Happy swimmer testimonials
SwimSafer Holidays
The picture is of a charter speedboat my family were travelling on in Phuket, Thailand during the recent christmas holidays.
As you can see we were involved in a major incident and our boat sank rapidly in deep water. A very scary and panicked situation developed and we had to abandon ship quickly. Fortunately we were lucky to be rescued by another passing vessel and thankfully all of us returned safe and well.
My husband and I would like to thank you for not only teaching our children to swim confidently but also additional boat safety: as the swim in your clothes and rope rescue lessons proved invaluable during this experience. Our two girls, whilst frightened as events unfolded, were confident in their ability to jump from the boat into choppy seas with a life vest on and then followed instructions to pull themselves safely to the rescue boar via the rope.
It is very hard to express in words our thanks as the image of our children in the middle of the ocean is one that will stay with us forever. Significantly, our daughter Megan's first words once safely rescued were "wait till Brad hears I did a real life boat to boat rescue and swam in the ocean". Her pride in her ability to assist in her own rescue has allowed her to recover from the experience quicker than other children who had not had swimming lessons.
Thank you very much for the great job you do in teaching kids to swim confidently. Whilst we would always wish that the above events are never encountered by anyone else, please take great pride tat your swimming program greatly assisted our children to safely work through a life threatening experience.
Kind regards,
Phillip and Susan Barnes
Teaching a whole family from pre - school to squad
Excitement after frustration
Inclusive swimming lessons for each child's individual needs
Dear Phil,
It is with great thanks that I write to provide you with feedback and acknowledgement in relation to our fantastic experience at your swim school.
My daughter Ella is 4 years old. Ella suffers from developmental coordination disorder and finds motor activities particularly challenging. Ella had been enrolled at a swim school in Essendon for almost 2 years. We had a number of issues with Ella’s self confidence in this setting due to her clumsiness and the tendency for teachers to laugh at her. No matter how innocent this may have been, Ella became extremely self conscious, lacking in self confidence and withdrawn during swimming classes.
We enrolled at Moonee Ponds with your team in Term 1 this year and Isabella is our swimming teacher (Tuesday morning at 9.00am). Isabella is a fantastic teacher. She has the ability to keep the lesson on a positive trajectory, challenging the children without overwhelming them, managing challenging behaviours and providing positive reinforcement to promote healthy self esteem and improve participation. I have been so overwhelmed with joy to see the improvement in Ella over the last 2 terms and just delighted to see her confidence develop along with her willingness to try new activities and learn to swim. The best part about this experience is that the confidence Ella gains from attending swimming class with Isabella carries over throughout the day at home and at kinder.
I would also like to make mention of the fact that Gwen was fantastic in helping us choose an appropriate swimming class for Ella. She took our previous experiences seriously, gave me confidence we were making the right decision in moving Ella to Moonee Ponds and has noticed Ella’s progress along the way providing us with further encouragement. She also gave me the tip about transitioning Ella to a shower (rather than a bath) to assist with her confidence in putting her head under water. Within one week of making this transition there were huge improvements and we extend our thanks to Gwen also.
Our experience has been outstanding and we hope you can share this feedback with your team.
Many thanks,
Sarah Kousal
From learning to swim to water polo and gold medals at the championships
“Our two eldest children learnt to swim at Van Dyk's and have continued to swim and also play waterpolo. Bethany our eldest, won 3 gold and 2 bronze medals at the National School Swimming Championships last year as an 11 year old. Two of the gold medals were in individual events. She continues to have several current fastest times in Australia. Our youngest son Hamish could easily swim un-aided at the age of two, I believe due to Van Dyk's technique of not using flotation aids. I would like to thank all the staff at Van Dyk's, I credit them for the great grounding that has lead to our kids current swimming level.” Steve Dalgleish
"Our little boy loves his lessons here!"
Our little boy just loves his lessons here! When he was not thriving in his lessons initially, the instructor suggested we change our lesson time and voilà he has never been happier! He has so much fun. The staff have excellent knowledge and wonderful enthusiasm toward learning. We went to "the other one down the road" initially and Van Dyke though smaller, gave 200% compared with the local competitor.
"We both really look forward to the class each week"
The teachers at Sydenham Street are fantastic - my little girl has been attending lessons there since she was 6 months old, and we both really look forward to the class each week!