Client: Willoughby City Council
Timeframe: October 2025 to Current (Estimated December 2026)

LARCAN is currently engaged by Willoughby City Council to design and implement a bespoke Swim School Program for the newly redeveloped Willoughby Leisure Centre (WLC). The engagement focuses on establishing a high-quality, community-focused Learn to Swim (LTS) program that will form a cornerstone service offering and key revenue stream for the Centre upon reopening. The project includes the development of a scalable and operationally sustainable swim school framework tailored to the Willoughby community, ensuring the program aligns with contemporary industry best practice, operational readiness requirements, and long-term participation outcomes.

A key focus of the project has been ensuring the program genuinely reflects the identity and diversity of the local community. LARCAN collaborated with a local Elder to help shape the naming conventions and identity of the swim levels, ensuring the program has a strong sense of place and meaningful connection to community. In addition, the program has been specifically designed to recognise the differing needs of children, adolescents, and adults, with dedicated adult pathways and naming conventions developed to ensure the adult program is tailored, inclusive, and distinct from a traditional children’s learn to swim framework.

The engagement also includes staff capability development, onboarding support, customer experience systems, and pre-opening operational preparation to ensure the Swim School launches successfully from day one, with final on-site training and implementation support to occur during the Centre opening phase. 

Key services included:

• Undertaking demographic and community analysis to inform the development of a bespoke Learn to Swim program aligned to the needs and expectations of the Willoughby community.  
• Designing a scalable Learn to Swim program structure, including distinct lesson levels, progression pathways, staff-to-student ratios, and water safety integration to ensure GST-free program compliance.  
• Developing tailored program pathways for infants, children, adolescents, and adults, ensuring adult participants are supported through specifically designed progression models, lesson structures, and naming conventions that reflect adult learning needs and participation motivations.
• Collaborating with a local Elder to develop culturally and community-informed naming conventions for swim levels, ensuring the program reflects local identity, place, and connection to the Willoughby community.
• Developing detailed program documentation including core competencies, assessment criteria, lesson plans, assessment guidelines, and operational frameworks for each swim level.  
• Preparing pool layouts and operational programming structures to optimise lesson delivery, participation outcomes, staffing efficiency, and long-term growth capacity.  
• Developing customer service systems, enrolment communication templates, phone scripts, terms and conditions, and onboarding processes to support a seamless customer experience.  
• Establishing key performance metrics and operational KPIs to support financial sustainability, program growth, customer retention, and continuous improvement.  
• Supporting the recruitment and onboarding of the Swim School Coordinator, including strategic, leadership, marketing, operational, and “train the trainer” capability development.  
• Delivering Learn to Swim instructor training and capability development, including program-specific training sessions, lesson delivery standards, practical teaching methodologies, and assessment consistency.  
• Coordinating final on-site operational readiness and staff training support during the lead-up to Centre opening, including practical implementation support and instructor onboarding.  
• Developing swim school marketing and promotional strategies to support pre-opening enrolments and drive strong community awareness ahead of launch.  
• Working collaboratively with Council’s Communications team to support the development of promotional materials and customer communications aligned with Council branding and community expectations.