Oakville Swim Academy Reviews

Solid swimming environment. Comfortable atmosphere and friendly staff!

My older children attended The Swim Academy a number of years ago and we were pleased with their progress. So when my youngest was looking for swim lessons we came back. Her first session was not great. The other child in her group was not at the same level as she was and we asked to have her moved. That did not happen. We thought we would try another session only to be disappointed once again. She recieved only one assessment mid way the session and not another one. The online system they use to share with parents the childs progress isn't well maintained or easy to use. We will not be returning for any further sessions.

Kelsey is by far the absolute best swimming instructor we've ever had. She's hands down simply amazing. We refuse to have anyone else teach our boys this life saving skill. Mikey (our first born) who's now 3 is able to swim and dive on his own and is one with the water. He started pedia/survival lessons with Kelsey at 7 months old and has been floating on his own since 8 months old. Levi (our second) who's 1 1/2 years old just passed his survival swim test this week and he's able to float and recover from being thrown, flipped or pushed into the water. It's quite amazing to watch the relationship our boys have with Kelsey. We see their trust in her; we trust her! Our boys are braver, more confident and now have this amazing life skill thanks to Kelsey. There are no words to describe how very fortunate we've been to have Kelsey in our lives. Thank you Kelsey and the Oakville Swim Academy!

The staff and instructors have always been fair and have always assisted in ensuring that my children get the best out of their lessons. When I have had questions or concerns about instruction, lessons or what is required they have always listened and worked to find the best solution.

Our daughters started at the Swim Academy in Pediswim and have continued all their lessons there. Our 6yr old is now at Intermediate silver and our 3yr old is Junior bronze, she would swim there everyday if she could!
Friends and strangers always complimented on how well they swim.

Our experiences with the staff have always been great and the instructors have been very patient, encouraging and pushing them to their potential.
We have and will continue to recommend the Swim Academy to our friends, four families of which have already gone and so happy they have.
Thank you is not enough to everyone there.

I can t say enough good things about The Swim Academy, we have been customers for 4 years with 3 kids swimming there. The staff are incredibly helpful, welcoming and knowledgeable. My kids love it, which obviously helps them learn. We are thoroughly happy! Exceptional team who bend over backwards to accommodate you. Totally revitalized with its new ownership!

This is by far the best place to take swimming lessons! The staff is amazing!

I knew the second I found out (while pregnant) about pedia/survival classes at the oakville swim academy I would have Mikey in it. He was 7 months old when he started and within a short few weeks he knew exactly what to do when in the water. I was absolutely amazed! Our instructor Kelsy was and is beyond phenomenal... At 21 months old now Mikey still sees Kelsy twice a week. You see we are always travelling or near large bodies of water... And while Mikey is always in mine or daddy's arms it's just comforting that he knows how to handle himself. Mikey is now able to float on his own and if thrown in the water he comes right back up and continues to float. If flipped over he does the same with ease. Not only does this class shows how brave he is... He also gets quite a workout which leaves him starving... Perfect way to get him to eat everything I need him to. And then he passes right out for a three hour long nap. Let's just say I simply love our pedia swim days! Mommy gets to nap too. It's a win win for everybody. I would highly recommend anyone who is looking into this class for their little ones. I've had numerous friends who've wanted their kids to do the same as Mikey but unfortunately not every city has instructors that are trained for this kind of baby survival in the water. I'm so looking forward to getting Mikey's little brother (on the way) in the water too.

Editing my original review. We initially did have an issue. Not a great match between the instructor and our son. The instructor was quite young and wasn't really ready to teach swimming to a 4 year old. That being said they did a great job helping us get more out of the private lessons and in the end our son really made great progress. Would recommend this place for sure. Just make sure to give feedback and work with them through the process to ensure your kids get the most out of their lessons.

I registered my daughter 26th of Oct , asked them if there was any promotion or discount at that time or in near future. As we are not in rush we can wait a while if there is promotion in near future. The front desk said nothing at that moment and in near future. So I registered my daughter. My daughter started the first lesson early of November. I saw they posting in facebook and told by my friend they had 50 credit and one free trial lesson promotion for November new customer. I called back and explained if they can regard us as new customer and granted the promotion. we can use the credit for next term. They did not give any chance to negotiate and questioned me too aggressive.

My son recently completed his Bronze Medallion course at Swim Academy. The instructor (Simon) was very engaging and thorough. The days were long and I expected my son to come home exhausted but instead he came home invigorated and talking non stop about what he learned and what the next day would bring. Simon gave constructive feedback and was also able to see, foster and promote strong leadership within the students. My son is already asking when he can do Bronze Cross!

The Swim Academy treats you like family. They care not only about their service but about you. Their small class allow the instructors to take the time to get to know your child and work with them as an individual within the group setting so that they are receiving what they need from the program.

My kids are 12 and 14 and over the years have taken swimming lessons at the Y, through the city and at other private programs. The Swim Academy is definitely the BEST place they have taken lessons at. The instruction is amazing, my daughter progressed more in a month here than in a year at another place. And the everyone is so nice and helpful. My daughter is still taking lesson here and loves it.

Our 4 yr old son has been enrolled at The Swim Academy for the last 15 months. This summer we decided to enrol him in private sessions with Simon as he really needed the one-on-one time with an instructor. Simon took the time to develop a trusting relationship with our son which has helped him to improve by leaps and bounds. Simon always takes the time to give is feedback on Noah s progress after every lesson and we agree together on strategies to help him succeed. I feel as though I am part of the process every step of the way. I am completely satisfied with the service and would recommend Simon as an instructor without hesitation.

We love Swim Academy! My son is 7 months now but started when he was 5 months old!! His instructor Shannon is great. The place is very friendly, very clean, and offers affordable lessons!

The swim academy offers so many great classes and activities for all ages. I have gone on some trips near Oakville and was recommended to check out the facilities as I like to swim. I saw they put on great parties and their staff was so helpful.

The Swim Academy is a fantastic place for students to learn how to swim to survive and have fun too!

The small class sizes allow for instructors to create individualized plans which allows swimmers to quickly achieve their goals.

The warm 89 degree pool temperature keeps students warm even in the cold winter months.

Check it out today!

Finding a Swim Instructor course that would fit into my son s busy school and competitive swim schedule was very hard until I contacted the OSA. Simon Peebles was very accommodating and worked within my son s availability to create a private and personalized one-on-one course. Simon was not only able to create a very thorough Swim Instructor s course, but he was also able to incorporate hands-on practical experience where my son was able to teach lessons to kids in the pool. This was a very rare opportunity as most courses offered by the other places are not able to do so. My son was thrilled at being able to put his learnings into practice right away and he found it very rewarding. I would highly recommend the OSA to parents and they can feel confident that their kids will receive the best attention and training and at an amazing facility. Thanks Simon!

The staff and management are amazing! Very accommodating and my daughter absolutely loves coming here! Highly recommend to anyone looking to get quality swimming lessons!

Simon truly came through with shuffling up a March Break week that was at capacity to accomodate our tricky schedule! Love the service and willingness to go the extra mile to get my kids the 1:1 private lessons!

This summer, when we went to my sister's for a family reunion, my young son saw their pool in the back yard and recoiled. He was afraid for his life to go anywhere near the water. Since then, he hadn't been too fond of bathtime either.

He has the confidence to jump right in now, and he's becoming quite the swimmer. Now our weekly trips to the community centre aren't stressful anymore, and he's getting much needed exercise to keep him far from the problem of child obesity.

Thank you SO MUCH. I can't stop telling people about you.

Great instructors and a very clean place! Minimal student to teacher ratio, the front desk staff do a fantastic job as well! I will rate this place # 1 in Oakville.!

We've been coming to the Swim Academy for almost a year now and we love it. My daughter has progressed so quickly and is so confident in the water. All her instructors (Erin and Kelsey in particular) have been amazing and she is always so excited when I tell her it's swimming lesson day.
Can't wait to enrol my son in classes soon.

We ve been with the swim academy for over 6 years now and have experienced excellent instructors so far. There have been times when, as parents, we were concerned about our children s progress timelines but the management and staff has always been transparent and helpful. With their new parent portal it is much easier for parents to view the skills achieved by their children in every session. They have recently renovated the area to make space for additional change rooms and 2 fully covered private showers.

I like this facility mainly because of the attention and dedication of their instructors as my kids have consistently learned from them at a better pace than at the Community Center or at the YMCA (we ve tried both)

The front desk and management always tries their best to accommodate make up classes if lessons are missed.

The only suggestion I ll give to parents is that they must keep a close connection with their child s instructor and the front desk, you ll rarely find a reason to complain.

One suggestion I have for management is to try and add some curtains to the currently open rinse area for kids to secure privacy while rinsing after swimming because when it gets busy that s the only place to shower.

Love this place, so glad we brought our children here and did the pedia swim. Our now 3 year old son swims with no fear in my mother in laws pool and my 1 year daughter is kicking right there beside him. Love the personal one on one attention and the patience of the instructor Janice Mortimer. As for my older 2 daughters love the fact that again very small class sizes so they get one on one attention.

The front desk management (Taylor and Kelsey) promise to do training with your child in order to sign up but when you take your child for scheduled classes they make up excuses to why they can't conduct classes for that day.
1. they are busy and another less trained instructor will complete training.
2.Taylor was not available and we found out when we got location. Waisting an hour.
The experience in this place has been horrible. I asked to get my money back and would never take my child to this location. I would think twice before using this place for training.

Very poor management. Not comply to agreed schedule. We pre-scheduled lesson with the school two weeks before. On that particular day, the school canceled my kid s session saying time conflicting. We showed to the front desk guy all the details including the confirmation from school. And all the guy could say is sorry but without a reasonable solution. He tried to redirect us to his manager but also kept saying his manager was not reachable.

Good staff! Both of my otherwise nervous swimmers became comfortable and confident.

My daughter recently completed her bronze medallion with Simon as the instructor. It was a great experience and Simon was an outstanding instructor!

If you work for them, they charge you $45 for the unifrom which is literally a $5 piece of poor quality clothing. It is definitely a ripoff ! They give you whatever leftover size they have so if it does not fit you, too bad you still have to pay the full prize for the uniform. They did not tell you you have to pay for the uniform when they give you the uniform and ask you to wear it at work.Other places provide the uniform to staff complimentary. No wonder they cannot keep staff !

Receptions are always making mistakes in booking schedule. I booked two courses for two kids several weeks before section but the reception input the wrong day and time and finally mass up all the schedule. When i have to cancel one kid's course they cancel both kids' courses.

Leaning to swim became my goal when I turned 60!
I tried a few coaches/swim schools and was at the brink of total frustration when I called The Swim Academy. Tavia invited me for a complimentary class and I have not looked back. Her teaching style is just amazing, I am so grateful for her patience and encouragement along the way. The Swim Academy is really tops! Thank you Tavia!!!

The renovations are quite nice. This place looks amazing. We love The Swim Academy!!!

This is the place to go for swim lessons. Have brought my niece here for years and have loved the personalized instruction they have received. Will be going here when my little one arrives...

I never do reviews , but I guess this time I have to. I really had a great first session experience for my son with this swimming Academy.From the manager , staff and instructors... My son's first instructor was Sarah and she is phenomenal!!! Despite of my son's learning difficulties, Sarah was able to manage and teach my son the beginner's skill....That made us enroll again for a second season. Unfortunately, this time everything was a mess. I am just hoping next time the management would encourage the instructors to talk and learn from each other in handling students especially if the kids changes instructors due to availability. Sharing of teaching experience would be beneficial. Because there are some strategies that work and some don't for children. And scheduling for make up classes is so hard,so frustrating!

Good school , nice environment. My kids are learning fast .

They are good in teaching but be warned; they put the children in the wrong session/level and you would never be aware of this. Heard this often happens a lot at this accademy.

So if you register your child for level 1; ensure that they are teaching him all the steps of level 1.

Our experience has been great. My eldest son has special needs and the team has gone out of their way to find ways to work with him, and recognize the importance of consistency of instructor for him. They are happy to work with me when I suggest strategies that often work for him when he is being difficult.
When I had a concern that my younger son was not being challenged enough in his class, they reassessed him immediately and based on their conclusions, offered a credit to my account for future sessions.
The staff are always pleasant and helpful, and I appreciate the great customer service.

I attend classes as an adult during the day so I do not know how busy it gets at night time or what that experience is like. But my husband and I are training for our fitness. We both are swimmers already But I would feel very comfortable sending anyone here as the quality of the instruction is amazing!

When you first walk in, it's very child friendly and inviting but then you are greeted by staff with half smiles. Staff is not very friendly or welcoming. Class sizes are small, which is nice and the instructor we had (Brad) was knowledgeable but did not know how to engage my 3 year old. It was her first time at swimming lessons and seemed annoyed by her when she was scared or teary. We had to change our lesson to another day one week and the other instructors we had were a lot more supportive and caring for my scared 3 year old.

We use to go to the local community centre and our son use to hate swimming. He was not learning proper technique and the instructors were not encouraging. We switched to The Swim Academy and now our son loves swimming and even wants to be a lifeguard. His instructors teach proper technique and make learning to swim fun. They give him positive feedback and have great interpersonal skills with kids. I have recommended them to family and friends and although we live 30 minutes away in a different city, it is well worth the trip. I highly recommend The Swim Academy!

The Swim Academy treats you like family. They care not only about their service but about you. Their small class allow the instructors to take the time to get to know your child and work with them as an individual within the group setting so that they are receiving what they need from the program.

Our kids has been going to Swim Academy for the last 3+ years. Tavia and the other instructors are very good at what they do. I am glad our friends introduced us to Swim Academy!

I am shocked by all the bogus bad reviews being posted. It is amazing how the competition uses a keyboard to hide behind and make up bad reviews to try and knock a reputable business that has been running successfully for over 25 years and can take credit for training and helping produce Olympic and Paralympic swimmers, professional triathletes, babies and everything in between. Shame on the swim schools who are using trolls to bash a business that actually know how to teach kids to swim correctly.

We had our son enrolled into private lessons with Simon at The Swim Academy - and it was truly the best experiences we've had with swimming instructors. Simon took the time to understand our son's fears and what would motivate him (he was around 6 at the time), he was so patient with him to ensure my son developed his confidence in the water, and once we got over that hurdle Simon knew exactly how to drive my son's progression. He is truly skilled as an instructor and a motivator for kids and i would recommend him to anyone considering swimming lessons

Amazing establishment...Great staff! Very excited to take my daughter.

Our experience with the establishment was not very good. The instructor started to change the schedule back and forth and we were forced to fit his schedule, vacations, last minute cancellations and he would often forget and mixes schedules up. After paying for 10 lessons, our son was only get 3. At the end I had to throw the towel and ask them for refund.
One last thing, they never answer phone calls and rarely return calls. There is no serious management here, just of teenagers and a small dirty pool that's it.

The renovations are quite nice. This place looks amazing. We love The Swim Academy!!!

Absolutely fantastic. The improvement we've seen in our kids over just one session (after years with the city of Oakville) is tremendous. Definitely worth the added cost over municipal lessons, especially if you've got kids who are a bit skittish around the water.

We love this place! My two children have gone from non swimmers to swimming amazing frontcrawl and backstroke in less than a year! When our friend see our 6 and 4 year old swim lengths of the pool they cant believe it! They love swimming at the Swim Academy. The awards are wonderful and the staff is the best!

The staff and instructors have always been fair and have always assisted in ensuring that my children get the best out of their lessons. When I have had questions or concerns about instruction, lessons or what is required they have always listened and worked to find the best solution.

We ve been with the swim academy for over 6 years now and have experienced excellent instructors so far. There have been times when, as parents, we were concerned about our children s progress timelines but the management and staff has always been transparent and helpful. With their new parent portal it is much easier for parents to view the skills achieved by their children in every session. They have recently renovated the area to make space for additional change rooms and 2 fully covered private showers.

I like this facility mainly because of the attention and dedication of their instructors as my kids have consistently learned from them at a better pace than at the Community Center or at the YMCA (we ve tried both)

The front desk and management always tries their best to accommodate make up classes if lessons are missed.

The only suggestion I ll give to parents is that they must keep a close connection with their child s instructor and the front desk, you ll rarely find a reason to complain.

One suggestion I have for management is to try and add some curtains to the currently open rinse area for kids to secure privacy while rinsing after swimming because when it gets busy that s the only place to shower.

Our daughter has taken 3 sessions here now and she is only 1. The staff is great, instructors are friendly and are great with the kids, the facility could use some upgrades or better upkeep but nothing that is harmful :)

Great facility! Knowledgeable and professional staff that delivers a wide variety of aquatic programming for kids of all ages in a clean and safe pool environment. Highly recommend.

We travel from Toronto to attend The Swim Academy. Our 3 year old was comfortable in the pool and loves the water, but he had never had a swimming lesson. He got comfortable in their pools quite quickly and when we asked about evaluating him for more challenging lessons, Simon stepped up and made time for 1 on 1 lessons. Afterwards he was slotted with Rebecca who taught to his learning style perfectly. Only 3 weeks later he is now floating unassisted on his back, rolling from front to back, kicking across the pool, trying the front call and learning to dive. The staff here are excelllent! The lessons offer great value, and his coaches are instilling more confidence in our son.

The academy is great. However the major issue that I have is the fact that there is only 1 make-up class per session. That needs to change. There are times when the child cannot come to the class on multiple days for reasons beyond our control. To have the limitation that you can have only 1 make-up class per session is extremely disappointing. If you cannot have multiple make-up classes per session, then it is only fair that the amount for the missed classes be credited back to the account. :)

It makes me sad that my son never gets his full 20 minutes :( this place would be great for years to come otherwise

This place switches swim instructors all the time. After your child is happy and confident with an instructor... the next time you try getting the same instructor they are gone.
It happens all the time with them.
Terrible!!!

Very poor experience and no one to express concern to. Our very first class the instructor didn't arrive and they stuck us in with a different one that clearly had no idea what to do with a 2 year old, it was painful to force my son to attend classes as the instructor was extremely awkward, on the third last class in the first minute of swimming the instructor put him in the water with his head and my son started screaming and ran out of there because he was so frightened, the following last 2 classes we didn't make it out of the front door to even attend the class because he was so scared and upset with his instructor. Don't get me wrong my son loves swimming, can't get him out of the water but this was an awful experience for all of us.