A leisure centre in Dagenham has delivered more than one million swimming lessons for children in the last four years.

Becontree Heath Leisure Centre has reached the landmark figure through operator Everyone Active’s Learn to Swim scheme, while almost 250,000 children also received lessons through their school.

Barking and Dagenham Post: Betsy Kanagwa with her son El-Nathan Okesade, who like many other children learned to swim at Becontree Heath Leisure Centre.Betsy Kanagwa with her son El-Nathan Okesade, who like many other children learned to swim at Becontree Heath Leisure Centre. (Image: Everyone Active)

The centre in Althorne Way, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, also provides swimming lessons for children with special educational needs (SEN), including those at Valence Primary School.

The school’s SEN coordinator Andrea Wylde said: “We have been bringing our SEN children to Becontree pool for a number of years now and it has always been a real highlight for them.

“The skill and care of the wonderful staff is awe-inspiring and the impact on our children has been immeasurable.

“We know that whole class lessons would have been distressing for many of our children and the opportunity to learn in these small groups with a high ratio of skilled, patient teachers have enabled them to overcome their fears, start to enjoy the water and swim."

The centre’s school swimming lesson manager Laura Duke introduced these tailored sessions after finding that some children were unable to get the support they needed in mainstream lessons.

She said: “These lessons are for smaller groups, with our team of teachers in the water to give the children the extra support they require.

“The classes have proved to be greatly beneficial, with some SEN children feeling confident enough to join mainstream swim lessons.”

The centre has been run by Everyone Active in partnership with Barking and Dagenham Council since 2017.

Everyone Active contract manager Hasan Romel said: “Helping children to learn how to swim is a valuable life skill and we are so proud that Becontree Heath Leisure Centre is recognised for being one of the busiest pools in the country and having one of the largest swim programmes in the UK.

“We know the community really missed using the pool during the lockdown so it’s been great welcoming children back for their swim lessons.

"We’re really looking forward to resuming our special educational needs classes as soon as it is safe to do so.”