Little Fishes Swim School was started by Cathy Wood 35 years ago in the pool of her house in Bowling Road, Bedfordview, when she recognised the need to teach toddlers the necessary skills to survive in the water. She approached the nursery school around the corner, where her own children were attending, and so started an amazing journey which eventually involved her whole family.
Someone once said “do something you love and you will never have to work again”. Cathy is living proof of that saying and is constantly encouraged when moms whom she taught years ago, bring their children to her, to learn the life skill of “swimming”.
Her love of the water started in her school years where she excelled in the water. She was Victor Ludorum in both her junior and senior years gaining full colours. She went on to receive full provincial colours and narrowly missed out on national selection due to South Africa being banned at that time from many international sporting events.
Her husband built the first of four indoor, heated swimming pools in 1993 at their house in Bedfordview. After a few seasons it soon became too small to accommodate the number of toddlers and older children wanting to enrol, so after careful consideration she became the owner of a piece of ground in St. Andrews, Bedfordview, where her husband, Vincent, built their second indoor, heated swimming centre in 1999. Incredibly, this too became very successful with her staff growing from 1 (herself) to 10 in one year and the enrolment multiplying by 600%!
Shortly after, she moved into a new, specialised field of teaching infants of 6 months to 36 months the same skills, but obviously using very different methods. This gentle approach of parent/toddler groups in the water, learning a life skill with sing song, has become very popular over the years and is taught all over the country and in fact, in many parts of the world. Cathy feels that the love of water is completely natural to all children and being able to enjoy the water and have respect for it is vital for every child.
Soon after, Cathy saw an opportunity to expand into the north of Johannesburg. So in 2004, once again her husband, who by this time was working with her, built another centre in Norscot , with three separate indoor, heated pools. A 25m pool was added to accommodate training. A 18m x 6m learn to swim pool and a 6m x 6m pool for the infants. And in 2009 few years later an opportunity arose to purchase a piece of ground in Bryanston and a forth centre was built.
Cathy’s daughter and son-in-law live in Bryanston and own the two centres in the north and her son and daughter-in law own and operate the centres in Bedfordview.
Cathy’s passion hasn’t waned and in the past five years she has worked closely with Swimming South Africa. She has become a Facilitator/Moderator of the Swim SA Todswim programme and holds courses for new teachers, as well as conducting workshops and is a speaker at Swim SA Swimming Conferences. And of course, she is in the water almost every day doing what she loves the most – teaching swimming.
Email address: Contact no.
bedfordview@littlefishes.co.za 084 863 4051 Jonathan & Kate Wood
bryanston@littlefishes.co.za 082 857 9026 Richard & Andres Little
fourways@littlefishes.co.za 011 516 0212 or 082 689 9728
cathy@littlefishes.co.za 073 165 1735 Cathy Wood
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/littlefishes