a provider of specialist swimming classes for babies and toddlers, and Alison, the company’s current Franchisee of the Year, encourages mums to let their babies take the plunge when they’re only a few days old.

Natural environment

“The younger they come to us the better, because tiny babies have an instinctive affinity with the water and it’s a natural environment for them,” says Alison, whose Liverpool franchise now caters for over 1,600 youngsters a week in 20 neighbourhood pools.

“I’ve seen countless times how swimming can bring families together and make youngsters happier and more confident. And recent studies have shown that children who start swimming early are more likely to remain fit and active in later life.

“We’re not trying to find the next Olympic swimming stars. We’re just trying to let children have fun and show them how to stay safe in the water - we should remember that drowning is the third most common cause of accidental death in children under five.”

Alison has been in the swim of things for as long as she can remember. Her mother sent her to swimming classes when she two and it’s remained an absorbing interest ever since.

“My mum was petrified of water and couldn’t swim, but she was determined I wouldn’t suffer the same problems,” Alison says.

“I did a marketing degree and had a good career, but when I heard about Water Babies, I knew teaching children to swim and running my own business was the way I wanted to go.”

Alison had given birth to her first son, Thomas, when a friend told her about Water Babies. Finding there was no franchise in the Liverpool area, she got in touch with Paul Thompson, who had started the company three years earlier, and became his fifth franchisee.

There are now approaching 60. “One day I’m working in an office for a top marketing company and the next I’m in the pool teaching babies to swim,” Alison says. “It was a pretty steep learning curve and when we were getting only about 100 children a week, I wondered if I’d done the right thing.”

She knows the answer to that. Thomas and her younger son, William, are accomplished swimmers and the franchise, which now has 22 teachers, has spread into nearly 20 neighbouring towns.

Her success is mirrored in the spectacular progress of the franchise network, which has grown nearly 500 per cent since 2008, has a turnover of around £25 million and sees a new franchise launched every 40 days.

Specialist techniques

The Water Babies programme uses specialist techniques that result in many youngsters swimming short distances from as young as 30 months. “They start by travelling a short way underwater and gradually reaching the surface, by which time they have basic strokes,” Alison says.

“We don’t use any flotation equipment or armbands - our whole ethos involves getting children to swim naturally. Even more important is safety drill, particularly dealing with the panic a sudden submersion can cause.

“Baby swimming teaches children vital lifesaving skills, such as turning onto their backs or swimming to the nearest solid object. We have had six children in our franchise whose lives were saved because they did exactly what we had taught them.”

The credit for inventing the Water Babies teaching strategy goes to Paul Thompson, who started the franchise in 2002 after noticing how dramatically his baby daughter responded to time spent in the water.

He launched Water Babies with £5,000 savings. “We were just going to have a few classes, but the thing went nuts and exploded around us,” is how Paul puts it.

The business of dunking toddlers underwater required some serious know-how and Paul travelled the world researching techniques and safety procedures.

“We created systems and standards and put a lot of structure into it,” he says. Within 18 months, Water Babies had expanded from four franchises to 40 and now has spread to the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and China.

“The calibre of our franchisees tends to be very high,” Paul says. “But the main thing we look for are people who have a passion for what we do.

“And we’ve never had to advertise for a franchisee. Up to now, we’ve never had a business failure, either.”

Investment level

A Water Babies franchise costs approximately £25,000, with a personal investment of £5,000, and includes a rigorous 300-hour swimming teacher training programme.

The company claims: “Ours are the only teachers who can obtain a nationally recognised diploma in baby swimming.”

Alison says teaching babies to swim can benefit families in unexpected ways. She explains: “Of course, we all do our best to spend as much time as possible with our babies, but technology, siblings and TV can mean giving them our truly undivided attention can be something of a challenge.

“In the water, all that changes. You can’t take your smartphone in the pool with you, so you can focus on your baby - that’s what makes it so special. Lots of parents are nervous when they bring their child swimming.

“They’ve had a baby and coming to us helps them gain confidence. We help them realise their baby is capable of an awful lot and is not as fragile as they think. Some parents might not be able to swim themselves, but one to one tuition can work wonders.

“We’ve had parents who wouldn’t even get in the pool and then a few weeks down the line they’re swimming underwater with their babies. Most swim schools start at around six months, but we take them as soon as their mums feel brave enough to bring them.”

Even so, Alison, who regularly has babies less than a week old in her classes, confesses she was surprised when Alexander’s mum rang to book him in: “She had her baby on Sunday and phoned us on Monday to say: ‘I want him to start swimming today’.

“Before that, I think the youngest child Water Babies has had was two days’ old. Alexander loved every minute of it. Because they have been suspended in fluid for nine months, tiny babies usually are quite at home in a warm pool.”

Preventing a tragedy

Fun and safety are Alison’s watchwords and only recently the painstaking safety drills all youngsters undergo prevented almost certain tragedy when a two-year-old girl fell fully dressed into a deserted private pool.

Alison takes up the story: “The house had its own pool and the girl’s mother had left the door to the pool open and the girl fell in. She survived for 15 minutes before she was found. We teach all our youngsters to swim to the side in an emergency and hold onto something - and that’s what she did.

“The story made the national press, with the girl’s mum saying she owed her daughter’s life to us for teaching her the safety drill. Of course, it was great to hear that, but the important thing was that when children are in danger in the water, what we teach them gives them their best chance of staying alive.”