On Friday 19th of May, a small team of St Martin’s Academy swimmers will be taking to the water to participate in a ‘Beat 100 Challenge’ at the Chester City Baths.

The aim of this challenge is simple: swim 100 lengths in 30 minutes. Schools have been invited to enter teams of 10 swimmers with the children tasked with the challenge of swimming in relay to try and reach the total. Although our children are still very young, we have chosen a group of confident swimmers to have a go.

The challenge has been organised by the City of Chester Swimming Club and The Chester Sports Partnership and is intended as a fundraising event with the swimming club and the school sharing any funds raised equally.

Although we can only take ten swimmers to pool, we would like to invite the whole school community to get involved in their own ‘Beat 100’ Challenge and share any successes with us to help raise funds towards our total – and your challenge does not have to be in the pool!

The team here at school have been trying to come up with creative challenges which may inspire you, although when you put your mind to it, you may come up with some of your own. Staff suggestions are: count to 100 in less than 100 seconds, balance 101 pennies on top of each other, name 101 animals in the zoo, put on 101 pieces of clothing at the same time, name 101 Disney films, jump 101 star jumps and run 100m in less than 100 seconds. All efforts to Beat 100 on Friday 19th May will be shared via our social media platforms.

Miss Valentine has a target of £300 in total, with the intention of using the funds donated to the school to purchase training aids, in particular pull buoys and hand paddles, to continue to develop core strength and stroke technique in the pool. These will benefit all swimmers at St Martin’s as they move through the swim program as well as raise value funds for our local swimming club.