Kim Bruchez-Lester

Co-Owner & Director of Les Bébés Amphibies Int.

Swim Instructor

Why did I choose to become a “Les Bébés Amphibies” Instructor?

When I was younger there was a tragical accident during a holiday to Bournemouth, I was only 12 years old when I witnessed my little sister drown and die during a family holiday, our parents never let us out of their sight, but it only takes a few seconds of inattention to change your life for ever. I later married in Switzerland and as soon as I had children of my own I wanted them to be able to swim. I found Les Bébés Amphibies Jean Fouace method and signed my children up for lessons with Jean himself.

I was so pleased with the results that I decided I wanted to teach his method to help STOP children from drowning, Jean perfected my own swimming strokes and trained me to pass my full Life Saving Certificate, as understandably I had become afraid of water. I then went on to train to become a qualified instructor of this method and then became a licensed teacher, working personally with Jean for over 5 years and opening up pools of my own in Switzerland,  worked closely with Jean for many years after.

In 1991 Jean and I came to do a term of lessons here in the UK we had 200 inscriptions within a matter of days. My father became a teacher in Walsall and taught for 5 years until he retired.

In 2013 I moved back to the UK and in 2014 I decided to set up Les Bébés Amphibies in the UK,

In July 2014 Jean came to visit us and all our students at our pool in Birmingham. He was amazed with our results and the number of students, as we had over 250 students per week. Then came the bad news, Jean told us he was suffering with lung cancer due to breathing in asbestos in his younger years. He said it was incurable and he only had a few months left to live.

Jean wanted Myself and Karen to take over Les Bébés Amphibies with World Wide Exclusive Rights to his use method and his name to promote “Aquatic Safety & Swimming Skills” worldwide and to help STOP children from drowning. Jean knew that we would never try to change his method by mixing it with other methods as some of his other trained teachers had done to try and steal his method and make it theirs. We did as Jean had asked us to and trademarked the company name and the name Jean Fouace in many countries including the UK.

I have now been teaching this method for over 26 years and have taught thousands of children.

I am so proud of each and every child for all the hard work they put into their lesson, and would also like to thank their parents for their perseverance and encouragement when they see their children struggle at different levels.

The most amazing thing is to see the smiles and proud looks on the child’s face when they can do it.

Karen, my childhood friend, has now started full time with me and since the beginning of 2017 we have started to expand by training new instructors and franchisee. Our goal is to teach as many children as possible our aquatic safety and swimming skills throughout the UK.

Some swimming clubs say its not possible to teach a child to swim under the age of 3, we can and do, some of our 3 year olds can swim 400m.