Half term and Guy Fawkes night over and gone already ???
Well, Mums and Dads, whether we like it or not, we’re now seriously into the run up to Christmas !!🎅🌲🎁🎀

The build up and start of our new Autumn Swimming Term, each September, has to be one of our most busiest times here and we are so sorry for keeping you all waiting this long before announcing who are the Winners of our 2nd Half Summer Term 'Achiever Awards' ! 😍

Once again, as always, we leave it to our excellent team of Swimming Teachers to make their recommendations and we're pleased to say we now have all those in and so, without further delay, here are the names of our latest Winners ! .........

Monday
Pool 1 - Thomas Jay
Pool 2 - Lois Pyle

Tuesday
Pool 1 - Michael Edwards
Pool 2 - William Clue

Wednesday
Pool 1 - Eleanor Biggs
Pool 2 - Lilly Edwards

Thursday
Pool 1 - Ollie Small
Pool 2 - Charlie Hope

Friday
Pool 1 - Luke Mares
Pool 2 - Jack Howlett

Saturday
Pool 1 - (morning) - Chloe Merefield
Pool 1 - (afternoon) - Ailsa Hall
Pool 2 - Isla Clements

Congratulations to you all and very well done with your swimming ! 🤗😀😁😂🤣😃😊😋😍🤩🤗

In conjunction with Southern Water's 'Learn to Swim’ program, we are so pleased to award each nominee with a super prize of their choice – either a pair of swim goggles, a drinking water bottle or a Southern Water string bag suitable for sports kit. Please let your teacher know which you would like.

Once again, we always feel it so important to stress, at this time, that these small internal awards are given to children whose swimming teachers feel are deserving of special recognition for their work effort, enthusiasm and achievement over the past six weeks. Our Swim Teachers always tell us that this is one of the hardest things we ask them to do because the general standard of all the children here at Rusalka is always so exceptionally high.

Our next Autumn Term will start on Monday 3^rd September 2018 and will end on Saturday 22^nd December 2018.

Half term break will be from Monday 22^nd October till Sunday 28^th October 2018.

Our existing clients can find re-enrolement forms for Autumn Term 2018 on http://www.rusalkaswim.com/parents ( the deadline for submission is 22^nd July 2018 ).

New clients who would like to enrol to our Swim School for the Autumn Term please e-mail us directly on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Winners of our 1st Half Summer Term 'Achiever Awards' ! 🧜‍♂️🏊‍♂️🏊‍♀️🧜‍♀️

Following the success of the last two years and thereafter receiving many requests to repeat, we are delighted to confirm that, once again, we will be offering Five Day Intensive Swimming Courses during three of the weeks throughout the school summer holidays. Namely during the week 23^th – 27th July , during the week 30th July – 3^rd August and during the week of  20^th – 24^th August, between 9.30 and 12.30 on each day.

Each lesson will be 30min duration and as always here at Rusalka, there will only be a maximum of five children in the pool at any one time.

The special rate for each one week course is £ 55.00 per child.

This year it will be open for children ASA Stage 1 – 7 also Babies and Toddlers from 3 months to 4 years old.

The aim of these lessons is to help boost each child's swimming ability and confidence during the long summer holidays, or prior to vacations away with the family where there may be pools and / or beaches.

Under 4 yr olds will be working on water confidence and swimming ability, depending on their age group, plus having lots of fun along with a parent.

4 yo children, who will start School in September, will have the opportunity to experience swimming on their own ( ie without parents ) in preparation for doing so in September.

Stage 1 children will work on their water confidence and swimming ability with lots of fun activities too !

Stage 2 - 7 children will work to improve their swimming stroke techniques and have fun along the way !

Lifesaving Course open for children Stage 5 – 7 where they will learn variety of survival skills and lifesaving techniques ( rescues, tows, signals etc. ).

‘Starts and Turns’ clinics for children Stage 6 and above, or children who currently swim competitively elsewhere.

To download a document with more information and a booking form please use this link Booking Form/Info

If you have a trouble with downloading this form please e-mail us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will e-mail you the form directly.

The winners of the🧜‍♀🏊‍♀️The Rusalka Spring Term (2nd Half) Achievers' Awards !🏊‍♂️🧜‍♂️are now here !

Once again, for any of you who may not know about this, we really are so pleased to announce that all of the following children have been nominated, by their Swim Teachers, for their outstanding effort during the second half period of our Spring term and they are, as follows ……

Monday
Pool 1 - Evie Kent
Pool 2 - Seren Anthony

Our next Summer Term will start on Monday 16th April 2018 and will end on Saturday 21st July 2018.

Half term break will be from 27th May till 4th June 2018.

Hello everyone !

Especially those whose children normally attend our Thursday afternoon and evening classes.

Sadly, the weather is behaving in line with the forecasts, for a change and the snow is now falling continuously here.Unfortunately, our lane does not really figure, on our local council's priority list, when it comes to gritting and consequently we feel it could well become dangerous, even to those in a 4 x 4.

If snow continues to fall as predicted then there is every chance that you would be snowed in with us, even if you did manage to get here.

Consequently, in the interests of safety and the well being of all of our clients, especially the children, we sadly inform you that there will be no swimming lessons this afternoon and evening.

We will monitor the situation for Friday and Saturday and keep you informed here and on our Facebook page.

It's Monday,
It's the first day of the second half of our Spring Term
AND ........................
Coming straight after the BAFTA s.......
It's time to announce the the winners of .........

On 6th January it was the Golden Globes but now it's ........
🧜‍♀🏊‍♀️The Rusalka Autumn Term Achievers' Awards !🏊‍♂️🧜‍♂️
( black swimsuits for the girls are not obligatory    😉)

Our next Spring Term will start on Tuesday 2^nd January 2018 and will end on Saturday 31st March 2018.

Half term break will be from 12^th February till 18^th February 2018.

Our existing clients can find re-enrolment forms for Spring Term 2018 on http://www.rusalkaswim.com/parents ( the deadline for submission is 10^th December 2017 ).

New clients who would like to enrol to our Swim School for the Autumn Term please e-mail us directly on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

It's that very heartwarming and special time of the year for us when we get asked by Southern Water to nominate one of our young swimmers to take part in the annual Southern Water 'Special Achievers Awards.'

It's always such a difficult job for us as there are always lots of children deserving of special praise for all of the hard work they have put in over the year. And so, to help us make this decision, we always ask eachof our Teachers to nominate one child from their classes - and then we make the difficult final selection of which one to finally choose.

Our Summer Term will end on Saturday 22^nd July 2017.

Our next Autumn Term will start on Monday 4^th September 2017 and will end on Saturday 16^th December 2017.

Half term break will be from Monday 23^rd October till Sunday 29^th October 2017.

Our existing clients can find re-enrolement forms for Autumn Term 2017 on http://www.rusalkaswim.com/parents ( the deadline for submission is 23^rd July 2017 ).

New clients who would like to enrol to our Swim School for the Autumn Term please e-mail us directly on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Swimming starts again this week and so - welcome back to all of our very special girls and boys, mums and dads, nans and grandads and all others. We so hope you have had a wonderful half term and like us, are looking forward to the best half term of the year as we move into our long awaited summer time !

It also gives us great pleasure to announce ………….
!*!*! The`Winners' of our half termly 'Achievement Awards' !*!*!
The following children have all been nominated by their Teachers….

Monday
Pool 1 -Esme Murray
Pool 2 - Grace Sagar
Tuesday
Pool 1 - Zack Cornish
Pool 2 - Seth Carter
Wednesday
Pool 1 - Addison Dunford
Pool 2 - Riley Adcock
Thursday
Pool 1 - Freya Scowen
Pool 2 - James Walker
Friday
Pool 1 - Gabriel Folkard
Pool 2 - Connor Gibson
Saturday
Pool 1(morning) - Hayley Barton
Pool 1 (afternoon) - Stephen Powell
Pool 2 - Joseph ( JJ ) Savage

Congratulations to you all and very well done with your swimming ! In conjunction with Southern Water's 'Learn to Swim’ program, it will now be our pleasure to award each nominee with a present of their choice – either a pair of goggles, or a drinking water bottle - during the first week of this coming half term !

All of our Teachers have conveyed to us how hard it has been to choose specific children for these awards, this last term, because the general standard of all children has been so exceptionally good ! For those not nominated this time, please don’t worry, we will be making more awards for each half term period and so, if you keep doing your best during every lesson, then next term it may well be your name appearing here.

We're looking forward to seeing you all !

Our Spring Term will end on Saturday 8th April 2017.

Our Summer Term will start on Monday 24th April 2017 and will end on Saturday 22nd July 2017.

Half term break will be from Monday 29th May till Sunday 4th June 2017.

Our existing clients can find re-enrolement forms for Summer Term 2017 on http://www.rusalkaswim.com/parents ( the deadline for submission is 3rd April 2017 ).

New clients who would like to enroll to our Swim School for the Summer Term please e-mail us directly on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Hello Girls and Boys, Mums and Dads, Nan's and Grandads and anyone we may have missed !

Despite the miserable weather, we hope everyone is still enjoying a super half term break.

We’re looking forward to welcoming you all back on Monday and straight away we will be conducting our regular termly testing for the children’s ASA National Award scheme.

Those children who successfully passed their tests last term are not likely to be tested this term, but the children who did not pass their test last term will hopefully be more ready to pass their corresponding tests during this term. Your individual teachers will let the parents in all groups know who is going to be tested this term and when.

Some exciting news for this term is that we are launching a new ‘fun’ initiative for our school age children whereby during each half term the teachers from the afternoon/evening and Saturday sessions, in both Pool 1 and 2, will nominate their “Swimmer of the Half Term”.

The criteria for each nomination will include things like a child who has progressed significantly more, or one who has worked extra hard or indeed one who perhaps was especially helpful to the teacher and other swimmers in the class etc. etc. We will put all of the nominees on our Facebook Page, our website News Page and also let everyone know by e-mail. In conjunction with the Southern Water ‘Learn to Swim’ program, we will then be so pleased to award each nominee with a small present such as – a pair of goggles, or a drinking water bottle which each winner can choose during the first week of the following half term.

So last half term’s nominees are, as follows :

Monday: Pool 1 – Jack Bew , Pool 2 – Joshua Goldring

Tuesday: Pool 1 – Archie Webber, Pool 2 – Maxine Mutanga

Wednesday: Pool 1 – Louis Boyden, Pool 2 – Ruby Elsey

Thursday: Pool 1 – Daniel Carpenter, Pool 2 – Sophia Hill

Friday: Pool 1 – Annabel Kay, Pool 2 – Alfred Moleneux

Saturday AM: Pool 1 – Jack Morling, Pool 2 – James Holland

Saturday PM: Pool 1 – Matilda Toft Madsen

Congratulations to you all and very well done with your swimming !

One important change when contacting us - we have a slightly different main email address now which we would appreciate you all starting to use please, it is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Please don’t worry, the older original one will still apply to us also for some while but, as some of you know, we had been experiencing a few problems with a small number of emails not arriving to us from the Rusalka Swimming website. Accordingly, we have taken the advice of BT who have assured us along with our webmaster, that this new address should resolve the problem.

No-one hates any form of ‘red tape’ more than us but, in the best interests of all those we are so pleased to welcome here, we have to list again a few ‘House’ reminders –

Every day, for all sessions, we always strive to provide top class and extremely clean, modern facilities for you. Please respect them - and please respect other people’s property in the changing rooms, at all times. If we were to list here some of the terrible things we have been left to discovered when cleaning, by far the majority of you would be appalled. Should any of you witness anything that upsets you, at any time, then please report it to your teacher immediately so that we may take the appropriate action.

Please do not use talcum powder in our changing rooms NOR the carpeted pool hall area. If you have to use it – please put your towel on the floor before applying it and then also make sure children feet are clean afterwards.

Please do not feed your children in the changing rooms or hall, they often cannot help dropping food or crumbs behind them which, once again, makes things unpleasant for those coming after you.   Good general advice is to give children a light, healthy snack at least 45 - 60 minutes before their swimming lesson. This then helps them with their concentration and high energy levels needed.   After their lesson, waiting a few minutes until you get into your car, before giving any further snacks will not make any difference to them at all.

Parking – If your child/baby swims in our Pool 1, then please park neatly in the car park behind Pool 1. We know how tempting is is to park right in the middle of a space but please don’t do so. We have generous parking there for eleven cars, when they are parked tidily and with consideration for others and that really is for the general benefit of all.  

If your child is swimming in our Pool 2, then please park, ‘nose or tail inwards’, at the front of either of the pools plus directly alongside of the stable block.   Once again please park neatly, taking only one parking space and leaving just enough room for you to vacate that place.   There is plenty of space for four large cars alongside of the stables when folks park correctly .

A reminder once again for all of those Mums and Dads with babies and youngsters swimming in our Adult and Child classes, PLEASE DO NOT leave your used nappies in our waste bins or on the changing room floors. For you it is merely taking one or two used nappies back home with you for disposal, whereas for us and those using the facilities after you it is an unpleasant thing to discover and have to take care of.

Finally and this is the one we still cannot believe that we have to keep on and on telling some people - DRIVE SLOWLY ON OUR PROPERTY AT ALL TIMES !!!!!!! There are ALWAYS young children about, including our own. Trying to save that thirty seconds or so, if you are late for a class, could seriously devastate your own and another family’s lives forever !

With so many Rusalka children deserving much praise for all of their hard work whilst learning to swim with us each year, one of the hardest jobs we have to do is to select just one to go forward to the annual Southern Water Special Achievers Awards.

After much deliberation, we all felt that the little girl we finally chose for 2016 is so deserving in every way, namely 10 yr old Evie Kent. And so, just recently,Evie and her parents, plus Yulia and her teacher Bekki, all attended the super Awards Event which this year was held locally at The Pyramids Centre in Southsea. The attached pictures show Evie after receiving her award from celebrity swimmers - Former Olympic Gold Medalist, Duncan Goodhew MBE and Invictus Games Multi Gold Medal Winner, Mike Goody !

Evie was born with Down Syndrome coupled with an atrio-ventricular septum heart defect (AVSD) , she has visual impairment (short-sightedness; stigmatism and squint) and mild to moderate hearing loss. Evie also experiences ongoing issues with, anxiety when experiencing changes in routine, high levels of emotion, being unwell or having an injury.

At 6 months old and only 6kgs in weight, Evie underwent major heart surgery to repair her AVSD. The repair was successful in the main, but she has two remaining leaks in her heart which require ongoing monitoring and are likely to require further surgery as a young adult.

Evie has been swimming here at Rusalka Swim school for the past two and a half years and in that period has proven herself as a very hard working and dedicated young swimmer. She always helps her instructor with tidying swim equipment every lesson and always looks after the other children in her class by helping them and always being so kind.

Because of her ailments Evie takes longer to master particular elements of her stroke and consequently remains in the same swimming level class for a few terms more than other swimmers. She never complains and always waits so patiently for her next Certificate whilst often seeing all other children achieving theirs.

We know your Mum and Dad are so proud of you Evie and so are all of us here at Rusalka Swim School !

Evie with Former Olympic Gold Medalist - Duncan Goodhew MBE, Yulia Parker, Bekki Kingshott ( her swim teacher) and Invictus Games Multi Gold Medal Winner - Mike Goody .

Thanks so much to all of you who have shown interest in what goes on here at Rusalka, during the school vacation periods. 

This summer was exceptional, of course, with the amount of work being done on our Number One pool but we’re so pleased to report that this has all been going along fine and to schedule. The Certikin guys have done a fantastic job fabricating and fitting the new commercial lining and the water is now back in and fully up to our normal balmy 31'.  All the new paintwork in both of our pools is dry and we've fitted lovely new carpets in both hallways ( please wipe your feet ;-) ) 

And so, it's time to say Welcome Back Everyone !  
Rusalka Swim Schools' new Autumn Term started this week.

It’s hard to believe that our Summer term is coming to the end in two weeks time but, hopefully many of the children will be able to put all of the wonderful skills they learn here, into practise, in the pool or at the beach !

Once again all of our children worked very hard in their swimming lessons, many have achieved their grade passes and will be receiving their corresponding certificates and badges w/c 11th July. All parents have been advised or will be advised of each particular child's progress / achievement and if successful, will be asked to submit a fee of £2.50 for the costs of their ASA Achievement Badges and Certificates, should you wish to have them.

Intensive courses - Following the success last year and thereafter receiving many requests we are delighted to confirm that we will be once more offering Five Day Intensive Swimming Courses during two weeks in August, w/c 8th – 12th August  and  w/c 22nd – 26th August 2016 between 9.30 and 12.30  on each day. Each lesson will be 30 min. and there will be only five children in the pool at any one time. The special rate for the one week course is £50.00 per child. ( form the intensive course can be downloaded on our website www.rusalkaswim.com/parents  )

This year it will be only taking a place in our Pool 2 for children ASA Stage 1 – 3 and babies and toddlers, as our Pool 1 ( large  pool ) may well be totally re-lined during this summer break.

We e-mailed this information out to all of our clients a couple of weeks ago,  if you have a Hotmail e-mail account and haven’t received anything from us, please check your spam folder or alternatively please let us know an alternative e-mail address, if at all possible, so that we can always keep you up to date on things.

Our next term will start 5th September 2016 and will finish on 17th December 2016, with a half term break during w/c 24th October. All enrolment forms are now available on our website www.rusalkaswim.com/parents  where you can download the relevant forms for yourselves. When doing so please ensure that you select the correct form based on your child’s age and/or ability.

The deadline for the return of our Autumn term booking forms is Saturday 23rd July. You can either e-mail the filled forms to us, alternatively you can post them to us or you can place them in the black metal post box situated in each pool’s hall.

If, for any reason, you do not wish to carry on with swimming lessons next term,  please let us know a.s.a.p. either by e-mail or verbally to your teacher,  to prevent us holding the space open for your child unnecessarily.

If we do not have completed form nor payment, nor any other correspondence from you by the deadline, we may well have to assume that you do not wish to carry on with your child swimming lessons and the space will be offered to those on our current waiting list.

These booking forms,  for both the new term and our intensive courses, will be also available in each pool from Saturday 10th July for those who cannot print or download these forms from our website, please just ask your teacher .

New Timings – From September we will be changing the timings of both pools, in the afternoons, on weekdays only, this will enable us to open extra classes for the children who finish local schools early.  In Pool 1, our lessons will start at 15.45  and finish at 19.15 and in Pool 2,  the lessons will start at 15.30 and will finish at 19.00.

Staff Changes - Due to staff requests, next term we have the following changes taking place in our teaching rota : Tuesday morning in Pool 2, for Adult and Child Classes,  Alex will be replaced by Stacey.  Tuesday afternoon Stages 3 – 7 in Pool 1, Jane will be replaced by Vicky.  Finally, on Thursday afternoon Stage 1- 3 classes in Pool 2 – Bekki will be replaced by Stacey.

Driving on site – This is very sadly something we continue to mention time after time in all of our Newsletters and yet we still see the need to, once again,  on this occasion.  Last week, we witnessed one of our clients letting their very young daughter out of the car, during an afternoon session, right opposite our green ‘Slow’ signal, plastic man. The little girl was left unattended whilst Mum went to the other side of the car to unload her bags.  Natural curiosity took over and this dear little girl went over to look at the ‘signal man’ by herself only seconds before another car turned straight into us from the lane  and continued at speed onto our property. Luckily, the little girl just stood by the 'green man' and didn’t cross the road back to her mum at that time, even then the offending car did not slow down ! We can’t even bear to think what would have happened if she had taken her solo walk just ten seconds or so earlier ! Can we please ask every one of you to drive in, drive out and at any time around our property, very slowly at all the times and especially look around you all the time whilst reversing. It really doesn’t matter if you are a couple of minutes to your lesson, that little girl might so easily have been killed  - and she could have been yours ! !  Just please think about it at all times and please always think very carefully about your own children when out and about on our property too.     If you see anything like described above then please tell us straight away, if we see anyone driving excessively fast on our property we will have no choice but to warn them of careless driving and if it then happens again,  I’m afraid we will have no option but to ban them from using our facilities and car parks as we think that the safety of the children at all times is the most important thing here.

Parking - We ask people, once again, to please park neatly on our site and avoid coming in two or three cars for one family.  We have twenty one parking spaces for any one time and if every client brings just one car for a lesson that would always be enough.

That's all for this Newsletter folks, please have a wonderful summer break, we look forward to seeing you back in September !