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Jo Stalley

National Award Winner 2025 – Dave Champion

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Huge congratulations go to Dave Champion (teamipswich Swimming) for winning Swim England Coach Mentor or Developer of the Year 2025!

This award recognized an individual who has excelled in developing other coaches and who has supported a coach to make meaningful and sustainable change. This input will have led to improvements in effective and/or ethical coaching practice. Coach Mentors and Coach Developers work closely with coaches to support their desire for continual improvement. They promote and advance effective and ethical coaching to improve participant and performer experiences and outcomes and they are increasingly recognised as a valued role in the support of coaching.

National Award Winner 2025 – Ruby Brace

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Huge congratulations go to Ruby Brace (City of Peterborough SC) for winning Swim England Young Volunteer of the Year 2025!

Ruby Brace embodies everything this award represented: dedication, leadership, and an infectious passion for aquatics that uplifts everyone around her. A Swim England member and now a foundational presence within the City of Peterborough Swimming Club, Ruby began volunteering when urgent coaching support was needed. Ruby stepped in to assist their Mini and Development squads, bringing warmth, encouragement, and an ability to communicate with young swimmers that immediately enhanced their experience.

She regularly attends meets and galas to support junior swimmers.  Beyond coaching, Ruby contributes as an official at club competitions and takes initiative in leading peer discussions, always keen to support other volunteers and offer valuable feedback to the coaching team.

Her commitment, even when unglamorous, has made a tangible difference to the continuity of club operations during a challenging season without a home pool.

 

English makes national team as goalkeeper!

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Christina English, 17, from Ipswich, is a goalkeeper and trains at Colchester Swimming and Water Polo Club. She is representing her country at the European Aquatics Under-18 Water Polo Championships in Malta this week, following training at a sports camp in Hungary.

Christina initially took up the sport as a youngster as an outfield player, but soon found a passion playing in goal. “I found that I liked it better than swimming up and down on the pitch,” she continued.

“It is hard. You’ve got to tread water a lot and you’ve got to be brave enough to not duck away from the ball.” She said her Team GB selection was “what I’d been hoping for, and training for, for years”. She trains three times a week, works as a lifeguard, and is studying for her A-level exams and university applications. She said the daily juggle was normal to her.

Congratulations and good luck Christina!

Club Health Tracker – now open!

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We are excited to reopen the Swim England Club Health Tracker for the third year. This is our innovative online tool which assists clubs to review and measure their club development work and benchmark against other clubs, regionally and nationally. Not only will the Club Health Tracker help spot areas for development, it will also clearly measure successes year on year. It gives clubs the opportunity to quantify and celebrate the committee work (and the people) that have created progress in their club development. This is a great tool to use whilst the future of SwimMark is being decided.

The Swim England club development team offer bespoke support for any club identifying needs, plus signposts to resources and case studies with ideas for best practice. The annual insight is also useful for Swim England and regions to help track the current landscape, understand club priorities and offer targeted support.

Artistic Swimming Regional Games training

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Swim England East Region are very excited to announce that we will continue to build on our recent successes competing at the National Artistic Regional Games (First and Second place overall were achieved in 2025 by individuals in our Squad ) by creating a squad of the top East Region Artistic Swimmers to compete at the 2026 Regional Games.

Further information can be found here

Delivering outdoor swimming sessions

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Swim England has issued guidance for clubs for delivering outdoor and open water swimming.The Outdoor Swimming Guidance for clubs provides a comprehensive framework to help clubs plan, manage, and deliver safe aquatic sessions in natural environments. This guidance is designed for clubs and volunteers involved in organising outdoor swimming activities. It covers everything from risk assessments and safety roles to water quality, equipment, and safeguarding protocols.

Club Heath Tracker is now open!

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All club chairs and secretaries should have now received their link, logins and passcodes for the Club Health Tracker.

The tracker will now be open all year and we are encouraging clubs to complete annually, this being their 2025 submission.  The Club Health Tracker helps to spot areas for development and it will also clearly measure successes year on year. It gives clubs the opportunity to quantify and celebrate the committee work (and the people) that have created progress in their club development.

Further information can be found here and if you need specific support please email [email protected]

 

 

SwimMark benefits

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Swim England has confirmed that any club who was SwimMark accredited at the time that SwimMark was suspended (1st November 2024) will be eligible for any associated benefits for a further 12 months regardless of the stage they were at in November 2024. The benefits will be available and expires as follows: January 2025 renewals expire 31st January 2026, April 2025 expire 30th April 2026, July 2025 expire 31st July 2026 and October 2025 expire 31st October 2026.

In partnership with Institute of Swimming, SwimMark accredited clubs are eligible for a yearly £100 credit that can be used against any course purchased by a club. If your club has an account on the IoS website: www.instituteofswimming.org then your £100 credit has already been allocated to your account.

5% off Swim England Awards (quote SwimMark club when placing an order)

3 free Bronze listings per year for coaching vacancies on the Careers in Aquatics website.

Senior Coach Programme 2025

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The Senior Coach 2025 programme is now open for applications, please find the links below;

Senior Coach 25 programme – https://instituteofswimming.org/course-information/swim-england-senior-swimming-coach

Senior Coach 25 Recognition of Prior International learning https://instituteofswimming.org/course-information/swim-england-senior-swimming-coach-recognition-prior-international-learning

The delivery model has been amended slightly this year following on from feedback and taking into account when coaches busy periods are. Rather than running a learning day in March there will now be a full weekend at the beginning of January.

Crowdfunding – match funding from Sport England

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Are you part of a not for profit organisation? Learn from crowdfunding experts how to raise funds and access up to £15,000 in match funding from Sport England

​​Bonus: Sign up now and get exclusive crowdfunding tips, resources, and insider insights delivered straight to your inbox!

​​What you’ll learn

​​🙌 Top tips on how to make your crowdfunding project a success

📣 How to unlock extra funding opportunities through Crowdfunder and apply successfully.

❤️ Real success stories: Hear how our guest project secured Sport England match funding—and how you can too!

REGISTER HERE      14th May 2025 12 noon

 

Congratulations to Will Ellard – MBE

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Will Ellard, from Beccles in Suffolk, was crowned Paralympic champion in the S14 200m freestyle, setting a new world record, and mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, and took silver in the 100m butterfly at the Paris Paralympics last summer and has now been appointed as a Member of the British Empire for services to swimming in the New Year’s Honours List

Ellard also won four medals at the European Championships in April and was nominated for BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

He said he was proud of his achievements this year and was looking forward to what 2025 would bring.