Frequently Asked Questions

We would like to share with you our responses to some common questions and comments from parents so that you can understand our way better:
 
  1. How is your school different from any other swim schools?

We don't just want to teach swimming. We want to share our love for this sport and encourage you & your kids to love it & make it your lifestyle sport as well. Besides being an important life saving skill, swimming has so many health benefits that run way into adulthood and even into the golden years. Many people started learning swimming as a child but never grew a love for it. In fact, some just lose interest or even hate it. We don't want that to happen to our learners. With your help as parents, we hope to cultivate & sustain a love and interest in this sport in your children so that they will learn to love swimming, make it part of their lifestyle as they go into teenage & adulthood, and reap the many benefits of swimming even till they are old! Hence, we believe in BEGINNING it right, and providing paths for SUSTAINING our learners' interest in swimming & water sports. In this way, they are definitely on their way to a more enriching & healthier life! 

  1. What are your teaching approach and principles?
Basically we are process-based. We strive to make the process of learning fun, encouraging, positive and stimulating, so that learners will learn better and grow a healthy interest in swimming. As far as possible, we let learning take place according to learners’ pace and abilities. We DO NOT “pressurize” or use “fear” or “shame” approach to push learners in order to get results and meet goals because, even if it may produce results faster, it will also be fast to kill off any interest in swimming and will also have a unhealthy impact on learners emotionally and psychologically.
 
These are the guiding principles for all our coaches:
-          Have a sincere desire to share and impart the best of what he / she knows to the learner.
-          Respect the learner. "A teacher learns from his / her learners (especially children) how to perfect himself / herself as a teacher." (Adapted from Maria Montessori “The Discovery of the Child”.)
-          Make each lesson a positive learning experience for learners.
 
  1. Your coaches seem to be playing with my kids in the WaterExplorer program…are they teaching anything?
Our WaterExplorer program is designed NOT to teach SWIMMING SKILLS but to BUILD WATER CONFIDENCE and teach WATER SURVIVAL SKILLS. If you observe carefully, you’ll notice that the games your kids are playing are either building their comfort & confidence level with “being wet from toes to head (not head to toes)” or allowing them to practise some water skills e.g. movement in water, bubbling, gliding, floating, etc. And some, especially singing of songs and rhymes, are meant to help children relax and enjoy. There are certain skills that we want them to master before moving on to swim strokes learning proper in the ProSwim program.
 
  1. How do you ensure good standard of coaching for your coaches?
Recruitment
To begin with, we recruit only people who genuinely have a passion for swimming and want to learn how to teach this skill well. They must also be able to swim at least two strokes technically well.
 
Mentorship & Training
Secondly, all our coaches, whether inexperienced or experienced, undergo a 3-month fundamental course and 6-9 months of apprenticeship where they are closely mentored by a Waterfun senior coach (at least 2 years of coaching). We ensure all coaches continue to attend training workshops and coaching related courses for professional development as long as they are coaching with us.
 
Programs
Altho’ we do not over emphasize on results, our programs do have clear progressive paths and learning goals to serve as markers and checkers for all coaches on the general progression of their learners. This way, parents can also be assured of the progression of their children and coaches are guided on the progression paths of their learners.
 
  1. Why are your lessons only 30 minutes for WaterExplorer?
Participants of this program are very young children of 3-6 years old. At this age, their attention span is short. If lessons are longer than 30 minutes, children lose interest and get easily distracted. Furthermore, most young children would be physically tired out and cold if lessons are any longer. This will also negatively affect their interest in learning swimming. Hence, keeping lessons short and sweet is of optimal benefit to learners.
 
  1. Why don’t you give trial lessons?
Besides being an interruption to on-going classes (which would not be fair to our existing students), arranging for trial classes require additional resources and add a strain on our coaches whose schedules are already very packed. However, you can give us a call and we can arrange for you and your children to come observe our lessons and get familiar to the environment and coaches, and speak with our co-ordinator on site any time prior to joining us. For new students joining any particular on-going class, we usually arrange for 10 minutes assessment sessions to determine if they are suitable for the class. For parents who are hesitant to commit to a 12-lesson term, you have the option of starting off with a 4-lesson term.
 
  1. Why do you not do make up or refund for a missed lesson?
Frankly, this is for business sustainability as well as benefit of coaches and learners. For learners, this would make them more mentally committed to consistency of attendance and their own progress. For coaches, this would mean having less interruption to lessons. For the company, this would mean being able to operate with financial confidence and consistency for the benefit of our employees, and ultimately, this would also benefit customers and learners.
 
  1. My child did not enter the water or join in the class at all during the first 3 lessons. Can you not charge me for these 3 lessons?
Whether a child “enters the water” or not, our resources and coach have been committed to conduct the lesson. Hence, it would not be fair to us and our coaches not to be paid. However, to avoid such situations, we would advise parents not to commit to joining a class if you are not sure how your child will respond on the first few lessons. It would be better for us to arrange “familiarization” sessions for you and your child prior to your first lesson. This means you bring your child to get familiar to the pool environment and the coach but not attend the lesson proper. Talk to your child about joining the class and check his / her response. After 1-2 of these sessions, he / she will be better ready to join the class. For very shy or water phobic children, it is better for at least one parent to be in the water with the child for the first few lessons.
 
  1. Why do you give postponements of lessons?
This is because we believe in 3 “Cs”. Being considerate, compassionate and customer-friendly. We understand that learners do fall sick sometimes, might have to attend important school functions, or go on vacations, etc. Hence, for the sole benefit of learners and customers, we will enable them to extend their lesson term by allowing certain number of lesson postponements to complete their term. However, we also hope customers can practise 3 "Cs" for us too - Care for our Cashflow Consistency and not ask for more!! After all we are just a swim school with normal people trying to make a decent living, not a million dollar company.
 
  1. What swimming tests and awards are my children taking? Are they recognized?
For WaterExplorer program, there is award given to leaner who has mastered important water safety skills required in the program and is ready to move on to next level of learning.
 
For ProSwim program, learners will take swimming tests in accordance to Internationally-recognized awards offered by the Singapore Swimming Teachers’ Association. These awards are also recognized by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
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