The temperatures in Bermuda may have dropped this week but the smiles of Victor Scott pupils in the Saltus school swimming pool on Tuesday afternoon was enough to warm the coldest of hearts.

As part of a new fall programme run by the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association for public schools, P3 and P4 students from Victor Scott, Port Royal, Elliot Primary, Northlands, Purvis Primary and Francis Patton have been taking part in free swimming lessons every day for two weeks.

Water safety is high on the agenda for coaches Kris Cash, Shona Palmer and Belinda Castree and their work has been praised by Aaron Lugo, a PE teacher at Victor Scott, who accompanied his students to the lesson this week.

“This is P3’s second week of doing it and they really do enjoy it,” Lugo said.

“We have a young man here and his mother was very apprehensive about him coming because they are very scared around water, so he didn’t do the first week but saw how much fun they were having and came the second, although he was very scared.

“The coaches were so good with him and placed a board right underneath him so he can stand on it in the water and that has completely taken away the fear for him.

“We’re very appreciative to them. Our first class was smaller and they said they had a third coach, so we brought a bigger class and I really hope other schools take this opportunity up. What child doesn’t want to swim and what parent doesn’t want their child to learn to swim for free?

Palmer, Cash and Castree are used to coaching competitive swimmers but have found just as much reward by helping nervous young swimmers become comfortable in the water.

“There are a number of swimmers we have had already who have never swum in a pool or had the experience of a lesson in a pool,” Palmer said.

“They are super excited to be here and you can hear them enjoying themselves as they walk along the path to get here. Days like today can be a little colder but when it’s time for them to leave they still do not want to get out.

“And it doesn’t matter if they don’t find a love for swimming and do it for years, but it’s really important that they get the safety aspects of it, living in Bermuda and jumping off the rocks, they just have to feel safe.

“This year we offered it to P3s and P4s as we thought that was a good starting point but hopefully in years to come we can introduce it to other year levels.”

Cash is pleased that the initiative has proved a big success with all the spots for the rest of the year filled through to early June

“Many years ago I used to work at this pool and we started a programme similar but it was really aimed at schools that were nearby that could get here and at that time the PE teachers that were interested had a bit of swimming background,” Cash said.

“Now we have three coaches and can produce a proper programme. We would love to see all schools have swimming in their curriculum not just the ones who have access to a pool.

“Hopefully this is just a jumping off point for something like that, even if it is just one or two year groups that get to do it. This has been a great start and at the end of the programme Belinda provided a spreadsheet for the school of all the different programmes they can get involved in. White’s Island is a really cost-effective one that kids can do and they learn a lot.”

Every student participating in the programme receives a free pair of swimming goggles to keep, largely thanks to donations to Basa.

“This programme is all Basa-funded and we have a lot of private sponsors, especially when it comes to donating goggles,” Castree said.

“We have talked about finding funding privately going forward to carry on the programme. We don’t want to rely on the government and we want to set this programme up with money from the wider community and so far people have been very generous.”