We've been members of SafeSplash in Manchester for around 2 months now, and I'm still on the fence…read moreabout it. I'll update my review if my opinion changes with time, but so far here's where I'm at:
My kiddo loves her swimming lessons and has no complaints. She's 3.5 so she's a bit of a pill at times, but the teachers remind her to work for a sticker and know she loves swimming with pool noodles, so they use that as motivation.
As a parent, I would appreciate if the place felt a little more organized and if there was more consistency, both with the teachers and the terminology.
My daughter has attended 6 classes now and has had 5 different teachers. I'm sure teachers probably rotate their shifts so not everyone has to work every single weekend, which I understand, but having a different teacher each time seems to make things more complicated.
Sessions are only 30 minutes long, which means a portion of that short time is spent getting to know the child and where they are at: do they swim independently? Dive? Submerge? Are they motivated by stickers, silliness, or something else? What is their comfort level with water? What about their comfort level with new teachers?
The teachers do their best, but I'm certain their jobs would be easier if they were able to form more of a bond with the students, and if the children weren't thrown off by swimming with someone who is essentially a stranger each time.
There's the added pickle of teachers using different terminology/methods to teach swimming. For example, one teacher told my daughter to "scoop" (or maybe scoot, I'm not sure) and "stomp" (make a stomping motion, but while horizontal) with her feet to swim. The next week, a teacher saw my daughter attempting to swim in the same way and admonished her a little bit, like, "what is that? That's not kicking..." although she was only doing what she had been taught the week prior. Similarly, last week the instructor told her to "doggie paddle" which is not - to my knowledge - terminology the other instructors have introduced to her yet.
I don't want to knock the teachers, though. I have no specific complaints about them - they are doing their jobs well and always have smiles on their faces. I know it's hard to work with kids and they do a great job. I think my issue is just with the lack of consistency
Each session usually has someone there - I'm not sure what their titles are, but think of them like a manager - who will step in and offer guidance to the teachers. The managers so far seem amazing with kids and are wonderful at helping out with hesitant (or in my daughter's case, stubborn!) swimmers.
So as a parent, what would improve my experience with this place? Well, I'd like to know who my daughter is having as a teacher. Even if it's not the same teacher every time, maybe getting an email or an automated text saying "Looking forward to seeing you at [time]! Today your teacher will be [name]!" would make parents feel a little more comfortable going in and would eliminate some of the awkward standing around.
Communication between teachers about students. I had one teacher ask me if she'd ever gone underwater before, when she had during the previous session. I had other teachers ask me if this was her first lesson, when it wasn't. The website claims that once a month, parents are invited in to hear about how their children have been progressing, but so far that hasn't happened. I'm not sure how they keep track of their progress or what they are working on, especially if the teachers there didn't know she had been there before... I also think that children work toward ribbons, but I don't know what ribbons are available, how close my daughter is to earning one, or what she needs to master in order to earn her first. I'd like to know more about that.
I was in the process of typing this all out when I got an email from SafeSplash saying something like "we sent out an email about price increases on Monday but we decided to wait until the next billing cycle to increase the rates." So... another vote for them being disorganized, I guess, because I didn't receive an email from them on Monday. I emailed them back asking for clarification and letting them know I didn't get an email... still no response 3 days later.