STA member David Cartwright is celebrating 25 years with the organisation this year and is marking this impressive milestone with a new chapter in his swim school business.

Cartwright Swim Schools opened in 1989 at the Harlequin Hotel at Stansted Airport (now Hilton International Hotel) with just 2 pupils.

Now, hundreds of youngsters are taught to swim by 36 teachers at 9 venues every week, including the school’s purpose-built pool at his home in Stambourne, Essex, which is dedicated to specialist baby and pre-school swimming lessons

To celebrate the school’s silver anniversary, it is now being re-branded as swim4life.co.uk with Cartwright Swim Schools.

And former residential social worker David, who is an active member of STA, is also looking forward to introducing a new high-tech management system, which will enable all his swim teachers to log registers via iPod.

“It’s going to be an exciting year for us,” says David, who is also a National Tutor for STA. “We’ve grown from just 2 pupils to being one of the largest swim schools in the Essex and Hertfordshire region and certainly the most forward thinking when it comes to teaching and technology.”

“We celebrate our 25th anniversary with the launch of our swim4life.co.uk website and a new-look hi-tech, state-of-the-art student administration system, which will bring us closer to becoming a paperless office.”

David has trained thousands of swimming teachers in his career and has worked with STA on several projects, ranging from award scheme development to supporting the organisation’s work in the Middle East.

The former STA Trustee has also delivered STA swimming teacher courses for the Army School of Physical Training for more than 10 years and has trained more than 1,800 service personnel.

He said the company’s growth came after he and his wife Ruth decided to split the swim schools and commercial arm, which develops training courses.

“When we first opened there was just me and my daughter Sophie teaching swimming on a Saturday morning with my wife Ruth running the office; now we have teachers teaching 6 days a week,” added David.