Who we are
Little Makos is a Swim school that has been delivering programmes for children aged 6 months - 12 years old for the past 9 years. We are entering our 10th year in business and fundamentally believe that learning to swim is one of the most important life skills that children can receive. We offer classes at all levels of ability from the Water Babies classes where parents are in the water with their children right through to those who are able to swim all 4 of the strokes (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and Butterfly). We do also offer Adult Learn to swim classes through the swim school by arrangement.
We believe that we offer a safe and conducive environment for teaching your children to swim, they know when they are attend that they are just coming for their lesson time and because of the small number of classes at the pool means there is less distraction so your child can focus during their lessons.
We have well trained instructors who focus on each child individually even within a group situation to make sure that we are aiming the lessons where they need to be for each child. We have a strong & flexible curriculum which has proven to be successful in teaching many children within the community to swim.
We are a community partnership between Berhampore School and Harbour City Waterpolo Club
We run a variety of Learn to Swim programmes including:
Classes run from Monday - Sunday in term time (usually a 10 week term) - You select when your child can attend. Learn to Swim classes are aimed at all swimming abilities from the non-confident beginner through to the advanced swimmer who needs technique correction before moving to competitive swim squads.
Our dedicated staff are focused towards building confidence in the water and teaching your child to swim.
Facility Details:
Little Makos Swim School operates out of Berhampore School Aquatic Centre situated in Britomart Street, Berhampore in Wellington.
Our pool is a beautiful 17m long pool by 4.5m wide facility - The facility has a retractable roof so on those great summer days we are still able to have the feel of an outdoor pool but in winter we can be indoor. This is an ideal teaching facility as it is a quiet, sheltered pool heated to between 30 - 33 degrees celsius in summer and up to 33 degrees in winter.
Our facilities include:
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The teaching pool 17m x 7m heated to between 30 - 32 degrees celsius
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Hot gas Showers - for after your child's swim
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Changing Facilities - include women's and men's changing areas with toilets and benches. There is also a baby changing table in each of the changing rooms for even our youngest swimmers.
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Free Parking - There is ample parking with no time limits on either Britomart or Stanley Streets, Berhampore. You must park outside of school grounds during school times. The small carpark directly next to the pool is for instructors only.
There is also an adventure playground next to the pool that your child is allowed to play in after their lesson times.
How we started
A brief history
Little Makos Swim School is a community partnership between Berhampore School and Harbour City Water Polo Club. As the coaching director of Harbour City Water Polo Club I was concerned at the serious lack of Learn to Swim and Aquatic facilities in Wellington.
A disturbing trend has seen 22 school pools close in Wellington alone in the last 10 years. The statistics also speak for themselves - 10 years ago 25% of all children were attending an aquatic facility at least one time per week. Latest figures show that this number is now at only 11%. Harbour City Water Polo and Berhampore School decided to buck this trend.
The Berhampore School facility was empty and had not been used in 8 years - It was just another statistic. After two years of fundraising and community business support including major sponsors New Zealand Community Trust and Wellington City Council the pool has been reopened. $60,000 worth of work and equipments has reopened this facility with an additional $155000 spent upgrading the facility to an indoor one. To view all the sponsors and supporters of this project please click on the following link: Sponsors and Links.
The underlying factor behind this project was ultimately if there are more children coming through the school system with a good level of swimming ability will develop not only the sports of swimming and water polo in Wellington but will go some way to decreasing the poor drowning statistics in New Zealand.
Our instructors and coaches are passionate about their sport and are well qualified to teach children to enjoy the water, have confidence in their survival abilities and ultimately SWIM!
Term four 2009 was the first swim season at the pool with over 200 swims over 6 weeks.
