About

The History of British Swim School

For over 40 years, British Swim School has been dedicated to teaching water survival skills to children as young as three months old. British Swim School was founded in 1981 with unique and highly effective teaching methods that are a recognized trademark of the brand. In April 2019, multi-brand franchising organization, Buzz Franchise Brands, became the majority owner of British Swim School but our mission has never changed. Following the mantra, ‘Survival of the Littlest’, we are dedicated to teaching water survival skills.

British Swim School is headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA and is a franchise organization currently operating over 450 schools across the U.S. and Canada. There are tremendous franchise opportunities available located nationwide!

Dubbed as the fastest-growing swim school franchise in the US, we hold nearly 36,000 swimming lessons per week nationally and conducted over 1.8 million swimming lessons in 2023. We offer swimming lessons for babies, children, and adults.

In 2024, British Swim School has been ranked #248 in the Entrepreneur Franchise 500. We also have consistently earned a spot on Franchise Business Review’s coveted “Franchisee Satisfaction” list and hold spots on both the Franchise Times’ and Franchise Gator’s esteemed top franchise lists.

Founded in 2012, Buzz Franchise Brands is focused on building companies that get people talking. The organization’s first brand, Mosquito Joe, was sold to Neighborly in late 2018 after growing to almost 300 locations. Buzz Franchise Brands currently operates a pool cleaning and maintenance company, Pool Scouts, and a residential cleaning company, Home Clean Heroes. British Swim School is the third brand to make up Buzz Franchise Brands’ family of franchise brands.

Partnerships

British Swim School has formed corporate partnerships with organizations that share our mission to protect every life from drowning through education and water safety awareness. Together, we aim to significantly reduce the number of drowning incidents, not only in North America but around the world.

• United States Swim School Association: The United States Swim School Association is a non-profit organization founded in 1988 that was developed to assist the swim instruction industry to help maintain high ethical and professional standards in our industry and to provide opportunities for learning and sharing.
• Canadian Swim School Alliance: The Canadian Swim School Alliance is a not-for-profit organization serving the aquatics industry across Canada to help deliver a safe and positive experience to children and parents. Their three main focuses are to educate, connect and inspire. With this partnership, British Swim School is able to utilize the Canadian Swim School Alliance’s resources that are best-practice standards of a community that can advocate for each other.
• Hope Floats Foundation: Hope Floats Foundation is a nonprofit founded in 2016 committed to impacting the statistics on worldwide drowning. The Hope Floats model is a simple, sustainable way for swim schools to provide scholarships for high-quality swim lessons to underserved families in their community.
• National Drowning Prevention Alliance: The NDPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the incidence of drowning and preventing tragedy around water. The statistics are staggering, and drowning doesn’t discriminate. The good news, drowning is completely preventable! They teach you how to keep your family safer around water by implementing layers of protection.
• Swim Angelfish: Swim Angelfish is the global leader in adaptive swim instruction. The company creates educational resources for the needs of the world’s adaptive swim lessons and advocates for the necessity of having specifically trained instructors for this growing population.