Goldfish Swim School - Needham 45 4th Avenue, Needham, MA 02494

"Really disappointed in the staff. Each week there’s been a different instructor for my 2-year old and I have to specifically ask for the instructor she feels comfortable with. Today she was assigned an instructor who spoke about her finals and how much work she has to do this week. Keep in mind I was sitting on the bench and this was her conversation with a TWO-YEAR OLD. She then asked my child old how her week is going and didn’t smile or try to be cheerful at all. My toddler cried the whole time."

"Facility is cute but I think that’s the only draw. Teachers are very young, and while they do know how to swim they don’t know how to work with small children and all the emotional needs/fears that go along with swimming. Classes were 30 mins but there were at least 3 children to one teacher which meant my child only got like 15 mins of actual “swim time.” Needless to say my child didn’t learn to swim this summer at goldfish swim."

"I cannot say enough good things about our experience with Goldfish Swim School in Needham. All three of my children LOVE coming each week. While I’m always impressed by the quality of the facility, the organization of classes, and the progress my children have made, it’s much more than that to us. The kindness, warmth, and genuine interest each staff member has offered our family is something I can’t thank them enough for. They go above and beyond in their efforts to make kids feel safe and excited to swim. Thank you Goldfish staff and management!"

"Bottom line, there's very little accountability here -- I guess that's the downside to an establishment where there's never anyone over the age of 25 on premises. We wanted to attend a family swim session today so my son could practice treading water before a swim test at summer camp. After the Goldfish team conveyed incomplete information about how we could register for the family swim, they agreed to let us attend given that the mistake was on their end and we'd been good, long-time customers (4+ years, birthday parties, etc.). After we'd been there for 15 minutes, one of the lifeguards informed us that time was up, at which point I asked if we could stay a little longer and they agreed. The manager, Abby, came back almost immediately and asked us to leave, intimating that we were trespassing. When I asked why we had to leave, she accused me of telling the lifeguard moments earlier that I was refusing to leave the pool area, and that my son's presence in the pool was making the lifeguard team uncomfortable, since the pool's occupancy was one person over their internal guidelines. Meanwhile, there were 3-4 lifeguards for about 25 people at the pool, not all of whom were even IN the pool. If our original agreement had been clear upfront that we only had 15 minutes and that that was a hard-stop, the situation would've been more understandable. Instead, Abby originally conveyed that they were flexible around the situation and then turned around and sought to enforce a strict time limit, which obviously created an unpleasant situation that was anything but flexible or customer-friendly. So to my initial point about accountability, if they make a mistake, don't expect them to fix it -- they'll probably respond by throwing you out of the pool."

"No visible signage that says no pets allowed. We were here for over an hour before staffed approached us saying dogs weren’t allowed in the building. Otherwise great teachers and atmosphere. Would highly recommend."