Australian Swim School

Not sure why I haven’t written a review sooner! My daughter has been taking lessons and on squads here for years and the experience has been great! Instructors, especially Madison and Eric are knowledgeable and encouraging. Office staff is friendly and accommodating. We’ve recommended them to many families over the years and will continue to spread the word!

My kid goes to this swim school and the teachers are really good. The parent and me class is a good started for infants and ages 3m — 3ys.

just a heads up. not all instructors are good and tentative to your child’s needs. so be careful of choosing as well. they’ve switched my son’s instructor cuz of an incident with a young male instructor not paying attention to my 3 yr old.

Love this place! Great instructors my baby really enjoys the classes. I see improvement with every session.

My son Derek has learned to be so comfortable in the water. Allison is a wonderful teacher. She really knows how to get him to focus and SWIM! My son is 4 Years old and I am super proud of his accomplishments the past 2 months being here. The class is only 30 minutes sessions. Probably just long enough to keep these kids focused. They have plenty of teachers to choose from. Definitely a recommendation!

Hello Unilocal world
I figured I should write this review for a few reasons and one of them being that I have a 4 month old. I called 3 different swim schools and left messages with the two other places and when it came time to leave a message with this swim school I hung up because I got another call at the same time, so I hung up.
Needless to say 10 minutes later I forgot about it. About 2 hours later I received a call back from this school. Mind you I thought it was from one of the other places that I left a message for.
It wasnt and honestly two weeks later they are the only ones who did call me back.
I went to the class and it was okay. I am not sure what I expected for my 4 month old but the instructor Michael was good with my baby. I gave it 4 stars because I feel that more can possibly be in done in the baby and me class. But overall the place is big, parking is a bit strange but I liked it. I will return with my husband so he can do the class and decide on if we should do the monthly class. Good luck with your search for a swim class.

Our son has been coming here for almost 3 years. This school is one of the best out there. All the instructors have been wonderful. Brittany and the office staff are great, always friendly & accommodating to our schedule needs. It feels like family here.

We started here last year when my son was 2 because this was a close and convenient swim school. We had no clue at that time that we were going to find such a gem in our back yard.
Our instructor since we began had been Ms Madison. She has the perfect mix of personality and discipline. The children enjoy her classes and as a parent I am happy to see that she pushes my child to improve.
We began in a the «parent and me» class with a large group of children which she coordinated well. Keeping your eye on 5 – 6 children at the same time even while parents are there trying their best to help teach their children how to swim, is a skill that not all instructors have.
I agree with some of the previous reviews about the lack of flexibility on scheduling and inability to get a hold of someone which is why I take away one star.
I came into this swim school hoping that my son would be able to jump into a pool and not sink to the bottom like he had cement boots on. I didn’t expect him to learn as quickly as he has doing once a week classes. I’m very proud of the progress my son has made, and I feel that I have Madison and the Australian Swim School to thank.

Heard such great things about this school and was very excited to take our trial class this morning. Such a disappointment.
I called Monday and spoke to someone in administration. The lady told me there was a Friday beginners class (my son is 2) at 10:30 am. Being that this was our first class, I asked what I should bring. She said to just bring bathing suits and a water diaper for my son. Also mentioned that I should shoe up 15 minutes prior to our class.
We showed up at 10:10. I went to the office, introduced myself to the lady at the front desk. She got up out of her chair, pointed to the bathroom and changing tables and handed me a plastic letter and told me that I was to give this to our instructor. She failed to mention that the instructor was in the pool teaching our class.
After changing my son into his bathing suit, I realized that there were no towels. I went back in the office to ask the same lady if they had towels. She said NO. I asked if we could possibly rent some since we were not told to bring our own to class. No again. I said thank you and returned to the waiting area.
After 20 minutes of walking my son around the pool area the 10:30 class was starting. I introduced myself to the instructor and she informed me that this was not a beginners class. I returned to the office and asked the same lady when my class was starting. She said I was in the 10 am class. I was shocked. I said, you didn’t think to mention that when I showed up 30 minutes ago? Her reply was, «I thought you left because you didn’t have towels.» I asked her why she thought that being that my son and I walked past her office numerous times (it’s not easy to keep a two year old boy entertained for 20 plus minutes).
I asked to speak with the manager. Her reply, «I am the manager.» She promised to have someone from Admin contact me later that day. Never happened…
I contemplated even writing this review. Things happen. People make mistakes. I get it. Would have even considered giving them another chance if this company even cared enough to contact me and make some sort of effort to apologize for this situation. Very unprofessional establishment. I will not be returning.

Joslin and Laura were very helpful in fixing a issue we had with the program we would recommend this school for any age child including toddlers. Great place to chill and swim with kids and prices are affordable.

I thought the Australian Swim School would be an awesome place to take my 6yr old son for swimming lessons. I had heard nothing but great things about the school. I should have listened to my gut when his 1^st class scheduled for ⁶⁄₁₅ was cancelled due to staffing issues. But I decided to continue. I thought a Saturday and Sunday class would be great as my husband and I are both work. So the Sunday class was great. Gary the instructor was really good and I really loved how he worked w/​my son as well as the other kids.
We were out of town the following weekend and so we were trying to schedule make up classes. SO far only 1 class and 1 make up class under our belt. Another call comes through that the his Saturday class was cancelled, then we get another call that his make up class was cancelled. Yet another cancellation follows. Here comes July enrollment time and they want us to enroll. Really, we have been cancelled on 3x in 2 weeks! I think not. We tried to schedule a make up class and we are told that there is nothing available and to wait till next Thursday to call to schedule for the following week! I’m sorry, but that is bad business in my opinion. I will take my business elsewhere. And I am not happy about it because the few instructors my son has had have been really awesome. But teachers aside, I will not pay for treatment like this.

I really like this place. My son has been attending swim lessons here for a little over a year. Although we took off five months in the winter time. All the instructors we have had seem really knowledgeable on how to teach kids how to swim. My son is five and at this point he is swimming on his own feeling more comfortable every week. We attend three times a week and have seen a big difference from when we only went once or twice a week. The girls in the front office are always nice too. I just wish their make up policy was more flexible. You have to pay 10 dollars for a make up class .T hey should at least give you one. I think now they do offer a make up if you are on auto pay but i just like to pay in person in case i need to use a different bank account. But all in all we are very happy at Australian Swim school. So I highly recommend.

I haven’t had any issues with the instructors but this place is just so unprofessional we’re calling it quits this time around.
The past few summers I did the parent and me class with my daughter. The classes were fine — nothing amazing and she didn’t learn a thing but they got her used to the water. As other reviewers have noted, their makeup policy is terrible — so terrible that we just paid week by week and spent a little more rather than having to deal with it knowing we’d miss classes here and there.
This summer we signed my daughter and her friend up for a 12:30 semi-​private class. The first one was last Saturday and we got a call at about 11:45 saying that the pool was closed. No reason given. Today we got a call at 10 a.m. saying the instructor is sick and class is cancelled… again. Both weeks we tried calling back and just got a message saying their mail box is full.
Thankfully we hadn’t paid them anything yet (because we haven’t been there — classes keep getting cancelled!) so we’re going to take classes somewhere else.

I have been to the Australian Swim School for years with my son (now 5, started at 9 months) and my son, (now 2.5, started at 9) months. We have loved this place for a long time which is why we have stayed for so long. Madison, John, Omar and Chris are all good teachers. So, that’s the good stuff.
Recently though, I noticed that my son stopped enjoying swim class when Shauna became his teacher. She lacks personality, doesn’t smile and isn’t advancing my son’s skills beyond where he’s at. I have voiced my concerns about Shauna multiple times, and to the management’s credit, they tried to address the problem by coaching Shauna. Still, this isn’t enough. After 4 consecutive years of swim classes here, I am dropping my son from the program because they won’t change out this teacher, and there isn’t another time over the weekend when both my kids can have their classes simultaneously. It’s really too bad as up until this problem, I wouldn’t have said a bad thing about this place.
In summary — your teacher does matter. Stick with those I named and you’ll be happy.

It works. That’s the simplest review I can give. I have two kids (a 5 year-​old and a 10 year-​old) who both had previous swimming instructors. They got a great base of knowledge from this teacher, but grew too old to take classes from her. So we moved to the Australian Swim School. The teachers, for the most part in their early 20s, that we have had are thoughtful, considerate, sweet, but don’t let the kids off the hook if they are too afraid to try something. They push them just enough. We particularly love Madison and Chris, but everyone has been great.
The only reason they get 4 stars instead of 5 is that the policies are a bit strange — you can’t change to a different schedule until one week before the next month, even if there’s space. It’s hard to reach them sometimes — an answering machine answers 99% of the time I call. If there’s some reason the pool is shut down you can make up a class for free, but if you can’t find another day in your schedule you don’t get your money back since you pay monthly. I wouldn’t choose these policies, but I suppose every business has to control inventory some way.
Overall, we recommend the Australian Swim School (I would use an acronym, but it would be ASS), and have kept our kids there for a year and intend to continue.

if i could give 0 stars i would.
the place is dirty and has not been maintain at all
the instructor are kids that barley know how to swim
after some times i wanna to stop the lesson’s but the are already charged my c. c for the next month, when i ask them the reverse charge the c. c the say the will send me a ck. 3 month after i never did .when i am calling to ask about my money there is a guy named Jason screaming and swearing at me this is by far the ruddiest guy i ever needed to handle he must be the owner other wise i couldn’t talk the way is talking and if he is not the owner the owner must do something about him .
save your self from that school its treble if you in the tarzana area go ck the YMCA different class really hope you will get my warning!!!

I’d been taking my child here for over a year now… amazing progress. We’ve been so fortunate to have Omar… I’ve seen some other instructors during the busy summer months, and they seem good, but he’s AMAZING with our child. He has a great attitude, always smiling, you can tell he has fun with it.
As a parent, the scary part for me was, at first, my child going under water. They start slowly and before you know it, your child is okay with it. Mine, now, loves going under, almost too much! They warm your child up with some songs, then some fun exercises, then some swim drills to get them to use their arms and legs, then winding down with toys and more songs. Rarely do I see screaming kids, most are really into it.
I saw some reviews that I’m not sure if there policy has changed or if they’re misinformed. There definitely is a change area, a big one; men’s and women’s. There are four showers in the men’s room (which can get boiling hot if you turn it too far, so be careful) as well as racks, benches, and bathrooms. There is also a heated, padded 10′ changing table near the pool, for kids with diapers. There are also shoe cubbies under that too.
The make-​up policy isn’t the best though… it’s $ 10 unless your class falls on a holiday or they cancel it the day of. If you have any conflict with your schedule (even with notice beforehand), you’re stuck paying if you want to make-​up that class. What is ironic is that they’ve cancelled a number of times for various reasons and at the last second, usually after I’ve talked about class all morning and my child is super excited. To me, it should be no fees if you call ahead with enough time, not leaving them hanging, then you should be able to book a class that has an open space… for FREE. Or, if they want to charge $ 10 when it’s on you, when it’s on them, they should give you the option of getting tuition back.
Anyway… still, it’s far cheaper than most places, even most YMCA’s. It’s $ 69 a month and I think really worth it. I’m not sure what the other parent experienced about getting charged some fee or something but I just returned after a couple months off (traveling) and there were no fees or anything, just picked right back up.
I’d totally recommend… and make sure to request Omar.

I took my 3 yr old here over the summer. This is our first swim school and we don’t have many complaints at all; mostly praise.
The instructors are friendly and VERY patient with the toddlers.
My daughter began this class at the beginning of Summer with the swim ability of a water logged cat and now will put Phelps to shame.
OK well she can at least swim half the width of an Olympic size pool under water.
It’s enough to pull your own hair out with raising one child let alone the four person classes the swim teachers have to manage all day whilst keeping them from drowning and paddling off in different directions. And still they keep a smile on their face.
The main thing I wanted her to get out of this class was some safety skills and to have fun. Don’t expect a toddler to learn the butterfly stroke… just have fun with it.

I must declare first that this is the first swim school i ever went to. I take my son for parent and me class.
This is a pretty good swim school. The teachers are good and mostly attentive when 2 – 3 kids per group. Rates are reasonable.
Some things I hate about this place:
No changing room.
Crapy and smelly toilets.
Makeup policy sucks.

My daughter started here when she was an infant and is still enjoying it 3 years later. She loved the Parent & Me class and has since graduated to the Baby Grads class. I love that they keep the classes small (3 kids per Baby Grad class) and the teachers are execellent. Madison is very patient when my little one doesn’t want to pay attention and it shows that her persistence has paid off because my daughter has improved leaps and bounds. Thanks for the great work!