FAQ Hub

Lessons run for 30 minutes and every one of them includes a water safety component, written into the lesson plan. Safety is not saved for one week a term.

Your instructor works with a constant flow so children are active the whole time rather than waiting their turn. Your child's instructor tracks exactly where they are up to each week.

They should not be, and if you see it please tell us, because that is not how we teach.

What you are more likely seeing is our constant flow. With three children in a class, one is practising the skill with the instructor, one is moving back independently, which is great for their development, and one is on the island getting ready to go.

Getting ready means playing, ducking under, testing their balance. It looks like waiting. It is not. The point of the flow is to use every minute of the 30.

Class sizes are small by design, and they vary by level. Baby and toddler classes run up to seven children.

As children move through our preschool levels, classes drop to three, because that is where the most intensive individual work happens.

School-age classes run between four and six children, moving toward six as swimmers build independence. Our squad lanes hold eight.

The information session covers how your child's level is determined and what class size to expect.

Almost certainly, yes. When your child is doing somersaults, going under on the way back, bobbing up and down, to an untrained eye that looks like mucking around. To an instructor, that is balance, breath control and comfort in the water, and all three need to be learnt.

It means we use games and toys to teach real skills.

Children pretend to be sharks, and that shark fin going up and down is the movement that becomes freestyle. They put on witches hats, and that is a streamline position. The little ones dig for treasure with long strong paddle arms, and that is reach, catch and pull.

They are learning proper technique. They just think they are playing. Children retain far more when it is fun.

Because we want children to manage the water, not avoid it.

In shallow water, children quickly learn to stand up when they need a breath or feel unsure. That habit does not serve them when the water is deeper than they are.

Teaching in deep water from the start removes that option, so children learn to manage the water instead. We find it is a quicker path to being genuinely safer in and around water.

Every instructor holds the nationally recognised Teacher of Swimming and Water Safety qualification.

On top of that they carry a working with children or working with vulnerable people check, and they renew their CPR every single year. Many also hold baby teaching and coaching certificates.

Before an instructor teaches a single lesson at Aquatots, they complete our Boot Camp: 40 to 50 hours of internal training on top of their national qualification.

Holding the qualification gets you in the door. It does not get you in the water.

Fair question, and one we are happy to answer.

Every instructor on our deck has completed the national qualification plus 40 to 50 hours of our own Boot Camp before their first lesson.

They renew CPR annually and do professional development four times a year.

Something else worth knowing: 53 of our instructors learnt to swim here as children, many of them through our baby program, and came back to teach. They know the program from the inside because they lived it.

Yes, four times a year, every term. We run it in house and Aquatots covers the cost, including the annual CPR renewal. Instructors need professional development points to keep their qualification current, so we make sure getting them is never the barrier.

Start with our free information session. It is online, self paced, and takes about 45 minutes.

It covers our programs, how lessons work, costs and our policies, so you finish it knowing exactly what enrolling looks like. When you are done, Alena or Sienna will give you a call personally to talk through where your child fits and what is available.

The session takes you through what Aquatots is built on, how lessons work, what our policies are, and what to expect from day one. It is designed so you can make a proper decision about whether we are the right fit for your child.

By the time you finish, most of the questions you would normally email us are already answered. Then Alena or Sienna calls you personally to talk through where your child fits and what spots are available.

That call goes much better when you already know how the program works.

Availability changes by centre, by day and by level, so the honest answer is that it depends. Some of our classes are full and we do keep a waitlist.

The quickest way to find out is to complete the information session, because that triggers a call where we can tell you exactly what is open for your child.

New enrolments close in week 5 of each term. After that we run a waitlist for the following term.

If you are thinking about it, it is worth doing the information session early in a term rather than late, so you are not waiting for the next intake.

Fees depend on how many children you are enrolling and how often they swim, and we go through all of it in the information session along with payment options and term dates. That way you get the full picture rather than a single number out of context.

Yes. Our per child rate reduces for your second, third and fourth child, and a fifth child swims free. The information session covers the detail.

If a space is available there is a $50 deposit to hold it. It is non refundable, and it comes off your lesson fees, so it is not an extra cost.

It is a fair thing to weigh up, and there is a common idea that baby lessons are mostly songs and games.
Done properly they are not.

A baby program builds water familiarity at the age when it comes most naturally, and supports physical and mental development at the same time. Children who start under six months are often swimming strongly by kindergarten or year one.

It is also one of very few activities where you get uninterrupted one on one time with your baby. No phones, no doorbell, just the two of you.

Yes, and it is free. We run it so children do not lose ground over the break, because swimming is like anything, it fades without practice.

There is one condition. If you book a spot, your child needs to turn up, otherwise fees apply. We are committing our pool and our instructors for free, so we ask families to commit too. It is a two way thing and it keeps the classes full for the children who want them.

Yes, and it is free for our parents.

We run beginner classes and stroke correction, plus free lap time so you can practise. We started it because a lot of the families in our areas have children learning to swim while the parents never got the chance. If a child gets into trouble and a parent cannot swim, that is two people at risk instead of one.

We would rather the whole family enjoyed the water.

Yes. Our teen program runs outside the regular learn to swim setting, deliberately. Teenagers who missed out earlier do not want to be in the water next to five year olds, and they should not have to be. It is paced individually and set up so it feels comfortable.

Yes to both. Link to the relevant existing pages on the site rather than answering in full here.