‘Never work with children, animals - or family’. A well known phrase (sort of) that luckily Bryony Johnstone chose to ignore when she joined her sister and brother-in-law and became the first official Water Babies franchise in Summer 2003. Since then Water Babies in Bristol and Bath has gone from strength to strength and now teaches more than 1,000 clients.

Known countywide for their endless enthusiasm (just watch Sally wax lyrical over her love of organising photo shoots) everyone in the Water Babies office came from a surprisingly wide range of backgrounds to create such a focused team. Bryony was in retail marketing, Sally was a solicitor, Vicky had only recently graduated but certainly wasn’t thinking about a career in baby swimming when completing her languages degree. Saskia is the most recent addition to our team and has a diverse background - but always in the world of administration (and don't we know it!).

Equally diverse are the backgrounds of the glamorous instructors’ crew. There are currently 12 in total (Jenny, Pam, Tess, Jess, Ali, Jen, Kelly, Jane, Isabel, Elly, Steven and Carol) and their ‘other’ careers encompass graphic design, teaching (a deputy head no less) and reflexology to name but a few. Nowadays all are passionate about teaching baby swimming, most having completed the course with their own children too.

29th Oct 2010