A swimming instructor recognised all over Nottingham who has taught hundreds of children to swim in the city has opened up about her long career. Now, after 25 years, she has retired.
Speaking of her love for the sport as a child and how instructing with Nottinghamshire County Council had never felt like a job, Jackie Bailey, 57 said that retiring was a “tough” decision to make. Jackie, who is originally from Nuthall, still lives in the area.
Despite retiring, Jackie has said that she won’t be able to help herself from visiting where she has worked for the past 25 years. Jackie said: “I mainly started [instructing] at Kimberley. I was a swimmer myself from a young age, before I went to school I could swim, I swam a mile at six.”
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Jackie said her parents were weak swimmers so they wanted her and her older sister to learn. Jackie used to swim and train at Victoria swimming baths.
Jackie’s sister hated swimming but she found a love for the water. Jackie mainly taught at 19 schools.
Jackie continued and said: “I was in swimming competitions up to the age of around 15, 16 and swam competitively, nationally.
“When I took my own children to their lessons, I thought: that’s something I could do.” Jackie has seen her role as a swimming instructor change over the years. Now, swimming instructors work a lot more weeks over the year which leads to more holiday and sick pay.
Sadly, due to Covid, Jackie explained how the standard of children’s swimming has declined. She said: “Since Covid, the standard and ability of swimming is low.
“Children have missed out on swimming. The standards have declined but it’s just a case of building it back up, the schools are trying to give everyone a chance but some [children] aren’t getting enough time.”
Speaking of the challenges of teaching the sport, Jackie has come across many children frightened of the water. She said: “Getting them in when they can’t swim or they're frightened of the water can be hard sometimes but seeing them get better, developing their strokes is worth it.”
Luckily, over Jackie’s 25-year career, she hasn’t had to do many rescues. Jackie said: “Fortunately, I’ve only had to do one rescue and it was because the child couldn’t stand up.
“I only had to walk in it, it was a small pool.
“There was no need to panic.” Jackie continued: “People panic, children panic. If they’re panicking we try and get them to lie down on their back, there’s so much to do rescue wise.
“The last thing to do would be for me to go in. Apart from that there’s reach-in rescues and throwing in ropes, we wouldn’t leave a child for too long but we do a lot of talking to them.”
Jackie spoke about the many rescue positions including heat escape, a lessening position where you put your head out of the water with enough heat in your body from the groin, keeping your legs together.
Throughout Jackie’s career, she couldn’t pinpoint one moment that stands out, she said: “I’ve just enjoyed the whole thing, I’ve taught all abilities, it’s so varied, it’s not just teaching children how to swim, it’s teaching them to be confident, tread water and be safe.”
The swimming teacher gets recognised a lot. With the hundreds of children Jackie has taught, she doesn’t recognise them all.
She said: “The worst thing is going around Sainsbury’s and my daughter will go ‘who was that?’ when someone recognised me and said hello. I’ll go ‘I don’t know”
With the many staff that have come and gone over the years, Jackie said that the other staff call her their ‘work mum.’ She said: “I worked with a great bunch of girls, I will be visiting and checking up on them, they’ll be messing up all the floats when I’m gone!”
Jackie has however, enjoyed the annual swimming galas. She said: “I loved getting ready for the galas, it’s a lovely day and I swam in them when I was at primary school. We've done it each year and it’s great to see the kids. The big schools will swim in the morning and the smaller ones in the afternoon, then, we’ll go to the chippy for lunch.”
Speaking out about Jackie’s career, her husband Mike Bailey, 59, said: “It’s made her part of the community. You go round and the youngsters will be smiling and I’ll go, ‘did you teach them?’”
Mike continued and said: “On holiday, we’ll be by the pool and Jackie will see that someone’s breast stroke needs sorting out and I’ll go ‘well, sort it out then!’ It’s been great.”
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