At GUST we’re building a better and safer future

WELL, it’s been another busy few months at GUST. You only have to look at the builders and diggers to see that things are moving fast with our second pool, and we’re still aiming to be up and running in September. Watch this space for more announcements on the amazing ways our new addition is going to expand the GUST experience – for us and for you.

Talking of new additions, we recently asked customers for feedback on anything we could improve on at GUST. A couple of parents mentioned one thing in particular. We’ve always had individual changing cubicles with a pull-down baby change, but now, thanks to the feedback, we’ve introduced bath seats and shower chairs so when mum has a shower it’s a lot easier for her to put her baby down in a safe and secure manner. It makes life a lot easier and, as a mum myself, I know how much difference an apparently small change like this can make. Happy mums make for happy babies and vice-versa!

On a rather sadder note, we at GUST, like everyone in North Staffordshire, have been moved by the tragic events at Westport Lake. We decided in the aftermath of the tragedy to initiate a week focusing on water safety. Of course, water safety is a huge part of our lessons anyway, but we wanted to put a stronger focus on it with the summer holidays coming up.

Instructors highlighted simple things, such as looking out for the guidance flags on safe beaches. Littler ones were encouraged to recognise the tell-tale patterns by colouring in flags.

We also looked at the dangers of open water swimming, an area we are incorporating more and more into our lessons.

For us, it’s about educating children, giving them knowledge of how water behaves, especially this time of year when the weather is warm and the water tempting. With a lot of children going away on holiday, it’s important they know that the same rules about open water apply wherever they find themselves.

Elsewhere, we’ve been recruiting again, this time taking on some sixth form students from Alleyne’s Academy in Stone. They want to qualify as swimming instructors and are attending our in-house training sessions later in the Summer.  Not only that, but two more of the children we used to teach are coming to work with us, helping towards their Duke of Edinburgh Awards. It always makes us so happy and proud to see young people who learnt to swim and developed at GUST come back as part of the team.

In this hottest of summers, staff, visitors, and kids alike have been delighted to see we’ve had a new ice-cream cabinet. It’s a warm environment at GUST, in many ways, and parents kept telling us how much they fancied an ice-cream. Now we’re restocking every day!

Back in the pool, and we’re pleased to announce we’ll be focusing more on our ever-popular underwater photography as the year goes on. It’s a remarkable facility, not just for capturing amazing shots of babies, but for larger family shoots. Having seen the results it’s no surprise that more and more people are looking to secure such remarkable images of their loved-ones.

Finally, just a quick reminder that we won’t be using the Hempstalls Pool over summer as it’s closed during the school holidays. We will, though, still be teaching at the big pool at Chesterton on Sundays.

Bye for now and look forward to seeing you making a splash at GUST soon.

#teamgust