9 September 2026
Purruna Spencer Newton Centre in 2025-26
A swim school with a reformer studio attached, and a year where every measure moved up.
Purruna recorded 122,444 visits in 2025-26, a third more than the year before. Satisfaction rose 14.4 points, the largest improvement at any of our centres.
Swimming lessons account for 63% of everything that happens here, close to three times the share they take across our other pool centres. It is the second largest swim school we run and enrolments grew 8% again this year.
122,444
visits to the centre
50.3
Net Promoter Score, against a YMCA benchmark of 50
$1,743,580
estimated community benefit
Where the growth came from
Swimming lessons drove most of it. Memberships grew 25% alongside them.
Who comes to Purruna
Membership grew 25% this year. It skews heavily female and towards the middle age bands, which is what the reformer studio and the aqua program draw rather than a gym floor. Age bands below are grouped, because the membership is small enough that finer detail would identify people.
Share of each age band, Purruna against the state
Four in five Purruna members are women. Across the state it is closer to half.
Where most of our centres draw their largest membership group from the 26 to 35 band, Purruna’s sits older, in the 46 to 55s.
What members said
We ask our members how likely they are to recommend us. Purruna scored 50.3, against a YMCA benchmark of 50.
50.3
Net Promoter Score
Moderate class sizes, attentive instructors, great facilities, and a real interest in advancing the skills of students.
Swimming lesson parent, Purruna
Easy to navigate with a pram, and individual family change rooms.
Swimming lesson parent, Purruna
A swim school and a studio
Purruna’s mix sits a long way from the rest of our pool centres. Swimming lessons take almost three times the share. Membership takes less than a third.
Share of total participation, 2024-25
Comparison here is against the average of our other pool centres, with Purruna left out of its own benchmark.
What the activity is worth
$1,743,580
Estimated community benefit created at Purruna in 2025-26.
Social Value puts a dollar figure on the community benefit created when people are physically active. It is an estimate, built from real participation data at this centre, and it covers health, education and employment outcomes where there is an agreed, evidence-based method for converting activity into monetary terms.
What the estimate covers
Select any indicator to read what it covers.
Value only accrues above a threshold
Turning up does not automatically create measurable value. A participant has to be active often enough to reach a physical activity threshold before anything is counted.
Across our centres, 43,735 people took part in an activity last year and 12,162 reached a threshold. Around 28 in every 100. That is normal for a community recreation centre, and the threshold is an invitation rather than a test.
$1,672,495 of that is teaching people to swim
Reduced risk of drowning is 96% of the community benefit generated at Purruna. Across our nine recreation centres it is 55%, and it is the single largest component of the model. A swimming lesson is the one thing a centre does that changes whether a child is safe in water for the rest of their life.
How much of the centre the model sees
Roughly 73% of what happens at Purruna is visible to the model. The figure above is real, and it is also an understatement.
1.5
average visits per week per member, against 1.29 across the state
The methodology comes from a 2018 study by KPMG, commissioned by the Australian Sports Commission, which put the value of Australia’s community sport infrastructure at more than $16.2 billion a year, including $4.9 billion in health benefit. ActiveXchange applies that framework to real participation records at each facility. Each participant is placed in a demographic segment with known health risks and associated costs, and their activity, covering how often they attend, for how long and doing what, produces dollar values against specific outcomes. More than 200 councils and venues across Australia use the same model. We do not produce the methodology and we cannot adjust it.
Turning up does not automatically create measurable value. A participant has to be active often enough to reach a physical activity threshold. Acute benefits are assessed monthly, in any month where activity averages out to the weekly physical activity guidelines. Chronic benefits are assessed annually and also require the participant to meet the monthly threshold in at least six separate months. Across our centres, 43,735 people took part in an activity last year and 12,162 reached a threshold, around 28 in every 100. That is normal for a community recreation centre. The threshold is an invitation, not a test.
ActiveXchange recalibrated its model during 2025. The practical effect is that the threshold for generating value went up. Activity is now measured on the actual length and intensity of a session, and a participant has to sustain it across the year rather than have one strong month. Figures we published before 2025 sit on the earlier model and are not directly comparable with the figure above.
Social Value counts visits and participations recorded through our membership and point of sale systems. Casual customers, user groups and social stadium sport are not counted, so the figure understates activity at Purruna. Some benefits cannot sensibly be priced and are left out altogether. Recreation centres build social connection and inclusion, strengthen community pride and identity, raise levels of trust and reduce anti-social behaviour. None of that appears in the figure.
Social Value indicates the scale of community benefit generated by activity at this centre. It does not count individual health outcomes for any person, and it does not measure how well the centre is run. A centre can improve while its Social Value falls, and the reverse is also true.
Social Value figures are produced using the ActiveXchange Social Value model, developed in partnership with KPMG and based on the Value of Community Sport Infrastructure framework commissioned by the Australian Sports Commission. The model is used by more than 200 councils and venues across Australia. Figures are estimates. YMCA South Australia does not produce the methodology.
Reporting period 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Participation composition figures are from 2024-25. Written with AI assistance and reviewed by YMCA South Australia, in line with our AI Safe Use Policy.