Goldfish Swim School - Redmond

While there are many positives about Goldfish (e.g. caring and enthusiastic staff, clean facilities, a warm pool, plenty of showers / changing stalls, easy scheduling of make-up classes, a curriculum that's plain fun for kids), they unfortunately have not been effective at actually teaching our daughter to swim. She has been going for ten months and hasn't made any progress in the last five months. Goldfish has not made any attempt to adapt and correct this.

I think there are a few major problems that make the instruction ineffective:

There's insufficient pool time (~6 minutes per week per student).
There's a lack of instructor continuity (we seem to have a substitute teacher every other week).
There's no customization/adaptation of instruction to individual students.

I wish we were just an unlucky anecdote. However, seven of our friends' and family's kids have also attended Goldfish, and five of them ran into the same issue. Looking at other Google reviews, it's clear that others have also faced similar problems. It looks like management has reached out to some of them (they also reached out to one of our friends), but I don't see the underlying issues being addressed. And, for what it's worth, I did leave the above feedback on my exit form, but Goldfish made no attempt to reach out to me and try to correct the issues. It looks like they don't care given they have people on the waitlist for their classes.

If your kid is a natural at swimming, they might do fine here. If they aren't, I would look elsewhere.

Tried it and disappointed. My kid was here for many months and I havent noticed a significant progress. The place itself in nice and well maintained. Everyone kind and nice. In my opinion, with up to 4 kids in a classes of 30 min (and one instructor), he didn't get enough net practice time.

It’s a new establishment. Looks like they took over various old shops used to be in these places previously in Redmond Town Centre.

This is a Kids only swim school. New facility. Yet they have a huge crowd. Class ratio is 1:4. Staffs are spread across young, adult instructors. Multiple life guards on duty too. New and clean bathrooms, shower and restrooms. Staffs are friendly. You can also buy swimsuits and other accessories inside.

I think there are a few major problems that make the instruction ineffective:

There's insufficient pool time (~6 minutes per week per student).
There's a lack of instructor continuity (we seem to have a substitute teacher every other week).
There's no customization/adaptation of instruction to individual students.

If your kid is a natural at swimming, they might do fine here. If they aren't, I would look elsewhere.

It’s a new establishment. Looks like they took over various old shops used to be in these places previously in Redmond Town Centre.