Baby swim school owner ‘honoured’ to be shortlisted for national lifetime achievement award

A baby swim school owner, who has had a positive impact on the Northampton community with her work, has been shortlisted for a national lifetime achievement award.

Tamsin Brewis has established herself as a baby swimming expert across four counties since 2004, including Northamptonshire.

The commitment of her swimming school, Water Babies, in ensuring newborns, toddlers and pre-schoolers are confident around water from an early age has seen Tamsin shortlisted for a lifetime achievement award at this year’s national Club Hub Awards.

Tamsin said: “I’m honoured as teaching young children to be confident around water is so important.

“I am always inspired by the confidence and community my classes bring. Many of the children I teach, and their parents, stay in touch for years after learning to swim with me.

“Knowing I have been able to bring such positivity and connection is fantastic.

“I love being such an integral part of the communities I run my sessions in, and I feel very grateful to be able to work with so many wonderful families.”

Tamsin recently celebrated 18 years of teaching the swimmers of tomorrow, all while growing her business, employing a team of 19 people, and working with 19 schools across four counties – Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.

The baby swim expert teaches her classes in Northampton at the swimming pool in The Avenue, Flore.

Before Water Babies was founded, Tamsin worked in a different field that saw her commuting, and away from home and her two young children a lot of the time.

It was because of this that she made the decision to change career paths and retrain as a baby swim teacher.

Tamsin said: “I had a bad experience as a child learning to swim and I swore my kids wouldn’t be afraid of water.”

At the time when Tamsin decided to change careers, she was disappointed with the lack of swimming classes for her own children and was travelling all the way to London for weekly classes for the best part of a year.

The owner of that swim school asked if Tamsin was interested in becoming a teacher herself, which is when she qualified and decided she wanted to start making a difference in her local communities.

What began as a couple of weekly sessions at a pool in Northampton nearly two decades ago is now a well-established enterprise and has landed Tamsin in a shortlist for a national accolade.

“I can’t stress the importance of swimming as a life-saving skill enough,” said Tamsin. “With drowning being a cause of accidental death among children in the UK, more emphasis on education and safety awareness in and around water is essential.”

Water Babies’ specialist classes are for babies and toddlers from birth to six years old and allow the parent to learn alongside them.

Over the last three years, their lessons have been directly responsible for saving the lives of tens of children who might have otherwise tragically drowned.

As one of the 93 finalists, shortlisted from more than 400 applications, Tamsin now awaits the results which are being revealed on May 13 in Birmingham.