Forty Hours Before They Teach a Single Lesson: What Aquatots Actually Asks of Its Instructors

Before the First Lesson

Every instructor at Aquatots completes a minimum of 40 to 50 hours of internal training before they teach their first class. Not orientation. Not a handbook and a lanyard. Training.

This is Aquatots' Boot Camp, and it is one of the least visible parts of the school's operation. It happens before parents arrive. By the time a new instructor is on the pool deck, the preparation is already done.

Boot Camp covers observation hours, supervised practice, feedback sessions, and module completion. Trainee instructors watch experienced teachers work. They practise corrections. They are observed themselves, given specific feedback, and required to demonstrate competency before they move forward.

There are no shortcuts through the process, and there is no fixed number of weeks. Instructors progress when they are ready.



Alena Sarri founded Aquatots in 2002 and still teaches today. The training program was built around a simple promise: that children here learn to swim and to survive, not one without the other.

The Qualifications Behind the Badge

Boot Camp is the internal layer. Beneath it is a formal qualification structure that every Aquatots instructor must hold before they are allowed to teach.

All instructors carry the nationally recognised Teacher of Swimming and Water Safety qualification. This is the professional benchmark for the industry in Australia, not a private certificate issued by the school. It means every person in the water with your child has been assessed against a national standard.

All instructors also hold a current Working With Children check, renewed every five years.

CPR certification is renewed annually, and Aquatots covers the cost. It is not something instructors are asked to manage or fund themselves. The school builds it into the calendar as a non-negotiable.

Then there is the 21-module Dojo Certification Program. This is Aquatots' own internal credentialing system, developed in-house and completed by every instructor on top of their formal qualifications.



The Dojo covers the curriculum in depth, including how to adapt teaching for babies, for children with disabilities, and for swimmers at very different stages of development. Completing it is not optional and it is not a formality. Each module has to be demonstrated and signed off.

What Keeps the Standard Up

Training does not stop after Boot Camp.

Every term, Aquatots runs a professional development day. That is four times a year, hosted in-house, with the cost covered by the school. Each PD day is focused on current curriculum, teaching technique, and skill refinement. Instructors attend, and they are expected to.

For instructors who need additional support, there is an in-lesson support system. A more experienced team member can be brought in to observe, give feedback, and work through specific challenges. This is not a disciplinary process. It is part of how the school maintains quality across four centres.

Every instructor also works from a lesson plan that Aquatots provides. Lessons are structured, sequenced, and reviewed. The curriculum itself is formally reviewed every 12 months to bring in current research and update anything that needs it.

The Thing Worth Knowing About Young Instructors

Here is something that does not appear on any certification: 53 of Aquatots' current instructors are former Aquatots students.

They came through the baby program. Some of them were taught by Alena herself. They grew up in this pool, completed their qualifications, came back, went through Boot Camp, completed the Dojo, and now teach the next generation of families.

When you watch a young instructor on the pool deck, there is a reasonable chance they have been inside this curriculum longer than most parents have been watching it. They know what the program feels like from the water, not just from the lesson plan.

Youth at Aquatots is not a liability. It is, in many cases, evidence of exactly what the school is trying to build: instructors who did not just study swimming and water safety, but grew up practising it, at this school, under this standard.



By the time they teach their first lesson, they have already done 40 hours of training to get there. The badge is not a starting point. It is the end of a long preparation.

Aquatots runs a free 45-minute online information session covering programs, costs, and what to expect before your child's first lesson. It is the best place to start if you are considering enrolment. Visit Aquatots to begin.