★ 1

TLDR: stay clear of this place, unless you like paying thousands for glorified day care.

British Swim School’s Vallejo location, run by Cheronda A. and team, advertise their program as being able to “instilling water survival skills that save lives”. After 17 months (64 lessons) and $2500 down the drain, we pulled our son from this program due to it being more akin to an aquatic day care (with you as the parent remaining present) than a swim program.

The people at the school are nice enough interpersonally, but these are the red flags to notice:
- After an initial few weeks you stop getting feedback, which when given is always verbally and never through skill progress item in the British Swim School’s app. If you challenge the owner (Cheronda A.) on this, you will be gaslighted in there being more feedback than there actually is, and that it is their policy to only give verbal feedback versus using the app for what it is intended.
- You’ll notice your child will have many different instructors throughout lessons, with great variety of seniority as instructors.
- You’re paying about $40 for a 30min session, but on avg. there are 4 kids per classes, meaning even if you round up that’s $40 for 10 minutes of instruction, as in the 64 “lessons” we paid for equates to having paid $2500 for less than 11 hours of instruction.
- The lessons are utterly simple snd repetitive, and not lessons at all, the same 4 simple things are just endlessly repeated without any coaching or guidance from the instructors towards the child as to what to do different or how to improve.
- The final straw, when you confront them on the inadequacies listed above, they will a) gaslight you in terms of feedback cycles, but much much worse, b) blame the lack of results on your child.

In summary, this school will happily take your money for providing very little, and in terms of practical outcomes are operating in opposition of their mission statement.

Source: Google

★ 5

Source: Google

★ 5

Love this swim school! My son has some sensory and motor challenges and he has done so well here. He has been coming since he was 7 and now is 11 and can swim better than me! Everyone is so friendly and understanding. His teacher, Little, and deck supervisor, Kaitlyn, always take the time to give him tips and help him be his best! The makeup system and membership hold is especially helpful for busy families.

Source: Google

★ 5

Source: Google

★ 5

Source: Google

★ 5

Source: Google

★ 5

My son loves going to the El Cerrito Gym , the teacher are nice and the classes are fun .

Source: Google

★ 5

The teachers at this facility are top notch. The British Swim School methodology manages to be both fun and effective. My daughter is encouraged to face her fears and learn how to swim and survive with step by step instructions. The lessons here are paying huge dividends.

Source: Google

★ 5

Fantastic teachers and staff. Classes are easy to schedule and make up. Highly recommend!

Source: Google

★ 5

Source: Google

★ 5

Source: Google

★ 5

Source: Google

★ 1

Let me echo what others (eg. Jennifer Nakato) below said - ridiculously overpriced for 30min, contracts lock you in for the month to ensure that you always pay more then what you use, holidays are flat out canceled without the opportunity to make up (so you pay again for nothing), most instructors are kids and completely unprepared for the job (except Ariel), the pool is cold and the facilities grimy, and you’re kid is lucky to get 5 minutes mediocre attention. There’s nothing to recommend here but to get swim lessons elsewhere.

Source: Google

★ 5

We like that our kids are learning actual safety skills like floating on their back and climbing out of the pool on their own. Also the app is very convenient and the staff-both the teacher and the office and at the lessons are responsive, friendly and have their act together.

Source: Google

★ 1

I wish I’d read other reviews before wasting my money on these swim lessons. Please read!!

It’s a COLD and SMALL POOL, chaotic environment where 3+ classes are going on in ONE LANE. It’s impossible for children to learn to swim under these conditions. Plus, the instructors are young, inexperienced and clearly in over their heads.

Big promises were made, a $114 non-refundable “registration fee” was paid… yet the instructors don’t remember who you are, aren’t consistent, and the facilities are unimpressive.

These lessons are ridiculously overpriced for the quality you receive!!!

We were signed up for 4 classes, and out of the 4, 1 was cancelled last minute and 2 had different instructors. There was no consistency.

Don’t waste your time or money!!!

Source: Google

★ 1

This swim school is ridiculously overpriced for the quality of lessons you receive. It’s $55 for a 30 min lesson with 4 kids per session which means each child gets maybe 10 min in the water, if that.

It’s in 24 hour fitness and the lessons are in one lane of the pool only and there are many staff people standing around doing absolutely nothing. My kid’s teacher was kind, but after 3 months of paying for classes we decided to go elsewhere. Additionally, because we cancelled, we were told we can’t reschedule make up lessons for sessions we missed. What a waste of money, don’t sign your kids up for lessons here.

Source: Google

★ 3

Attended one class, and while the instruction seemed fine the fact that the pool and area was shared with general public didn’t create a safe family space for us. ( not wanting to go into detail about unpleasant interaction we had with a gym user). Luckily, the manager understood and canceled the remainder of our classes.

Source: Google

★ 5

From the start I found the program organized, responsive and very focused on the needs of individual kids. I’ve been thrilled so far with the quality of teaching and the flexibility and patience of the entire school.

Source: Google

★ 5

Edit: I'm changing my review from 4 to 5 stars because I can't think of anything i am dissatisfied with!

We're really pleased with the progress our son has made through his lessons and he now loves to swim! We think we started really seeing progress when he started having a consistent instructor (Karima, who is awesome) and started coming twice a week. Any difficulty I have had with enrollment or scheduling through the app has been quickly resolved by emailing for support. I'm so glad BSS opened up at the El Cerrito location!

Source: Google