Flamingo FAQ's & Answers
We hope that this page will help answer some of the questions that you may have about our services. If you have a question that is not answered here, please let us know through our contact form. Our Facebook page also contains some awesome information!
Backyard Swimming Lessons:
Our swim instructors can teach children ages 4 months – 14 years old.
At this time we do not offer backyard swim instruction for adults.
Our semi-private lessons are for 2-3 swimmers of similar swimming ability. We do not put together swimmers for semi-private lessons so clients are responsible for signing up two-three swimmers for these types of classes. Only have one swimmer, sign up for our private lessons!
Level skills are constantly evaluated, and once a child is able to complete each skill to the level’s requirements, they will receive a passing report card. Level progression will depend on many factors: including how frequently a child attends lessons, how long their lessons are, whether the lessons are private or semi-private, whether the child has any fears of the water, etc.
If you have questions about your child’s progress within a level, please speak with your instructor at the end of a lesson, and they will be happy to provide you with an update.
It is completely up to clients to choose to reschedule their lesson by the 4 hour cut-off time if they do not wish to have their scheduled lesson. This includes if it is supposed to rain, thunderstorm, be too chilly to swim, etc. Lessons will proceed as scheduled unless a client reschedules or cancels the lessons. If our instructor is at your house and the weather becomes unsafe for swimming (i.e. thunderstorm), they will end the lesson. Any remaining time left in the appointment, will be credited to your client account at face value. Please note there is a 30 minute minimum applicable (i.e. if you have a 1 hour booking and only get 20 mins of swimming, your account will be credited for 30 minutes).
Lessons can be cancelled / rescheduled online through our booking system, by sending us an email, or by calling our office. Our booking system is programmed to send out 24 hour & 6 hour appointment reminders to help remind clients of their upcoming appointments.
If we receive adequate cancellation notice (4+ hours), clients will be able to reschedule their cancelled lesson to a later date/time in the summer at no cost. If a backyard lesson is scheduled to start at 11:00 am or earlier, notice must be given no later than 7:30 am if you wish to not be charged to cancel or reschedule the lesson. If a minimum of 4 hours notice is NOT provided, the lesson will continue as scheduled or if the client does not want the lesson to take place, they can forfeit the lesson (no free rescheduling will be allowed). Forfeited lessons will only be allowed to be rescheduled upon payment of our backyard $39 + HST per hour rescheduling fee.
You have up to 4 hours prior to your swimming lesson to cancel the service through our booking system, Acuity. If 4 hours notice is given, you will be allowed to reschedule the service at no cost. After the 4 hour cut-off time, please call our office to cancel the service if needed (as Acuity will no longer let you change that service). The service will not be allowed to be rescheduled without payment of our $39 + HST per hour rescheduling fee.
Refund Policy: When requested, refunds will be provided minus a 25% administration fee. Cancelled lessons will by default remain as account credits unless a refund is explicitly requested; credits never expire. NOTE: Flamingo Deal purchases have a different refund policy; see booking system for more details.
Lesson Modification: Just as we allow clients to reschedule lessons for any reason, we reserve the right to cancel / reschedule lessons or adjust instructors as needed.
Cancellation and Rescheduling Policy:
You have up to 4 hours prior to your swimming lesson to cancel the service through our booking system, Acuity. If 4 hours notice is given, you will be allowed to reschedule the service at no cost. After the 4 hour cut-off time, please call or email our office to cancel the service if needed (as Acuity will no longer let you change that service). The service will not be allowed to be rescheduled without payment of our $39 + HST per hour rescheduling fee.
Instructor Lesson Feedback:
As our instructors are on a structured schedule, if you wish to receive detailed feedback after your child’s swim lesson, please notify the instructor at the beginning of the lesson and they will end the lesson early in order to provide the feedback. Instructors do need to leave your house at the end of your booked lesson. They will not be able to stay late after the lesson to provide the feedback.
Backyard Lifeguarding & Birthday Parties:
Parties are always hectic – lots going on and as the party host, you will have numerous other tasks to take care of. By hiring one of our lifeguards, you can have the piece of mind knowing that all the swimmers are having fun safely.
Even if there are other parents near the pool, nothing can replace having a dedicated set of eyes on the pool. When there are lots of parents around, everyone thinks that someone else is watching their child. Our lifeguards have had to jump in a rescue a child that was right beside the parent in the pool. On example of this would be when a parent was chatting with another parent sitting on a deck chair. The parent in the water didn’t notice that their child had slipped into the deep-end. Our lifeguard had to jump in and pull the child to safety as the child was already submerged seconds after slipping down the slope towards the deep-end.
We can lifeguard pool parties of up to 30 swimmers (in the pool at the same time). Our lifeguard to swimmer ratio is 1:15. So if you have 15 or less swimmers, you should hire one lifeguard. If you are having 15 – 30 swimmers, you should book two lifeguards.
– No running around the pool
– No pushing in or around the pool
– No standing on any pool floats or toys
– Only one person on the diving board at a time
In addition to the above rules, please note that our lifeguards will have the sole discretion to decide what entries are allowed into the pool as it will depend on the size and depth of your pool (as well as the number of swimmers in the pool). At no time will flips of any type be allowed. Dives and other jumps into the deep end will be up to your lifeguard’s discretion.
Non-swimmers and swimmers who cannot pass the swim test must remain in the shallow end. Our lifeguards reserve the right to request a child to wear a flotation device if they feel like the child would be in danger by not wearing one.
Your lifeguard will chat with you when they arrive at your house and can discuss if there are any additional rules you would like enforced.
You must provide us with a minimum of 24 hours notice if you would like to cancel or reschedule your party. If we receive this notice, you will be allowed to reschedule the party to another date during the summer at no cost. If you do not want to reschedule the party, you will be refunded the cost of the party minus our $25 administration fee.
If the weather is poor the day of your party, we will not be able to provide a refund or a time/date change if the mandatory 24 hours notice is not given.
When we send lifeguards to your pool, they will only be responsible for ensuring that all swimmers follow the rules. Watching the pool is a full-time job so if you only purchase our lifeguarding service, your lifeguard will not be able to run any games during the party.
If you book our Pool Birthday Party service, we will send two lifeguards to your party. One lifeguard will focus on ensuring that all swimmers are following the rules while the other lifeguard facilitates games to keep all the swimmers happy. We don’t want anyone to be left out of the fun!
Company Policies & Booking System:
Absolutely no photography is allowed unless consent is received from your instructor. The instructor must also be allowed to view the pictures that you took. If you would like to photograph your swimmer that is permissible as long as your instructor is not in the photograph.
Absolutely no video taking is allowed during any of our services (regardless if you have instructor permission or not).
Yes, it does! Once you have booked your first lesson, be sure to create a client Acuity account. If you do this, you will be able to login into your account and the system will remember all of your information.
No more repetitive entering of the same information. Yay!
