I never planned to own a swimming school.

Teaching has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I was helping teach karate alongside my dad from around the age of ten, long before it ever became a career.

Before Ogden Otters, now the flagship school of The Otters Swimming Franchise, I was a schoolteacher. I qualified in 1998 and have taught National Curriculum PE and sport to children ever since — a job I loved, but one that gradually took over every part of my life. The workload was relentless, and it was affecting the time and energy I had for my own family. I knew something needed to change, even if I didn't yet know what that change would look like.

My background is in education: a BA (Joint Hons) in Applied Social Sciences and PE from the University of Leeds, a PGCE in Secondary Education PE from Leeds Metropolitan University, and years spent mentoring other teachers and examining for AQA at GCSE level. Alongside that, I hold my STA Level 2 Award and Certificate in Teaching Swimming, STA Aquatic Tutor status — which lets me train other swimming teachers myself — and an HFE Level 2 qualification in Instructing Water-Based Exercise.

Towards the end of my teaching career, while still teaching, I started working at a small swimming school under its previous owner. A year or so later came an unexpected opportunity: the chance to purchase it myself. It wasn't a decision I took lightly. I signed a Share Purchase Agreement — £300,000 for the business, plus £21,000 in interest, repaid at £5,350 a month for five years. Working there had taught me the teaching side, but running the business itself was still uncharted territory — it meant real financial risk, and real people relying on me.

I did not develop Ogden Otters from a textbook. I developed it by taking responsibility for a real swimming school, solving real problems, and learning what it takes to build a successful team, a trusted brand and a thriving community business.

Starting with around 300 swimmers and roughly £85,000 in annual revenue, I grew Ogden Otters into a seven-day operation generating more than £400,000 a year. Along the way, I built structured swimming and water-safety programmes, developed a team and management structure, formed relationships with local primary schools, and put in place the operational systems that still support the business today.

That risk became very real at the start of the pandemic, when every pool in the country closed and I was offered the chance to hand back the keys and walk away from what I still owed. I said no.

Throughout that process, I often wished there had been someone who had already worked it all out — someone who could hand me a proven system rather than leaving me to build everything from scratch, through trial, error and no small amount of worry.

But the achievement I'm most proud of isn't the turnover. It's creating an environment where children are encouraged, families feel supported, and swimmers develop the confidence and water-safety skills that may one day save their lives.

The Otters Swimming Franchise has been created to share that experience. Franchise partners won't be starting with a blank sheet of paper — they'll benefit from the lessons, systems, resources and teaching ethos developed through years of operating Ogden Otters.