Goldfish Swim School – Cary, Cary | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

The instructors are teens. Basically, all of them. I’m not exaggerating. They post the staff online. (Btw why are we telling any bad person on the internet where & when to find _____ name with ____ face?) Not a criticism of the teens trying to make money at all, just the establishment. You can pay teens less, that’s why you-the establishment-have done so, but they are children themselves. How are they supposed to throughly understand how to teach 4-8 year olds how to focus and apply the “material?” Your little swimmer is going to spend both years and too much of your money trying to learn to swim here. The 1:4 class ratio sounds fine until you consider the inexperienced staff member has 30 minutes to get kids who have all begun the class at different stages and time periods to take a turn being held/guided. If they all begin at different times how could there possibly be a sound “curriculum” or process? Your swimmer would have to basically age into an older class to try to learn more than kicking and holding their breath while being held. The under 1s class got more wet than my 4 year old did. They didn’t even use the whole lane. Less than half of it per class because they have bars in the water. Imagine your kid kicks 3 times away from the wall (in the instructor’s arms), then 3 kicks back. Turn over. Now 3 more kids. If that wasn’t nonsensical enough, they even got out and walked to the other side of the pool to swim for a moment then go back to thir own lane for some unexplained reason. This poor 17 year old is trying to hold 3-4 arms of wriggling kids, pressing them into the wall so no one gets hurt or drowns. That took longer in and of itself than teaching any one particular action. Incredibly inefficient and ineffective to take classes here. Disappointing.

I started bringing my 3 boys to Goldfish about 2 months ago and all three have grown so much in their confidence in and around the water. My 6 yr old who was already able to swim has improved his technique considerably. My 4 yr old who was very hesitant and nervous in the water now swims on his own very well. My 2 yr old took awhile to get used to the instructors(he’s very shy) but they have always been very patient and encouraging and he now looks forward to class and is able to go under water and jump in the deep end of the pool with someone to catch him. Goldfish has been amazing in helping my kids learn to swim. Knowing how to swim is an essential life skill and Goldfish does an awesome job! The teacher are all so kind and patient definitely recommend!!