By Susan Foss, co-founder of Foss Swim School
In Part 1 of this post, I shared how Jon and I founded Foss Swim School on the belief that a school setting, designed for learning and regular progression, is the best way to teach a child to swim. In this installment, we look at the experience at FOSS that helps us stand out.
Every swim program offers something. Some are closer to your house. Some seem a lot cheaper. Some market the benefits of salt water. Some offer make-up sessions. But amidst all of this, what really matters most is: Which program actually gets my child swimming?
We at FOSS take your goal of getting your child to swim seriously because we know how important it is to you, and we respect the time, money and effort you put into it.
Put simply, our priority is the same as yours: To produce results for you and your children in a way that’s easier, safer and more enjoyable. With this in mind, consider and compare our philosophy, approach and features when choosing where your child will learn to swim.
Carefully Chosen, Caring, Trained and Reviewed Instructors
We ask a lot from our teaching staff. We hire them for their love of children, train them how to positively influence a child’s life, and retain them because they demonstrate quarter after quarter that they’re very good at what they do!
Our staff include full-time, part time, parents, adults, college kids and all in between! Some schools will tell you they’re “professionals” because they only hire full-time staff. We measure professional educators by whether your child is learning, progressing and – most importantly – by the joy and anticipation we see when children want to come back for their lesson next week.
Each quarter we review our instructors, evaluate their performance and provide training and mentoring to constantly improve our teaching ranks. To teach our system for so many ages and skill levels, our instructors must pass our rigorous, custom-designed training program of both classroom and in-water education and evaluation. We get your child swimming because we hire people who love to work with children, who know the value of our Swim Path® program and can deliver results with each student they teach.
Top of the Line Facilities
Every facility we run is custom designed for teaching swim lessons safely and comfortably based on our 27 years of building and operating numerous pools. Our schools have the conveniences you want like air-conditioned viewing rooms, private changing stalls, deck showers, baby changing stations and seats, storage, and retail supplies.
But our pools are the main feature of our facilities. The pool is our classroom and the decks are the front row seats to watch your child learn! The water is 91 degrees, with depths comfortable and safe for our littlest swimmers, and lanes and islands we can adjust for different ages and skills. Our pools are designed to give each level the appropriate confidence and space to learn.
A Recognition that Each Child’s Needs are Different
Many swimmers with special needs have found FOSS lessons to be very welcoming and conducive to helping them learn to swim. Sometimes we can effectively place children in regular classes and sometimes we offer families the opportunity for private lessons at a discounted rate for a child with unique needs.
The point is, our vision is to be the best swim program for every child. Whatever we can do to achieve that end, we do, or will try and help you make the most of your child’s experience. Our experience over 27 years has brought us smiling eager children of all abilities and we welcome everyone to our pools.
Swimmers, Guaranteed
This all ends up with a plain and simple guarantee from all of us at FOSS, with our families, who have all grown up learning our method by logging hours in FOSS lessons and all know how to swim well.
Our guarantee is our response to what you need. All families have busy lives and there are many things each week that you and your family need to do. We are thankful you have chosen the gift of swim lessons for your child and we’re even more thankful you’ve chosen to swim with FOSS. So once you make that choice and you make the effort to get your child to our pools we recognize it is our duty to get your child swimming.
That’s it. We know how to teach swimming extremely well and we have a variety of solutions to help you. You have many things on your plate each week and we have one: to help your child develop into a happy, healthy, confident swimmer with a big smile. That’s what you want and so do we.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and to understand how the unique approach and qualities of FOSS make us confident in our ability to teach your child to swim.
