AusLeisure

The City of Canning’s Riverton Leisureplex is to stage a series of anniversary events and offers between 9th and 16th November to mark its 20th birthday

To encourage south east Perth residents to get more active, the facility is offering 20% off fitness, Leisureplex Plus and aquatic annual upfront memberships during the week while also offering a similar discounts for children’s birthday parties booked during November for any time until 30th June 2022.

Parties give groups access to the 50 metre and leisure pools, bombie pool, rapid river and reserved party area backed by a range of catering options.

The week’s offers also include 20% off all full priced retail products at the centre.

In addition, there will be a 20th birthday for the Riverton Leisureplex in its creche as of tomorrow - 9th November.

Explaining the challenges in retaining swimming teachers
Addressing the local impact of the national issue of the shortage of swim teachers, City of Canning Team Leader Swimming, Candy Bate has recently communicated with parents and users of the swim schools at the Cannington and Riverton Leisureplexes on swimming teacher changes and what it means when swimming teachers keep changing.

Bate advises “Canning Swim School, like all swim school across Australia are desperately trying to train and employ swimming teachers to meet the current demand for swimming lessons.

“Currently we have a team of 75 staff. Term 3 saw us with the highest enrolment numbers we’ve experienced in winter over the last three years.

Last term, we ran lessons for over 3,250 customers each week. We’re expecting that demand for lessons in Term 4 to grow to over 4,000.

“The volume of staff needed to be able to provide lessons to 4,000 customers every week at Cannington Leisureplex and Riverton Leisureplex needs to grow to support this.

“We are trying everything we can to recruit and train staff to be able to provide water safety education to as many people as possible (but) I’d encourage parents to be flexible and compassionate during this time. As much as we’d like to create more spaces or have consistency with teaching week to week, we have limited resources right now. Your teacher might change but our priority is to ensure they still get a valuable lesson, rather than cancelling the session altogether.”

Explaining the reasons, Bate notes “leisure centres and recreation facilities are often one of the first businesses to shut down when COVID restrictions are put in place. This is generally due to the capacity restrictions per square metre on public venues.

“Swimming teachers, generally casual staff, were not eligible for JobKeeper, so they’ve had to go and find alternative employment. Most swimming teachers return to their role as soon as the restrictions ease, however balancing multiple jobs has an effect on their availability.”

Bate went on to explain “we will always do our best to ensure your child has a safe, enjoyable and productive lesson.”

Images courtesy of the City of Canning.

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