EMSA Dawn House Rainworth, Mansfield NG21 0DG

"My little boy started with EMSA when he was just a few weeks old. He’s now 2 and still loves swimming, it’s definitely his favourite thing to do. He’s learnt so much and is so confident in the water, he can’t wait to get off my arms and swim on his own."

"EMSA is fantastic, the swimming teachers are brilliant and they put their all into teaching the children. My son (7 year old) started emsa with a lack of water confidence, after 1 term his confidence has improved greatly and he actually now enjoys swimming. The swimming teachers are professional and very friendly to both parents and swimmers. I couldn't ask for a better swimming class for both my sons (7 and 3 year old)."

"We started swimming with our little boy when he was just 8 weeks old and my goodness his progression has been amazing already! He has come on massively, he is now 22 weeks and he is much more confident and relaxed in the water. Vicky really takes her time with the children and she is very good at encouraging and bringing on each child using specific toys or songs to help. My son is starting to kick and splash when in the water and he is now able to go underwater. I am so glad that this was a step by step process and that he wasn’t forced to be dunked or pushed under the water first time as I know a lot of other places do this and it was our nightmare, but they have slowly introduced going underwater and use key words so our son knows when he is going to go underwater and closes his eyes and gets himself ready accordingly. The structure of the lessons is really clear and adaptations are set where needed due to challenging some children and also supporting others who may be younger or less experienced. I love that the beginning and end of the lessons are the same each week so that the children recognise and understand the expectations. I also think that the 1-1 time that is spent with the children really allows the teacher to develop individuals. When the 1-1 swim with the teacher is happening, there is always something that is set for the other parents and babies, such as star float time or water splashing to get them used to the water. I cannot recommend EMSA enough! They are incredible at what they do and I cannot thank them enough for their support in not only making our son more confident and developing his water skills but also developingus in what we can do to encourage and further his swimming on!"

"I have been taking my daughter (then 3yrs old) to emsa dawn house for a few terms now. My daughter has a big fear of water and struggles with water being on her face. Since the very first lesson the instructor has been nothing but patient with her, not pushing her to do things she is uncomfortable with and adapting the things she teaches to make my daughter comfortable, feel safe and most of all trust her instructor completely. I have seen a big difference in my daughters confidence and ability in the water. Even though she does not have a 1-2-1 lesson and is in a class with a maximum of 3 other children I feel she gets plenty of time not only in the pool but being taught how to behaviour in and around water safely. Each week my daughter looks forward to her lessons and I see improvements each week, from now putting parts of her face in the water to trusting that if her instructor lets go she is safe. I feel that it is a great value for money and what’s more my daughter is gaining a valuable life skill at such a young age. I can’t thank the team at emsa dawn house enough, you all do a wonderful job and my daughter adores you all. Thank you."

"I have been considering writing this review for a few weeks, I hadn’t previously due to family attending, however after their latest class experience, which has pushed them to no longer attend, I feel I can and should now share. I took my daughter Lyla here as my eldest niece enjoyed classes, and my youngest niece was about to start so we decided to join. First lesson - Good, I didn’t notice any issues, the supply teacher at this lesson showed plenty of patience with my 3 year old who was certainly acting her age with few tears at the beginning and being easily being distracted. I was disappointed to learn that within the half an hour lesson my daughter would be sat on the side for 20 mins as the half hour was shared between 3 children - I did know the lesson was for 3 but I assumed there would be more group activities rather than split time, this may be normal I’m unsure as this was my daughters first experience. Second lesson - This time with her “normal” teacher. Only two children (Lyla and my niece) on this occasion but still 50% of time was spent on the poolside, not great but as I expected based on the first lesson. During the lesson the instructor had been trying to teach the girls front crawl, showing them how to scoop the water, for this she let them pick a rubber duck each for them to reach to grab getting their arms used to the motions. However when it was my nieces turn and Lyla was left sat on the side they left her with the duck. The instructor then swam with my niece to the opposite end of the pool, which is totally normal for them. However my daughter dropped her duck and began to reach in for it, which seemed incredibly dangerous as there was no way any of the instructors in the water could reach her if she fell in, I don’t think I had noticed the danger or how far away the instructors were until this incident, I told my daughter to leave the duck and turned to my brother and said “I’ll end up in there, there’s no way they’d get to her if she fell in”. From that point I noticed that the girls were left in these dangerous situations each time the other child was swimming. Neither child could swim at all, and both children were left on the side whilst the other swam, they do not use armbands here so the girls would not have been able to help themselves in any way. It is my strong opinion that a life guard should be on the side nearby incase something should happen however this was not the case. Another thing I didn’t particularly like was the instructors clear annoyance at Lyla, she seemed frustrated with Lyla throughout the lesson and in my opinion Lyla was fairly behaved for her age and she had been much more calm and focused than the first lesson. The instructor also told my daughter off for crying later in the lesson - now I’m not typically a sensitive parent however my daughter was crying because she was scared for her safety after being asked to jump into the deep end. She started by simply saying no, she repeated herself at least 5 times getting more emotional each time and when the teacher pushed she cried. To be honest I think she had a genuine fear and I don’t think that’s a reason to be spoken to harshly. Once I got involved and told my daughter that if the teacher didn’t catch her I would jump in and catch her myself, she felt safe, stopped crying and jumped in. I feel like more patience and positive encouragement should have been used here by the instructor. I won’t go into details about why my family no longer attend as that is their story to tell but what I will say is that my fear of the girls being unsafe and my expectation that I’d have ended up jumping in the pool was realised by my sister in law. To summaries I think £13 for potentially 10 mins pool time is to high, I think that some of the instructors may need to learn how to encourage a child better and most importantly I feel that safety here is severely lacking for the youngest swimmers, a non swimming child should not be left unattended."