Our swim families are stellar, and we love seeing our swimmers every day at the pool! Each swim instructor looks forward to lessons and seeing their swimmers weekly. The relationship between swimmer and instructor becomes stronger and stronger over time, which is why we always strive to provide consistency each week.
Imagine getting ready for lessons, driving to the pool, arriving on deck to be told: “sorry, your instructor is absent.” Bummer, and double bummer for the parent, swimmer, and staff. We totally understand the strain it puts on our swimmers when an instructor is out. Trust us, as a team, we feel the strain trying to cover the shift, learn about the kiddos, review class notes, and all while trying to provide a quality lesson. But have no fear! There are ways to handle the substitute situation and rest assured that your swimmer is still in good hands with a substitute teacher.
1. Training/Curriculum:
The Swimtastic Swim curriculum is standard to each and every location. This means one level at one location will be working on the same skills at that level at another location. Every instructor on staff (even from a different location) is trained and certified on our swim levels, which helps provide consistency in classes. Any sub that is covering a class knows what they need to teach, but each instructor has a different way of teaching the same skill. If you see that they are doing things differently, it just means they have a different method of instruction. This does not mean it’s wrong or contradicting what the regular instructor does. Just as everyone learns differently, our instructors teach the same thing differently. This can even be a benefit if your student has struggled to learn a particular skill; sometimes looking at the same thing from a slightly different perspective can help our students break through that hurdle and become even greater, stronger swimmers.
2. Meet the staff:
We value our relationship with our swimmers and their families. While you will have a relationship with your instructor and deck supervisor you are welcome and encouraged to meet our other instructors. On the day of a substitution, the covering instructor will introduce themselves to the swimmers. As a parent, you can walk your swimmer over to the class and be a part of the introduction with the sub. The deck supervisor is also there to help make this a smooth transition. Keep your eyes peeled for our upcoming "meet the team" posts on our Facebook page and website, so you can learn about our whole team!
3. Let us know:
Each instructor gets a daily roster with the name, age, and level of the swimmers. In the event of an instructor absence (with notice) the instructor will leave notes about the class and swimmers for the day. However, in a last minute emergency situation, the instructor may not have time to give all the details about their classes before students arrive. If there is something specific about your child that you want the sub instructor to know, please bring that to the attention of the deck supervisor, or alert the instructor at the beginning of class. Remember a sub isn’t with your swimmer regularly so we rely on any information you would like to provide us. Please try to get this information to the instructor before the beginning of class, or speak directly with the deck supervisor to avoid disrupting the flow of the class and taking away valuable time from our other swimmers.
Our instructors are the heart and soul of our swim schools, and we strive to create a supportive and understanding culture because we highly value their strength and dedication to teaching. While we miss our instructors when they are absent, and hope they aren’t out, it does happen. Planned or unplanned, we understand that life happens, and we strive to support our employees in whatever way we can when emergencies arise.
“I love working at Swimtastic because everyone I work with is so nice, and I have never worked anywhere else like that.” Ana (Deck Supervisor at Swimtastic Fort Myers)
