Please complete the Contact Us form. From the drop down menu, please select “Secretary – Tracey Spinner” and tell us about your current swimming level. We will be in touch shortly.

The Squad Fees Administrator will be in touch to help you set up your direct debit for your monthly fees. If you are joining a Junior Development Squad, you will also be invoiced for the annual membership fee to join Swim England.

You will also be sent a link to access SwimClubManager, which we refer to as SCM, with a username and password. This contains lots of important information such as:

– A copy of all the emails that are sent out.
– Which sessions your swimmers can attend.
– A section on swimming galas that you have been invited to.
– A list of all invoices and fees that you have paid.
– A record of all your swim times for races you have previously entered and completed.
– Access to second hand kit for sale.
– A section to update your personal details such as email address, phone number, and address. This also shows your Swim England membership number.
– A field to add your occupation – please complete this so we know parent skills for potential volunteering opportunities.

You will also receive two welcome letters via email. One from the Coach detailing the sessions your swimmers can attend. The second welcome letter is from the Squad Rep who will provide you with additional information, such as, any kit that may be needed. Once you have joined, your squad rep will assist you if you have any further questions.

Once you join Aqua Academy, your coach will give you first hat for free. If your hat becomes lost or gets damaged, you can purchase a replacement one for £5.

You can order a white City of Norwich swimming hat through Mailsports – https://www.mailsports.co.uk/clubs/city-of-norwich-swimming-club and they are usually available for immediate dispatch.

You will not need any equipment in Aqua Academy. Club kit such as bags and clothing are not necessary for Aqua Academy swimmers but they can be purchased from Zeon if interested.

– A junior pull buoy.
– Short training fins such as https://www.mailsports.co.uk/maru-training-fins-50670
– A mesh equipment bag to keep the kit in and bring poolside to training
– A snorkel such as https://www.mailsports.co.uk/finis-head-snorkel-junior

All the above items can be found at various online swim shops, and at Mailsports online where you can get 10% discount if you enter the code CON157 when checking out. Please note that the code only works when the item being purchased is full price; it does not work for sale items or for white CONSC hats (see below).

To order club kit, go to https://cityofnorwichswimmingclub.zeonshops.co.uk/
The first time you use this site, you will need to create your own account. Once you have an account, you can order kit during an ordering window. The club will send out an email to all of its members to advise when the window for ordering club kit is open and when it will close. During this period, you may order shirts and shorts etc. After the ordering window is close, all orders are delivered in bulk to the club approximately 8-10 weeks later. Your squad rep will be in touch to discuss a time and place for collection.

When you personalise items such as the shirts, please follow the format of (initial of first name).(surname). This is club standard and we do not allow nick names or changes to this.

If you have any issues ordering kit, please contact Zeon directly using the contact details on their website:
email: sales@zeonsports.co.uk
phone: 01709 789590

Yes please. Ensure all the swimming kit and equipment is clearly named to avoid belongings becoming lost or misplaced. With identical kit it is important that you name everything – with sew in labels, stamps or sharpies, immediately.

Personalised rubber name stamps are available from stamptastic.co.uk and these are a great solution to label all kit (including fins, snorkels, goggles) and clothing (both for swimming and school). They are simple to use and really do stamp anything, and the impressions are long lasting and water resistant.

Club members are able to get a 10% discount by using the discount code “swimmer” when ordering on the Stamptastic website.

Skins are not essential in the Aqua Academy and Junior Development squads. Your coach will advise you when you progress further if they feel it would be of benefit.

You do not need any experience. No matter what your background is or skill set, there is always a role that can suit you. We welcome everyone.

We have roles that will only take 1-2 hrs of your time per month to support the club with administration. We also need lots of volunteers, in a variety of roles, to support our club run in-house mini meet competitions for the swimmers. There is so much choice.

Please feel free to contact our Volunteer Co-ordinator, Tracey Spinner (tbirdspinner@gmail.com) who will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

A lot of sport clubs require parent volunteers, and a swim club is no different. By volunteering to assist in one of the many aspects of running a swimming club, you have the opportunity to meet other parents, whilst supporting your child with their swim journey. We are a not-for-profit organisation, so all the help and management of the club comes from volunteers. Without volunteers the club would not survive.

Volunteers often have great views of their swimmers at competitions.

Did you know that to run one of our mini meets for our younger swimmers, aged 7-14, it can take over 40 volunteers to run safely and smoothly? At least 20 of these need to be poolside officials.

All our volunteers work full time and juggle taxi runs alongside volunteer duties. If your child really loves their swimming, I’m sure you will be around for a long time and its always more interesting when you get involved. We ask for multiple volunteers per squad as – when you study the competition calendar – you will see that different clubs attend different meets. Without sufficient volunteers across squads those meets may lose their license, so please step up to help.

As with any sport, we have to think about succession planning because when swimmers move onto County, Regional or National Squads, the volunteering parents move with them.

It is crucial that we always welcome, and ask, new parents joining the club to become volunteers. If we don’t have enough volunteers, we are unable to run licensed events, and without a licensed event, your swimmer will be unable to record an official swim time on the Swim England system.

Please let us know what you would like to get involved in. Our Volunteer Co-ordinator, Tracey Spinner, tbirdspinner@email.com, would love to hear from you.

We always welcome volunteers to help support the running of the club.

We have various volunteer roles in the club, such as:
– Club Treasurer (currently Sue Harvey)
– Finance Administrator (currently Emma Burckitt)
– Membership Secretary (currently Jan Kaiser)
– Meet Co-ordinator (currently Tracey Spinner – but volunteers required)
– Refreshments Co-ordinator (currently Niki Kaiser and Claire Sharp)
– Squad Fees Administrator (currently Kay Stubbs)
– Medals and Trophies Co-ordinator (currently Penny Drewry and Rachael Cole)
– Club Kit Co-ordinator (currently Adele Gilbertson – but volunteers required)
– Volunteer Co-ordinator (currently Tracey Spinner – but volunteers required)
– Officials Co-ordinator (currently Shaun Riches)
– Officials Training Co-ordinator (currently Gaynor Clipsham)
– DBS Administrator (currently TBC)
– Squad Reps – various – check SCM Who’s Who! Vacancy in Aqua Academy

To find out what vacancies we have for back office administration support, please get in touch with our Volunteer Co-ordinator – Tracey Spinner, tbirdspinner@gmail.com.

There are lots of way, you can volunteer at your child’s swimming competition. Examples include:

Welcome/Entrance desk
Receive spectators fee & handout wrist bands in the spectator area.

Marshalling
Get the swimmers ready for their race by walking them to their lanes. Cat herding 101 and we have very experienced lead marshals to support you in this role.

Announcers
Announce over the speaker system who is swimming in which lane etc. We have excellent mentors if you are interested in this role.

Medals table
Hand out medals to the winners. A lovely role as you see the happy swimmers!

Refreshments
Hand out drinks and snacks to the volunteers, coaches and officials. Refreshments are paid for by the club.

Tech Desk
Assist on the tech desk to process the swimmers results during a meet. The tech desk links to the scoreboard, feeds through to the Meet Mobile app, and prints results sheets used for awarding medals. Lead tech also sends results through to rankings to ensure the swimmer times are logged and eligible for higher level competitions.

Technical Officials

There are clear and strict guidelines for officials at meets. Every meet requires a set number of officials – from 20 for a mini meet, to 26 for a licensed gala. Each level of meet is really important, from when swimmers first start their journey – up to performance swimmers who are only able to qualify for national events if they have Level 1 or Level 2 qualifying times.

Officials Roles include:
A timekeeper will hold and operate a stopwatch and record the time. Timekeepers are useful for unlicensed or Level 4 (basic development) meets but no more.

Judge Level 1 is able to act as a timekeeper, chief timekeeper, turn judge and chief inspector of turns.
Judge Level 2 is able to do all the roles of JL1, but also act as a stroke judge.
Judge Level 2S is able to do all the roles of JL1 and JL2, but also act as Starter.
Judge Level Ref is able to do all the roles of a technical official.

A poolside official is a mentored role where you begin to learn the rules of swimming and helps you understand all the rules of swimming.

To volunteer to officiate as a timekeeper or a poolside official e.g. lane judge, stroke judge, referee or starter, please get in touch with our Officials Co-ordinator.

If you would like to become a timekeeper or train to be a turn judge, stroke judge, referee or starter, you will receive lots of training, mentoring and support during every stage of your journey.

To start your timekeeper journey, you will be asked by our Officials Co-ordinator to obtain your own Swim England Membership Number (instead of using your swimmers membership number).

Then you will be asked to complete an online theory course which takes approximately 2 hours – the course link is https://www.swimming.org/ios/course-information/swimming-technical-officials-judge-1-theory/

You can start and stop this course around your own personal commitments. All progress is saved.

In this course, you will cover:

– The role of a judge level 1 technical official
– What happens at a meet
– What equipment you need, and
– What you need to wear.

The rules have relaxed recently about what you need to wear. Instead of wearing white trousers – and dependent on the promoter conditions – you may be able to wear shorts/grey trousers/black etc.

Once you have completed the online course and obtained your certificate of completion, you will be able to volunteer for your first poolside experience.

On the day of the meet, all officials are invited to a briefing to explain and clarify the roles of all the officials. You will be allocated to a role (with your mentor if you are a trainee – who will talk you through everything and will be on hand to check your timings until you feel confident enough with the stopwatch).

At the end of the meet, for trainees, there is a short debrief where you will be asked how you got on and whether you have any questions.

We also try to ensure that we have “Comfort Officials”. They are not there so you have a shoulder to cry on, they are specifically assigned when we have sufficient officials to ensure that if you need a toilet break they can cover.

When volunteering don’t worry, you can just volunteer for the sessions your child swims in. Oh, and the best bit of all. There are free drinks, fruit, sweets and biscuits brought round to keep your energy levels up!!

We are a very friendly and supportive club, so you will always have someone to ask a question to if you’re unsure about any aspect of your role.

It’s a great way to make new parent friends and see your swimmer in action.

The Club competition calendar is kept up to date on the Club website Competition Calendar – City of Norwich Swimming Club

The Club runs regular Mini Meets at the UEA Sportspark and these are suitable for swimmers from Penguins, Aqua Academy and Junior Development Squads.

Beyond that the competition calendar keeps a live overview of all the meets swimmers should attend. This is a live document – and you should check the SCM noticeboard to ensure you have the latest details.

Competitions may be open for all squads (Club Champs) – most squads depending on age (all Co Norwich SC open meets for 9/over) – or specific squads (away meets, Easter Meet for performance swimmers, County/Regionals) and then meets that only apply for qualifiers – such as Regional, National and International events.

City of Norwich Swimming Club have produced a fantastic Mini Meet flyer detailing all the information you need to know about attending your first Mini Meet.

It provides useful information for parents on what to pack, where to go, what to do, and where the results are published.

It also gives the swimmer essential information about the whistles they will hear at the start of the race, and explains what happens before and after the race.

It also provides some useful tips on the strokes and race.

Before every competition that your swimmer is eligible to enter, you will receive an email detailing the name of the event, date, time and closing date to enter. It will include a message from your swimmers coach advising which events and distances to enter.

For Level 4 events everyone should enter.
For Level 3 events all invited should enter, but if you cannot enter your swimmer for certain events make sure you check with your coach as coach times may be required. Do so with haste as all Level 3 events are first come first served. They who snooze lose!
For Level 2 and Level 1 events, if there are no events visible in the link your swimmer has not met the qualifying standard.

The email requesting volunteer will also include the links to volunteer at the competition. All help is very welcome. If you need a membership number to volunteer, please ask and we will help you get registered.

On the day of a race run by City of Norwich Swimming Club, you can find your swimmers race results using Meet Mobile, available from the App Store.

You can also look at the results, on the printouts, on the wall at the back of the spectator gallery at the UEA Sportspark a few minutes after each event has finished.

Within 2-3 days, results are published onto the Co Norwich SC website as a pdf file – City of Norwich Swimming Club – City of Norwich Swimming Club (cityofnorwichsc.co.uk). The results of your individual swimmer will also be uploaded to the SCM Portal for you to view.

In licensed events, final results will be available on swimmingresults.org

See the latest training timetable. The timetable for your own swimmer is also visible in SCM.

Coaches communicate regularly about how swimmers are progressing. They take lots of factors into consideration, such as:

– Commitment to attending lessons.
– Swimmer attitude.
– Good progress in their strokes.
– Good listening skills to the coaches.
– Good progress on dives, underwaters and turns.
– Good understanding of the rules, applicable to their level.
– Consistency of training, especially during the harder skill sets.
– Attendance at competitions.
– An increase in stamina to keep up with the pace in their lane.
– Whether the swimmer messes around in their lane.
– Swim times.

All swimmers should be aware that age is just a number. Swimmers develop at a different pace and some may take longer to achieve skills, but sustain their power for longer. Make sure you listen to your coach and work with your swimmer on where they are individually rather than in comparison to swimmers of the same age.

When your swimmer is ready to progress and move squads, your coach will contact you and discuss the next steps. Once communicated, the coach will confirm the progression in writing and all squad moves are amended on a set date so all swimmers are moved to their new squad effectively.

The squad fees administrator will also be in touch if there is a change of fees, and membership will contact you regarding any changes in membership category.

The City of Norwich Swimming Club provides opportunities for swimmers of all ages and abilities to compete at club, county, regional, national and international standard.

Swimmers follow a swimmer pathway designed in accordance with LTAD (Long Term Athlete Development) guidelines. These are endorsed by the national governing body as a mechanism for meeting the needs of young swimmers at every stage of their involvement in the sport.


The City of Norwich Swimming Club pathway is fluid, with swimmers moving to squads according to their skills and speed at any specific stage in their individual development. We consider all moves to reflect the swimmer needs at any specific time, and there is no limitation to swimmer ability to progress.