Castle Primary School Swimming Pool Renovation

PROJECT

Castle Primary School would love to renovate our entire pool area. 

Phase 1

Firstly we would like to reopen for the children to use during the summer term, by emptying, cleaning, updating the cover and filter to allow swimming lessons to continue.

Phase 2

Secondly we would like to commence a complete renovation and extension of the pool and pool area. Refurbishing the old pool with high quality materials and upgraded technology to turn it into a fabulous resource with far lower running costs.

Our vision is to open the swimming pool to the wider community for hire and swimming lessons in the evenings, weekends and school holidays; subject to raising the required funds and gaining the necessary permissions and planning. 

LEARNING / BENEFITS

Swimming and children’s development are strongly linked, when children learn to swim, they are reaping more benefits than just learning to navigate through the water. Early childhood swimming skills can help a child develop the mental, emotional and physical skills necessary to develop and grow into a healthy and successful adult.

There are many benefits of learning to swim, which include;

• Improved health - when swimming during cardiovascular activity children's lung and heart function significantly improves. Active movements when swimming also develop children's strength, endurance, balance and flexibility
• Develops social skills – group swimming lessons help teach children empathy, respect and self-control
• Builds safety skills – understanding the importance of following instructions given by a group instructor is an important transferable skill to the classroom
• Emotional development – early swimming fosters a growing sense of self-esteem, confidence, independence and as a child’s ability to freely move through the water increases, so does their sense of wellbeing 
• It can reduce stress – prolonged physical activity releases endorphins in the brain which send out feel-good signals and reduce cortisol the stress hormone. A swimming lesson, back and forth across a pool a few times gets the blood pumping and naturally floods the body with a happy feeling
• It improves social skills, develops their interests and inspires children to try new things.

Swimming lessons do more than teach children to swim!

PLAN

Phase 1

We have been advised that it will cost approximately £10,000 to reopen the pool for use this year. 

This would allow us to;  

• Empty, clean, repair and refill the pool 
• Replace the solar cover to a thermal cover
• Replace the filter/pump (the current system is decades old). 

When we replace the filter this will be sufficient to handle and increase in pool size should we reach our second fundraising target and completely renovate.

Phase 2

To completely renovate we have been advised this will cost approximately £160,000. Friends of Castle School have applied for several different grants to help cover these costs but we may not be successful with any of our applications and we cannot do it without your help.

Complete pool renovation would mean; 

A detailed survey by a swimming pool refurbishment specialist to determine;

•    The build method used for the pool shell
•    The condition of the tank 
•    The structural integrity of the shell and risk of cracking or movement
•    Any pool refurbishment issues, if found

The more detailed this activity is the less risk of a higher cost there is.

Current site plan of the pool area

Potential site plan 

Once all of the above is complete, building works can commence, creating;

•    A larger, deeper 12.5m length pool
•    An amazing facility for school and community use
•    Disabled access
•    Covered with a fixed glazed cover for year round swimming
•    New changing rooms
•    New toilets with disabled access (as per the above and below pictures)

Our pool could potentially look like this! 

(For visual representation, the actual size and shape could vary)

Currently, the pool is completely out of action, with no one being able to make use of it. With your help, we know we can make it into a fantastic resource that the children and wider community will thoroughly enjoy using for years to come.

FUNDRAISING

As a PTA (Friends of Castle Primary School) we have been busy raising funds towards this project but as a small, rural school, it is difficult to raise the amount needed on our own and the past two years of Covid-19 make this even more difficult. The amount that we are hoping to raise would allow us to commence and complete the entire project as soon as we can. 

In short, it would be fantastic news for all the children (and parents, carers and guardians) who are starting Castle Primary now, as well as the students of the future and our wider community.

Please help to make a difference for our children, the future students of Castle Primary School and the wider community TODAY!