dandsswimschool  Reviews 11

We recently withdrew our child from D & S Swim School following a disappointing experience with how concerns and communication were handled.

We had made repeated requests for a simple action (adding a parent to the WhatsApp group), which were not addressed promptly. When we followed this up, instead of resolving the matter, the response became defensive and the tone unprofessional.

While we understand that responses may not always be immediate, the situation was unnecessarily escalated rather than handled in a calm and professional manner. Being told that the response was “not at all impressed” was inappropriate and not the standard you would expect from a business working with children and families.

Following this, we also became aware that negative comments about us were shared with other parents at the swim school. This was particularly disappointing and lacked the level of discretion and professionalism expected in that environment.

We were also left with the clear impression that there is no independent or fair complaints process, after being told that any complaint would effectively come straight back to the same person.

We fully accept that issues can arise in any setting, however it is how they are handled that matters. In this case, communication, professionalism, and accountability fell below expectations.

We have since moved our child elsewhere and have experienced a clear difference in communication and overall professionalism. Based on our experience, we would not recommend this swim school.

Overcrowded lessons with poor control from the teachers. My 6 year old was moved to the deep end of the pool where she wasn't able to touch the floor at any time in the 30 minutes she was in the pool. Lessons constantly cancelled and no feedback given in how my daughter was progressing. What started as a safe, small business has developed into a big, poorly managed, unsafe business

It was awful. They take your money then lessons continually got cancelled and when contacting the admin they were very rude when/if you got a reply.
It says they cater to autistic children however one of the instructors (they struggled to maintain staff) kept grabbing my son and would constantly miss him out and I never heard him say a positive thing to him. When I contacted the admin to complain they blamed my son and said he should have done as he was told. They were very dismissive, no one came to view the session and they were very ablest.
Once they cancelled the sessions (due to staffing) they continually refused to refund me. It has taken 4 months to get them to refund me (me chasing them) and I won’t even get the refund all at once they are refunding in 3x parts. I don’t even know if it is correct.

Do NOT. Use

We used these for over a year. A child almost drowned we found out they don’t have enough staff to cover there risk assessment. Soo unprofessional and dangerous. DO NOT RISK YOUR CHILDS SAFTY

My son (5yrs) loves the lessons and has improved massively since moving here from another class/pool. The teachers are friendly and patient with him - cannot believe his progress over the last few months.

We have been swimming since 2019 with this company. My eldest is now a confident excellent swimmer. My 6 year old got her 25 metres at christmas and just received her Stanley 7 award, she is doing amazing. Her teacher Mark is a fantastic teacher. Over the years we have done many crash courses in the school holidays and that's when you really get to see that progress come on.

It’s a shame I couldn’t give zero stars. I went with this company as they spoke about offering lessons for autistic children and my son has autism. He had to have 1:1 private lessons and I wasn’t advised before the lesson that he would actually be in a busy pool with other instructors and other children. He seemed to get on okay with the instructor on a 1:1 basis so I did not mind paying the £18 per half an hour although it seemed like a lot considering he was in a busy pool. We then kept having lessons cancelled and I was told that the lessons would be carried over to the following term. I was then harassed before Christmas to pay a deposit to secure a place for his private lessons for the following term even though they actually owed us lessons. I paid the deposit only to be told that the pool was now under construction and that they did not know when it would be fixed. I have asked Karen Munday (director) for a refund and smugly told that refunds cannot be offered as per their terms and conditions. When I questioned why they demanded a deposit when it would have been told to them in advance that the pool would be undergoing construction I then got ignored. We had more lessons cancelled than we attended and he is now back to square one from not going for so long so the lessons have been a waste of money as well as the ones that I’ve paid for that he didn’t have. Don’t brag about offering lessons for autistic children when you cannot even offer continuity! I will be taking this further.

Similar to a previous reviewer, they cancelled midway through a crash course as they'd messed up the pool booking (when we turned up to the locked pool one of the swim team said they'd missed an email from the venue the week before). Not only was this hugely inconvenient but they have since refused to refund the lessons we'd paid for but didn't receive. Not quite sure why they feel entitled to keep customer funds rather than seek redress via the venue or insurance, but will be taking up with trading standards.

Really good swim school - the crash courses in holiday time are brilliant. My eldest has done these for 5yrs and is a fantastic swimmer and my 6yr old is now on his 3rd crash course and is swimming by himself. The teachers are fab. We don’t do any other lessons as the pools where we live do not offer these so the courses for us a win!

My child did learn to swim after 18 months, however, you never know who is teaching them and the teachers constantly change. The admin side of the business is appalling. Constantly mucking up the children’s certificates and never rectifying their errors when they said they would. There is a safeguarding issue when the children leave the pool as they are left to come out alone, and the teachers have no idea who is picking them up on the other side.

The swim instructors were fantastic. I had a really bad experience with the business side of the school. I pre-paid for a term and they cancelled 8/13 of the sessions due to issues with the pool they hired. They refused to refund anyone. In addition to a cancelled session from a previous term, I was out of pocket approximately £100. Communication was very poor and defensive.