Love To Swim Reviews 104

(Former) Employee review

Wonderful swim school - I've been a swim teacher now for 11 years, and my first teaching gig was with Love To Swim. The owner Lesley was always friendly, supportive, diplomatic and fair. As a young teacher, I made some mistakes, but Lesley was always patient with me. As a swim school owner myself now, that's something that's stuck with me and I'm grateful for her tolerant professionalism. She also clearly cares about delivering a good service; she would take teachers for meals when we had meetings and talk through targets etc.

Thanks Lesley, I was lucky to have such a great first teaching Job and supportive boss ✌️

Lovely staff, great teachers and good management. Very helpful when you need something. And they have nice swimming places.

My daughter started lessons with love to swim last week. We was with the local authority were the class sizes were much bigger and the teachers walked around the pool side. The love to swim classes are much smaller with the people in the water. My little girls loved the whole experience and can’t wait to jump back on.

Great teachers, very coordinated and kids like to go there. I can see constant improvement in the kids swimming.

Teachers are good with the kids. Highly recommend .

I took adult beginner swimming lessons and it boosted my confidence and made me feel comfortable being in the water and in my abilities. I highly recommend love to swim.

Great swimming lessons in nice and clean locations. Really enjoying it so far.

excellent swimminh school and carlos is an exceptional teacher I’m very happy my son adores the lesson and he’s been going now for a few months and is also non-verbal and carlos has been exceptionally good with him and my son’s confidence has grown in the water and he’s now swimming at times independently I can’t thank carlos and the swimming school enough

Employee Review
Having worked for this company for many years, there was a time when it truly felt like I was an integral part of the business. It is difficult to write this review, but my experience ultimately had a significant negative impact on my mental health—something I never expected from a workplace.

My loyalty to the company was unwavering. I was once deeply appreciative of Lesley, the owner, and worked extremely hard in every role I was given. Even after having two children, I returned to work just seven weeks after each birth, managing emails, complaints, phone calls, supporting teachers, writing documents, onboarding new staff—whatever was needed, I did my best to deliver. Lesley was once a great support, but over time, things began to deteriorate.

While my responsibilities at home increased with young children, I continued to give as much as I could to the company. Despite this, I continued to work and do as much as I could to help managing the Company. With no specific job title just help as I can now describe it. I genuinely believed this was a job for life, but I was mistaken. When personal circumstances forced me to step back and focus on my health, I returned to find myself clearly demoted. Without a proper contract for any of my management roles, there was little I could do but feel undervalued and unappreciated for all my efforts.

The company is fortunate to have SOME truly excellent swim teachers, Jose being the main one and without him the business simply would not run. And at the same time employe some just because they are short staffed and the shift needs covering. Lack of management overseeing and always dismissing customers concerns on poor lessons. Something I really wanted to help with but apparently my methods was quote " Shit" apparently spending to much time speaking with teachers was a problem . Its laughable really. When given go ahead to get training rolling told to put on hold because I'm not trained enough to teach these even tho I had already done them and done plenty before but all of a sudden I just wasnt good enough. Its was so contridicting.

Over the past year, the lack of professionalism from management has been astonishing. Communication has been poor, with no willingness to have honest conversations about business concerns. Just apparently when I went off I loss the company money because shifts was covered but it wasn't communicated so they got them covered twice. That was the only thing communicated before the decision was made. Laughable really because when I was trying to reach out for a few month for any help with my progression I got completely ignored. Or got a hostile response.

Yeah maybe a reflection on how I got mistreated prior to that which clearly made me have a decline in my work ethic.

Upon my return, I was informed by a temporary staff member that my pay rate would be reduced for my permanant shift. This only came to light because I reached out to clarify the current rate for cover work, only to be told that my pay was not what had been agreed just seven weeks earlier. Along with still not having a contract sent over.

This experience was deeply disappointing and so un professional.

I tried to be understanding, knowing that businesses change and that fairness to all staff is important. However, the inconsistency in pay rates and the lack of transparency are unacceptable in any workplace.

The company has lost a loyal and dedicated member of staff. After the way I have been treated, I am now able to focus on myself and move forward without guilt.

The loss is theirs.

Love to swim has been nothing short of miraculous for my daughter. When she started classes last year she was adamant that she did not want to swim at all. For the first few lessons she would cry the whole lesson, but Jose was so patient with her. Soon she started to really take to it and now she absolutely loves swimming. She's really benefited from the small class sizes and the level of attention that she gets. She has progressed through her the stages quite quickly over the last year, and gave her the confidence to swim independently while on holiday this summer. Also, the admin has been great. They are very responsive and helpful. I highly recommend lovetoswim to anyone looking for children's swim lessons.

My two children have gained so much confidence since starting their lessons with Love to Swim. The class teachers are friendly and the progression that we have seen has been amazing!
We highly recommend these lessons to everyone.

After our child had a bad experience at another swim school we enrolled him in Love to Swim on the recommendation of a friend who had sent their three children their. Our child's improvement was clear to see from the very first lesson. The teachers we've had have been patient and very encouraging. Our water baby thrived with Love to Swim. Thank you

Both my children have been with love to swim for years after joining other swim schools where we had disappointing experiences.
The teachers are amazing and it’s a very personalised session with small groups.

They took money for my sons swimming class but removed him from the list as he was not a resident of that building where the classes where held. Never returend my money and don't respond to emails. Looks like a proper scam. There is no contact with the office at all. I also mentioned that I was on waiting list for months I. Uther locations so I wanted my money back. But you ignored ny emails.

I booked a private 1-to-1 swim lesson with LoveToSwim for 9th July, which they rescheduled to 10th July at 6pm. I showed up at the agreed time and location -- no teacher arrived. I waited the full session and sent multiple emails (on 10 July and again on 15 July), asking for an update and a refund. Still no reply. The contact numbers on their website are either invalid or lead to an automated message saying they only operate via email - which they also don't answer. Completely unacceptable level of service. I'm still waiting for my refund and an explanation.
Would not recommend.

a) The published contact numbers do not work (02030066189, 07538706414). You only get an automated message suggesting they operate email-only.
b) Emails are anonymously and poorly responded with utter lack of basic customer service; I exchanged 4 emails asking basic questions which were either poorly answered or not answered at all.
c) The website gives contrasting/ misleading information compared to their own booking system; the closure dates per venue suggest the entire facilities will be closed for a certain period, yet the booking system allows to actually book courses for that closure period.
Instead of simply fixing their website and removing the closure dates from the availability calendar, they merely have a statement that puts the onus on the client to “refer to the 'planned closures' tab”… “to avoid [sic] disapoinmtent”…

Whether it’s cost-cutting or poor business planning, can’t see how they can attract customers without customer services.

My 5 years old son attended his first session yesterday with Jose . He was a bit anxious in the beginning but Jose knows how to work with kids and he was there to support him and my son quickly got confidence .In only one session my son learned how to swim passing from the arm floating kit to only using the noodle and at the end of the session he already needed less support . He was very proud of himself and told me ‘I love to swim”!!
Jose is an amazing teacher and I’m so glad that my son had the chance to learn from him !

I had a bad experience with them. I had booked bulk swimming lessons, but on the day of the lesson, the receptionist informed us that the class was cancelled due to issues with the trainer. We were instructed to contact customer services for a make-up class. Later, we discovered that this information was incorrect, as the class was conducted as scheduled.
It was brought to my attention that the staff at the reception was new and may not have been fully informed about the situation. However, when I reached out to customer services for assistance, I was met with a lack of empathy. Instead of acknowledging the confusion and offering a solution, I was told it was my responsibility to check the online portal for notifications regarding classes.
This experience has left me feeling very disappointed in the level of customer service provided. I believe that a more proactive and understanding approach is essential, especially in situations like this where there can be miscommunication.

Great experience Carlos is amazing with both my son & daughter. Very impressed with his teaching skills as my daughter is a complete beginner. He put her at ease from very scared of water to enjoying swimming now and is just been a week. Thank you so much Carlos for your patience and guidance with my 2 children.

I had an excellent experience during my second swimming lesson with instructor Carlos B. on 20 March 2025. He was incredibly thorough, and I felt completely comfortable under his guidance. Carlos’ patience and clear instructions helped ease my fears of being in the pool as an adult, making the learning process much more enjoyable. I also appreciate how he gently encouraged me to move beyond using a swim kickboard, which boosted my confidence. Overall, it was a fantastic session, and I’m excited to continue learning with him in future lessons!

Lesley has also been helpful and deals with queries efficiently. I appreciate the help and recommend Love to Swim to any adult beginners out there.

I truly enjoy my experience with Love to Swim and instructor Jose, who is very experienced, patient, and truly passionate about his job. After just a few months, I feel much more confident in the water, and I hope to continue taking more swimming lessons with them in the future! Highly recommended for adult swimming lessons. Thank you, Jose and team!