After 15 years of hard work and dedication, Ms Chugg’s passion for her students saw her take home the AUSTSWIM teacher of swimming and water safety award for 2015.

Although she said she felt overwhelmed by the award, Ms Chugg said that she was proud to be recognised for something that she was so passionate about.

‘‘When the kids first take off it’s just so rewarding, when they can’t do anything and then they start swimming it’s amazing to see,’’ she said.

‘‘The most rewarding part is seeing the kids who start not being able to go under the water and being absolutely frightened to enter water to then being able to do laps.

‘‘It’s about letting them become confident with you – you’re asking them to do a lot of things that on land are fine but in the water they want to know that you’re there and they’re secure.’’

Ms Chugg, who now teaches at Just Swim at Kings Meadows, said that teaching children about water safety was an important and potentially life-saving part of her job.

‘‘We’re surrounded in Tasmania by water and a lot of people need to realise that children are never safe, they should always be supervised,’’ she said.

‘‘In every lesson there is a water safety basis, even when they’re just jumping in the water we make them wait and not just go for it.

‘‘Swimming is a good lifetime skill, it’s good later on in life for them to be able to go and just have a swim for fitness and for fun.’’