To love that my dd’s swim classes are so old school?

[Swimandsunnies]

Dd swims at a small local pool. It’s cash only, they don’t have a website etc, wasn’t asked to fill out any registration forms when we started! I feel like I’m in 1991 and I love it!

Most clubs these days want your maiden name and shoe size before you can even send them an email! 😂😉

The swimming teacher is very ‘old school’, just like I remember my swim teacher being in the early 1990s. It suits my eldest and the teacher gets great results from the kids.

Once you’re inside you could easily be back in the 1990s and it’s fab, brings back lots of happy memories of childhood!

Anyone else’s dc’s swim school similar?

I would love this too ❤️

My kid’s first swimming teacher was a lady in her 60s. She was fabulous.
She was also an artist!

Sounds like a safeguarding nightmare. If a child in her class has a suspicious bruise and discloses abuse then she would have no details to share with Children's Services. Absolute foolishness.

No reg form ??

how is she insured ?? How is she keeping any emergency contacts for any accidents / incidents ??

I get where u are coming from but how is she running a legit swim lesson service ?

Does she have a wooden broom handle that she uses to poke help children with? That's what my swimming teach used to have in the early 80s. If you were going to drown before you made it to the end of the lane you were (reluctantly) allowed to grab the broom handle and be dragged to safety. If you messed about you may also have been nudged with it.

It’s not somewhere you could just drop and go, which is possibly when they haven’t taken emergency contact details etc. It’s in the grounds of someone’s house and in the middle of no where.

I’d be extremely concerned about their liability insurance.

This.

Sounds like the fella who runs a football drop in club every Saturday in our park - no forms, no registration, £5 cash only, 1.5 hrs… always rammed, parents love it.
Also, no safeguarding, no insurance, doesn’t pay to hire the space, yells at the kids ‘old school’ style. Doubt he troubles himself with a tax form.

Same as DS's boxing club. Give them a fiver on the way in, they stick it in one of those old school metal money tins, job done.

My daughter’s ballet is the same. No emails or messages - just a paper note at the start of each term. Refreshing not to be hounded every other week about the new merchandise/fundraising/photo day/shows/parties etc.

I help run a kids' sports club (not swimming). We don't ask for background info just for a laugh or to make parents' lives difficult, in fact nobody enjoys doing the admin. But it's necessary so that we operate safely, meeting our national governing body's requirements, thus ensuring we are insured. That's pretty important for the club, the individual coaches and the children we coach. If you don't fill in any kind of registration form how does the coach know about any kind of medical condition or additional needs any of the kids might have, who they're allowed to leave with, who to contact in an emergency etc?
It all sounds a bit slap dash to me. Is this teacher insured, DBS checked and registered with any professional body? What are her qualifications? Does she have an up to date First Aid certificate and Safeguarding training? None of that stuff used to be required in the 80s and 90s either but a lot of bad stuff happened as a result. We've hopefully moved on from that. Personally I wouldn't be happy entrusting a child to the care of someone who didn't keep even basic information and consent forms.

Oh god l remember the broom handle of doom too.

There's a lot of things I don't like about my DC's swim school. Especially that it's so competition driven & kids are pushed to graduate through levels. It's incredibly profit driven.

On the other hand, if there was no structure she'd just faff about.

yeah that wouldn't be for me - for all the reasons MrsAvocet says.

My kids learned to swim at the local high school pool - taught by members of the high school swim team (they adored them) supervised by the swim coaches all vetted etc. For my eldest this was back in the late 1990s. It raised money for the team, gave the teens a decent weekend job and it was safe and good. They continued for several years there perfecting their strokes. I probably had to fill in a few forms but I don't think that was too bad.