(Please take time to read this carefully)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q. Does my child need armbands? A. No, although if your child wants to wear armbands we will work with them & remove them as soon as possible. Q. Can we sit on the poolside? A. All spectators must sit upstairs please. Exceptions to this are preschool children, and any children with special needs or medical conditions. Please note that NO outdoor shoes are to be worn further than the reception area. Blue overshoes are available from just inside the front door. Q. Should my child eat before swimming? A. No. You shouldn't eat less than an hour before going swimming. Eating later than this can cause cramp and vomiting. PLEASE DON'T EAT BEFORE SWIMMING. Q Can we encourage our children during lessons? A. We encourage clapping and cheering if you think any child has done well. Q. Can we take photographs or videos? A. Due to child protection we can’ allow any photos or videos to be taken during lessons. We can arrange for a photo session, which also includes underwater photos and videos. Please ask at reception for details. Q. Can anyone use the gym, spa or steam room or flabelos during the lesson? A. If you hold a current membership card you can use them free of charge. If you don’ have a membership card you can pay as you go, £4 per person per session, or you can have a special rate top up membership of £11.50 per month. You will need to arrange for an induction or sign a disclaimer - please ask at reception for details. Q. Can we use the swimming pool outside of lesson times? A. Each person who has a valid membership card can use it free of charge. If you don’ have a membership card, you can pay as you go, £4 per person per session (Under 3’ go in free of charge). Sessions are subject to pool availability. Please ask at reception for available times. Q. Should I take my child swimming in between lessons? A. Yes, the more time and experience a child has in the water, the quicker their confidence will build and the quicker they will improve. Q. How long will it take for my child to learn to swim? A. Every child is different and develops at different times. The earliest we expect to see children able to swim unaided & tread water is 2 years if they have been coming since they were a baby. Most children should be able to swim 10m easily on their front and back by their 5th birthday, if they have consistently had lessons since a baby. Q. How long should I keep my child in the swim school. A. This depends on how far you want to take their swimming. We would recommend reaching and passing Stage 7, by which time your child will be a strong and competent swimmer. As an absolute minimum, they should reach and pass Stage 5. If they want to go on further than this, we can take them up to Stage 10 through our Swim Academy. We have children who have been in the swim school for over 10 years, who are now very competent swimmers. We have children who go on to competitive swimming, or synchro and some who want to continue to build their water skills and swim for fitness, or enhance their surf lifesaving performances. Q. My child is very apprehensive or tearful about coming swimming. What should I do? A. Please let a member of staff know if you have problems getting your child into the swimming lessons. It is quite common for children to be apprehensive and even have a crisis of confidence well into their swimming lessons. But perseverance is the best way forward. It helps us to know of any problems your child may be experiencing, or may have experienced which may need careful nurturing. Please bring to our attention anything you feel is relevant. Details will be treated with the utmost discretion and confidentiality. We have parents who would be willing to talk to you about their own experiences if you need reassurance that your child should stay in lessons. Please ask at reception if you need any assistance with this. DIRECT DEBITS We are unable to confirm your booking until a direct debit has been set up. Once you set up your direct debit, we will do the rest for you and you will automatically be rebooked every term until you notify us that you wish to cancel. As a general rule, payments are taken as follows: Spring Term –paid for in Dec, Jan, Feb and Mar Summer Term –paid for in Apr, May, Jun, Jul Autumn Term –paid for in Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov For the monthly amount, we provide a minimum of 34 lessons per year during our term times, plus a minimum of 2 certificates per year, awarded at the end of the summer term and the autumn term. Additional certificates will be awarded to children at the end of the Spring Term who have passed a specific stage or swum a noticeable rainbow award distance. The term dates determine how many lessons are in each term and the term dates will be sent to you prior to the term starting. Unfortunately, there is no refund for any lessons you can’ or choose not to attend. If you have a private lesson, you can give the lesson to someone else if you are unable to make it. Please let the teacher know in advance, so they can plan the lesson accordingly. If you are unable to make your private lesson, please let us know as we have people waiting for private lessons and we may be able to sell your lesson for you. We will credit you 50% of the lesson if we manage to sell your slot. Any lessons during the holiday periods are bookable and payable separately. If you sign up after the month where a direct debit is due to be taken, you may have to make a catch up payment on your first payment. If you want to change your type of lesson, please inform us by email. If you want to change your type of lesson or your availability (eg. If your child is starting school in September and you can no longer do day time lessons), please inform us by half term of the term before you would like the change, as we start taking bookings for the next term from this date. PRE-SWIM SHOWER All clients are required to have a pre-swim shower before entering the pool. Anyone who hasn’t had a shower will be turned back before being allowed to enter the pool. Please be considerate of others and keep your showers short as there is a limited supply of warm water. BEHAVIOUR Please respect all users of the facilities. Fitness 4 U doesn’t allow aggressive behaviour or bullying. We may ask children and/or adults to leave who behave in this manner. There will be no refund of any unused fees in these circumstances. If at any time you have any concerns with any clients within the building, please feel free to contact a member of staff or send an email. Your comments will be dealt with in the strictest confidence. MOBILE TELEPHONES, TABLETS AND CAMERAS No photography is permitted of the children swimming in the pool. Please also refrain from using mobile telephones on poolside or on the balcony viewing area, use is permitted only in the lounge area upstairs. We do offer underwater photography which can be booked at reception. REBOOKING FOR NEXT TERM OR STOPPING LESSONS If you pay by direct debit, and you don’ have any changes to your circumstances or availability, you don’ need to re-enrol each term as we will automatically do this for you until you tell us that you would like to stop lessons. If you want to stop, please give us 1 month notice in writing (email acceptable) and we will sort this out for you. If you have someone new who wants to start lessons, the forms for the next term normally come out around the half term before the start of the next term and are available from reception. Places are allocated on a first come first served basis, with priority being given to those people who pay by direct debit. If you would like to set up a direct debit, please see the link on the booking form, or ask at reception. ASSESSMENTS We have assessment weeks towards the end of term. Please don’t feel it necessary to put pressure on your children during these assessment weeks. These tests are for the teachers, to get an accurate record of each child’ achievement and to award each child accordingly. We never “ail”a child on assessment weeks because there are so many awards they are aiming for. We also use the test results to determine which children are best suited together for the following term, as well as deciding who to invite to our Swim Academy in the 25m pool at Truro School. Whilst we want children to try their best, we don’ want them to feel under any pressure, because we also want to teach the children that swimming is fun. Certificates are awarded to every child that has attended regularly at the end of the Summer Term and the Autumn Term. There are interim certificates given out for anyone who passes their Stage Award around Easter and rainbow Awards are tested regularly on a Sunday morning at Truro School Pool. If your child has passed stage 2 and gained their 10m certificate they can try for a rainbow award in the 25m pool. Please may we also ask that you don’ put any pressure on any teacher to pass any child(ren) through any award if they are not ready. All our teachers have a set standard for assessing the children and awarding certificates, to ensure that children become competent swimmers with good technique and a variety of other water skills. If children are passed through certificates before they are ready, they will only struggle later on in the awards scheme. We have a very good reputation with the local swimming clubs where they know if Fitness 4 U recommends a swimmer to them, they will have very good technique and the club will have to do very little work to get them to competition standard. We often get swimmers referred back to us by the clubs, from other swim schools, who do not have the required technique for the swimming club. This is a reputation we want to uphold. As a general rule, children can swim at St Columb Major pool until they pass their Stage 5 award. They can continue to learn the Stage 6 skills but will need to be tested in the 25m pool, due to the nature of some of the requirements. After they reach Stage 5, they will be invited to attend our Swim Academy sessions at Truro School Pool, which are on an invitation only basis. The test weeks should only be noticeable to children in Groups 2-3 upwards. For Parent and Baby/Toddler Groups, Ability 0-1 and 1-2 the children probably won’ even realise they are being tested, but will just be told that we are seeing what certificate they will get at the end of term in case they want to try a little bit harder than normal. If a child misses a test week, we do continuous assessments throughout the term, and where a child has obviously excelled to the next level through regular lessons, we can pass them through based on this. This is however very rare. We are on a very tight timescale for testing, ordering, writing and awarding certificates, so anything that children achieve after the test weeks won’ be awarded until the following term, unless you specifically ask for it to be ordered. SPECTATORS Please could remind parents that only parents of preschool age children and/or children with medical conditions that may require urgent intervention, may sit on the poolside. Please could all other spectators please sit upstairs. The noise level/distraction to children increases dramatically with parents on poolside, so could we please ask that any parents on poolside keep conversations to a minimum during lessons. No food on poolside please. OUTDOOR SHOES No outdoor shoes are allowed past the reception area. Blue overshoes are provided if you don’ want to remove your shoes. These are single use, so please discard after use. Thank you for your assistance in this. LOST PROPERTY We have a lost property box located opposite reception. Sometimes if items are wet, we will hang them elsewhere to dry. Please ask if you have lost anything. Anything that is left in the lost property box after the end of each term will be given to charity. PERSONAL BELONGINGS Lockers are provided on site, please DO NOT leave your belongings in the changing rooms so that the changing rooms are available for others to use. Any items left in the changing rooms may be removed. No liability can be taken for any items lost or stolen on the premises. If you are looking for a cubicle and find clothes/belongings in one, please feel free to move them to the grey plastic drawers, or a locker. REFUNDS Sorry, but no refunds once you have submitted your form, unless we are unable to allocate you a place, then we will arrange a full refund. On the discretion of the management, we may offer you a refund less a 25% admin fee if you choose to cancel your place prior to the term. If your child has a private lesson you may offer it to a friend, or we can try and fill it for you. POOL SHARING One to one lessons may share the pool with groups or other one to one lessons. Groups may share the pool with private lessons or other groups. SICKNESS AND CANCELLATIONS There are no refunds or replacement lessons available if you are unable to attend for sickness or holiday cancellations. If we cancel a lesson, we will do our upmost to offer you a replacement lesson, if not we will credit you for that lesson. At the discretion of the management, we may offer replacement lessons where someone is unable to go in the water for a number of weeks, such as a broken bone, perforated ear drum etc. If your child has been ill, particularly with sickness or diarrhoea, please leave 48 hours, for any other medical conditions please contact us for advice and guidance. SUPERVISION OF CHILDREN Please could you supervise your children at all times when they are not in their swimming lesson, in particular in the play room. The responsibility of the staff supervising children is only during the lesson. The rest of the time the responsibility lies with the adult who brought the child(ren) to the swimming pool. Use of the play room is entirely at your own risk. Please note the car park is used for other businesses and there are large vehicles that regularly attend the site. The car park is not to be used as a playground and children must be supervised at all times whilst in the car park. No dogs on site please. FIRST AID There will always be a first aider on site, so please contact a member of staff for serious incidents. There is a first aid box with emergency supplies by the front door and also one in the reception office. If you use anything from the first aid box by the door, please leave a note at reception, so that we can ensure supplies don’ run low. FIRE EXITS The fire call points are located upstairs, near the top of the stairs; by the front door and by the back door. Exit routes are signposted by illuminated green arrows. Evacuation procedures will be placed above each call point and fire exit. The fire exits are located by reception and by the spa area. The assembly point is near the entrance to the car park by the Lanvale Estates Sign. Please could you ensure that you complete the signing book for everyone who enters the building so that we know how many people are in the building. Please also make sure you sign out on departure. If you don’ sign in, we won’ know you are in the building and if you don’ sign out, we may be looking for you unnecessarily. Could you please also make sure you only sign yourself out and not another person, as will give us a false record of who is in the building at any one time. In the event of a fire, please follow the green arrowed lights that will work in an emergency. Signs are in place at each evacuation point. Thank you from the Fitness 4 U Team.