Ever since my toddler jumped in a bathtub full of water when I turned my back, my husband and I knew we had to get her into swim lessons and ensure she knew water safety. So, we signed our daughter up for a free trial at Goldfish Swim a couple months ago (wish I could remember the young man's name who taught the class!) and were immediately impressed! My daughter has been scared of water ever since my reaction to the bathtub incident, but her teacher Ms. Annabelle has been so incredibly patient, accommodating and consistent during her weekly sessions. Our daughter gains more and more confidence and skills each week and absolutely loves her teacher! Our daughter also has a speech/language delay and can shut down when not understood but Ms. Annabelle has worked through each breakdown to show her support and understanding which we appreciate so so much! Our daughter is really coming out of her shell and gaining so many language and social skills in addition to swim and safety skills- we are so grateful! Weekends at Goldfish are definitely crowded and hectic and I do wish sessions were an hour long rather than half hour but the progress we've seen in such a short amount of time has shown us how truly valuable these lessons are! Other parents have noted that week days are much calmer but it just doesn't fit well into our schedule. We like that Goldfish offers makeup sessions and recently did back to back sessions. The second/ make-up session was with Ms. Eva and she did such a wonderful job making our daughter feel safe and comfortable, it was such a great experience! Every teacher and employee we've interacted with has been wonderful. We drive almost 40 minutes each way for lessons and it has been worth every mile and every penny! Our nephew is in swim classes at a Goldfish school on Long Island and his parents highly recommended the program when they knew we were looking for a place to join. So happy we gave Goldfish a try, we look forward to every session and the growth we see weekly! The skills our daughter is building are so worth it and we can't recommend Goldfish Swim enough! read more

We had a swim party last September for my daughter (2024). This was the worst party and I would never recommend spending hundreds of dollars at GoldFish. They did not provide any of the "perks" that were advertised- no lifeguard, no activity staff, no Birthday invitations, no tshirt. The two staff that were present sat at the front desk on their phones. This was at the Williamsville New York location. I called directly following her party and all that could be said was "I'll pass this to my supervisor." As we both of my kids did lessons there for the good part of the school year, I asked that I be removed from the calling list as I was getting repeated calls to sign back up. Even a year later, I'm still getting calls to have another party and sign my kids up for lessons. I just received a phone call for a birthday party and I kindly asked, again, to be removed from their calling list. I was told the system was down and I couldn't be removed at this time but they would note to remove me. So you can look up my daughter to know that her birthday is in Sept and look my phone number up to call, yet you can't remove me from your system?? My husband and I have spend thousands of dollars on swim lessons for the duration of a school year. I would not recommend Foldfish in any capacity. read more

Brilliant school, super clean, pool is super warm, and super friendly staff. I love it here.

Don't waste your time or money if you have a toddler. Since they'll scam you out of extra money too. The classes are lacking. It's the same thing every single time which does not keep my 18 month old engaged. If it was changed up even every other class or every few classes it would be better. If you only want to do a month of classes you literally have to drop as soon as you sign up or you'll get screwed into paying the whole next month fee as well. We signed up online and didn't see you had to drop the class 30 days in advance to avoid being charged. I'd understand a week or two noticed but a month is excessive. Seems like a money grab. The cleanliness of the bathrooms could be better. Much of the front desk staff seems uninterested in being there and only some of the instructors are really engaged with the kids. Overall, I'd 100% avoid if you have a little one. Over priced and underwhelming. Not to mention if you put in your info online to look into it they'll call and harass you repeatedly week after week until you sign up which is very annoying. read more

My little brother has been swimming here for over a year. When he first started in Glider 1, he had never been in a pool or taken formal swim lessons. But within two weeks, he was putting his face in the water and swimming up to 15 feet! He quickly moved up, and we love Goldfish! read more

wonderful place for all kids, but they work miracles with Autistic child and adults. Talk about confidence building!!!

This swim school is a little gem in Williamsville. I am here babysitting my two granddaughters this holiday week. As when my daughter was young we always stressed the importance of water safety. A life skill not to be overlooked. Goldfish swim school, vibrant colors. Clean all throughout the school. Spacious changing rooms, Very clean watching area with ample seating.with wall to wall windows. The pool itself was heated clean and well designed with safety in mind . The large perimeter child ledge promotes security for the child around the water. The murals and the open air showers are a perfect touch. Although my granddaughters have not yet taken any swim lessons there by all appearances of the diligence they put into the facility I would say that it's safe to assume the instructors and classes are to notch as well. See you all week for open swim . Great pool we love it . See for yourself read more

Goldfish Swim School - Swimming Pools Near Me - Williamsville, New York

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Goldfish swim school is a fantastic place to bring your little ones ! Staff are very friendly. The swim teachers are very professional with the children, & have a lot of patience. Weston looks forward to Wednesday evening swim class. Weston had learned a lot in 9 months. I highly recommend. read more

We took our son for atleast 7 classes and saw no improvement. This has caused more of a burden than anything. First off, its a 20 min drive each way, which I didn't mind, but I'm not greeted with people who know who we are after being there more than 10 times already. You can tell what place offers great services if you are recognized after a couple visits, but there is nothing - leading to the second problem, having instructors frequently rotated. My son needs to have a trusting instructor, who knows how to observe and treat his weaknesses. The third problem is that the lessons are 30 mins long, which I feel isn't enough per session, and doesn't justify the 40 min drive in total. Now the fourth problem, the need to explain issues multiple times. Have a problem with payment? appointment? schedule? be ready to explain this to multiple people over and over again. No one keeps notes, no one knows who you are, and classes aren't consistent. For the price we pay, the quality isn't there. The place itself is amazing, just wish the people were better organized and motivated. read more

Staff were warm and welcoming towards us! Very professional and patient with the children inside and outside the pool area! The place waa very clean. I observed staff wearing masks, social distancing and disinfecting all areas/equipment. Our children look forward to going every morning to swim like a fish! Thank you so much for having this safely open for us to enjoy! read more

Goldfish swim school is a fantastic place to bring your little ones! Everyone is friendly and helpful and the kids have a great time when they are there! read more

Decided to try this place post Pandemic for one of their Jump start clinics since our son hadn't been here in a year+. We left here before Covid hit because we had grown tired of paying monthly and our son never progressed because of the ever revolving door of teachers. We were here almost a year and in that time he only went up 3 levels to Glider 3 and that was ONLY because of us pushing them to test him. He would stay static at the same level until we would remind them he'd been there for a long time. So this review is the post pandemic Jump Start clinic. They bumped him back to a Level 2 because that's their policy but I didn't have a problem with it since he hadn't been swimming regularly and had an incident in a pool a month prior where he said he "forgot how to swim" and the lifeguard had to jump in and grab him. Muscles have memory (I have a PT education) and I figured as soon as he went through the Glider 2 Jump Start they would bump him back to the level 3. The person on the phone agreed. I also inquired about private lessons for him and got on a wait list for them. The pool is not in as good condition as it was when the facility was brand new which was surprising since this place is not old. There are already cracks forming in the concrete around the pool and the tile is dingy and looks like it needs a good cleaning. I sat in the same spot most of the week and the entire time the same filthy hand prints were on the glass, never to be cleaned. The cleaning around here just isn't happening. I have many doubts about those "clean" and "dirty" signs on the changing rooms based on the cleanliness of the pool and waiting area, I'm pretty sure the staff must just flip them back. My son was in a Jump Start with 2 brothers, one was the same age as my son, 7 and the other was 4. The older brother was a very good swimmer, better than my son. The 4 year old was not as good of a swimmer but I wouldn't expect him to be, he's 4. All week long it was the same old Goldfish it's always been, the ever revolving door of teachers. 5 days, 3 different teachers plus 1 more they were training. Consistency matters. My bigger problem than the different teachers was none of them were correcting his form when he was doing things wrong. I noticed he wasn't doing his forward crawl swim stroke right so *I* took him to the town pool after and showed him what he was doing wrong and showed him the right way to do it. I shouldn't be paying $148 for a clinic to have to show my kid the proper way to do things because the teachers are all too happy to let him doggie paddle past them. Same with the back stroke. I had to take him to the pool and show him. So as this week is happening, we also started our lessons at the Clarence Town Pool. A family membership to the Clarence Town Pool is $120 and it INCLUDES your kid's swim lessons. Twice a week, Red Cross certified, 5 life guards with 10-15 kids so it's 2-3 kids per lifeguard. The lessons are actually good and the lifeguard is actually correcting my kid's form there. So, FYI, if you live in Clarence the town Pool has a way better deal for way better lessons. Back to Jump Start... we finish our week. Very different from normal swim lessons we had, they give you zero progress reports as the week is happening. I was paying attention so I generally knew but it was different getting no feedback. The last day they give out ribbons. This is normally when they bump you up to the next level. They bumped the two brothers both to level 3 and gave my kid a BS, "I'm so cool I swam the length of the pool" ribbon. My child's face was between "wut?" and tears. He didn't understand (neither did I) why when he swam better than the 4 year old they were bumping up the 4 year old and not him. I thought, "this must be a mistake" and we stopped at the front desk. The front desk was of no assistance but told me we could ask to be re-evaluated next time. No, thanks. There won't be a next time. Take me off the wait list for the private lessons. Your facility needs to be cleaned, really cleaned. Your teachers are lazy and don't correct form and I as a parent end up doing their job. And you can't even be consistent with teachers. read more

We really liked the facility! Beautiful, warm, and lots of nice touches- like personal dressing rooms and hair dryers. The pool room is very warm as is the water. My son liked it and wants to go back. So far the instructors seemed like they knew what they were doing. They didn't accept cards yet so bring cash. But they can put your card on file if you want to sign up for lessons. read more

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from my past review to now, i am very disappointed in the swim school. between the charges during covid which took awhile to get straightened out, to the constant rotation of swim instructors, there always seems to be an issue. there was an increase in pricing post covid opening . at this current moment i am paying 400 a month to have my 3 grandchildren learn to swim. living on Long island i made arrangements to swim with them during open swim. the young lady who i spoke with on the phone assured me not a problem swimming on tues/ thursday and Friday night would be an additional charge. once we arrived i was turned away from Kyle and staff for safety reasons. terrible customer service to not try to accommodate us. i guess that's how they show their appreciation for loyal customers. we will be taking our swimming instructions for my grandchildren elsewhere. not happy. read more

What a great place for a little one to learn how to swim. It's nice to not have to compete for parking, like at YMCA southtowns. 4 kids per class. The lanes are divided in half horizontally. Teachers focus on skill building instead of just hanging out in the water. Water is heated to 90 degrees, so kids don't get cold. There are ample restrooms and changing rooms. Everything is tropical colors and extremely clean. Friendly and engaged staff working with parents and kids can be found here, unlike other facilities, where young staff is sometimes chatting amongst one another. I also appreciate that lessons are continuous, so there aren't pass/fail objectives over a short period. Kids learn at their own pace. Skip the Y and come here. read more