Borders Sport and Leisure Trust's swimming development programme has been given the accolade of Kellogg's Scottish Swimming Awards Scheme Service Provider of the Year, in recognition of the work they have done in teaching children across the region to swim.

Collecting the award on behalf of the Trust, was Activities Officer, Lynne Lauder, who explained the work that had been going on in the area over the past couple of years.

"Back in 2007 we undertook a review of the Learn to Swim programme we were using and received overwhelming feedback that is was confusing for parents and widely disliked by the swimming teachers using it.

"We then spent time looking at alternatives and even considered writing our own programme. We knew that Scottish Swimming had re-launched their Learn to Swim programme a couple of years earlier and we received positive reviews about it: it had a clear swimming pathway, it was easy to understand and it was progressive, which was important to us.

Since that time, Borders Sport and Leisure Trust have worked closely with Scottish Swimming to retrain all their staff on the programme while at the same time carrying out an awareness campaign of the scheme with parents and children. To date, the Trust can now boast of having 1 Tutor, 1 probationary Tutor, 56 new teachers qualified to UKCC Level 1 and 26 teachers upgraded to UKCC Level 2, supporting the programme.

This has resulted in them having around 2850 children swimming in their main lesson programme, 200 in adult & child and 50 in adult lessons. That's a 35% increase in participants since its launch and that figure is still rising. This is testament to the extreme hard work of the Trust's Swimming Coordinators and Teaching Staff in each of their centres.

Learn to Swim is not the only swimming development programme being rolled out across the region, with water polo being introduced into Hawick and Peebles, the promotion of the swimmer pathway for the Borders region being worked on collaboratively with Scottish Swimming, as well as a complete Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme in place for all teaching staff, which is seen as key. Lynne explained,

"Providing a CPD programme will ensure that all our teaching staff are delivering best practice lessons in all areas of the swimming pathway. This allows us to build up trust with our customers who are given peace of mind that their children are being taught the most up to date methods, and it helps continue our strong partnership with Scottish Swimming, who are a key resource for us and have supported our development greatly in the last few years."

Chief Executive Officer for Borders Sport and Leisure Trust, Ewan Jackson, commented: "Borders Sport and Leisure Trust is totally dedicated to ensuring that all Borderers enjoy the best possible swimming instruction and this reward is a welcome indication that the National Governing Body together with Kelloggs believe that we are on the right tracks. Our vision is that all Borderers should swim, and our learn to swim programme provides a solid foundation from which local swimmers will get years of benefit and enjoyment."

Ewan added, "Well done to all of the staff involved in managing and delivering the program and thanks to our customers whose feedback has been essential in helping us shape then improve the program."

Director of Coaching & Development at Scottish Swimming, Richard Gordon, also commented, "We have been working in partnership with Borders Sport & Leisure Trust for a number of years, with the aim of enhancing the swimmer pathway in the local authority area, seamlessly linking learn to swim, club swimming and performance swimming.

"The Trust has embraced this partnership, working hard to establish and manage a strong learn to swim base from where they can create a challenging environment where performance aspirations can be achieved over the long term. We are delighted that this award has been given to them."