Baby & Pre School Teachers Training

You will receive your paperwork and contracts via email. Please ensure that the signed page of your contract is emailed back to us ASAP as we need this to be able to book your courses. 

 

You will receive an email from the Online Disclosure Services so that you can log in to register your documents. The documents will then need to be provided to us so that we can verify these and pay for your DBS application. The application can only be paid for once we have signed contracts back. 

We will book you in for your courses. You will need to find an STA Baby & Pre-School course that you can attend using the below link:

STA Search

 

We will also book you in for your Puddle Ducks course. This will be split into one theory course  (held online) and one practical course (held in person).

 

Your lifesaving course will also be booked by us. You will need one of the following qualifications:

• STA Pool Responder (STA PR) – paediatric CPR module included.
• STA Safety Award for Teachers (STA SAT).
• RLSS National Rescue Award for Swimming Teachers and Coaches (NRASTC) – must have paediatric CPR module included.
• Lifeguard qualifications are also acceptable

You can find the STA lifesaving courses using the following link: STA Search

You can find the RLSS lifesaving courses using the following link: Events (tahdah.me)

Please let us know what size top you are so that we are able to order your Puddle Ducks top. When going to the pool, please ensure that you are wearing your Puddle Ducks top and some black bottoms. 

 

For the pool, you will need a swimming costume, your Puddle Ducks teaching top and some swimming jammers. Uniform must be worn when attending the courses. 

 

You will receive an Evangaline doll prior to your Puddle Ducks course. 

 

All other equipment will be provided in due course. 

 

You will also receive invitations from HQ to access our e-learning platform and the manuals platform. 

If you are on Facebook, please add yourself to our local Team Facebook group using the below invitation: 

https://fb.me/g/p_BDS31kLAHxSoN8TN/7tCYmxR8

 

We will set up a "training" whats app group with the relevant members of staff so that you are able to ask any questions at any time. After you have completed your training, we will close the training group and add you to our teachers whats app group. 

The first thing each teacher needs is an STA Membership. This is your own personal insurance and costs around £44 per year. Go to STA.co.uk to set up your membership. 

 

Once you have created your membership, you will need to do your STA Safeguarding course. This can be found under the "online learning" and "swimming teaching and lifesaving programmes." This course will take you approximately an hour to complete. 

 

Please email all your membership certificate and safeguarding certificate over to [email protected]

10 days before your Puddle Ducks course, you must complete the following modules on our e-learning platform:

• Customer Service (found in the Teacher Training folder)
• BPS Entries & Exits (found in the Teacher Training folder)
• Annual Health & Safety Training for Teachers (found in the Teacher Training folder)
• GDPR & Data Protection (found in the Compliance for all Team Members folder)
• Equality & Diversity Training (found in the Compliance for all Team Members folder)

Please email all certificates over to [email protected]

We will put together a co-teaching schedule for you. Whilst co-teaching, you will be given a couple of activities to lead during the classes. This way, you can get start preparing for leading your own classes. The teacher will be there to support you during the class and they will provide feedback for you.

 

We will also arrange to do dry runs with you either in person or over zoom. These will be done weekly and is a good opportunity for us to check in with you. We want to ensure that you are not overwhelmed, so please do take the opportunity during these weekly meetings to talk to us about anything that might be worrying you. 

 

We will then arrange to have an accreditor to come and observe you leading full lessons. The most important thing that they will be looking at is if everything is being done safely. Once they have given you your accreditation, then you are able to lead your own classes. 

If the accreditor has any concerns, they may advise that you do more co-teaching sessions, which we will organise with you. This will need to be done before your 3-month observation.  

You will be provided with a dry box. Please go through this and check it against the checklist that is on the manuals - 5446 (puddleducks.com)

 

You will need to ensure that you have a CPD within the last 6 months. There are lots of CPD modules available on the e-learning platform. 

 

The following e-learning modules need to be completed. These can be found in the teacher training folder:

• Dry Box Declaration
• Attachment Awareness
• Deaf Awareness
• Swim Nappies
• Lifesaving Refresher & Compliance Declaration

 

Congratulations! You are now ready for your own classes. Just a few more things to get you ready.

You will be provided with all the equipment that you need. 

You will need to complete the following e-learning modules:

• Registers
• Marking Criteria

Before you start teaching your own classes, you will need to do a depth test. This is where you have to dive to the bottom of the deepest pool that you will be teaching at, touch the bottom, and come back up. You then need to log this onto your teachers Puddle Ducks account (details about how to access this will be provided via email). 

A CPD must be complete every 6 months. There will be other compliance modules that will need to be done every year. Reminders of these will be provided. It is up to each teacher to ensure that all the relevant e-learning is done before their expiry dates. 

 

There will be an observation on your classes 3 months after your accreditation. This will be done by one of our senior teachers. This is simply to provide feedback and to ensure that you have all the support that you need. 

 

There will be another observation by our senior teacher 6 months after your accreditation. Again this is to help support you in areas that you might need and to ensure that you have taken on any feedback that was provided in your previous observation. 

 

If all goes well with your 6-month observation, you will then be moved onto annual observations. 

For any holiday requests, each teacher is responsible for finding cover for their shifts. Please post your holiday/cover request on the Facebook Team forum. Please ensure that this is done well in advance so that the other teachers are able to make plans to help cover any shifts. 

 

Once you have cover for your shift, please use the following link to submit a holiday form. This way, we can ensure that the correct teachers have access to the correct registers (this form can also be found pinned to the top of our Facebook forum): Team Members Holidays | Puddle Ducks