Neptune News Feb 2021

Since the last mini lockdown, we have had many swimmers who have reached or surpassed the age bracket for their current class. Once we return to swimming this is going to mean we have classes with extremely large age ranges. This is just not something that is going to provide us with the ability to offer a high level of learning for our swimmers. With this in mind, we will be reviewing all classes that have an age limit (all parent & baby classes & ducklings) to identify swimmers that will hugely benefit from moving to the next level up. The age brackets for these classes are listed below 

• Starfish Beginners - 16weeks - 12months
• Starfish Improvers - 12 months - 24 months
• Starfish Advance - 24 months - 3yrs
• Ducklings - 3yrs - 5yrs

After ducklings, our classes are grouped by the achievement of skills including distances. If your swimmer has exceeded the age groups above in the last couple of months we will be contacting you shortly to arrange for them to be moved into the next class up. Where this can seem a little daunting for parents, we need to ensure your child is swimming with children of a similar age. The same principle that applies in schools applies in swimming, children learn by receiving lessons that are tailored to their cognitive abilities and by peer interaction. Children who are over 5 and in a ducklings class will be mixed in with children who are only just starting their funded hours within a nursery setting, This is just not a good mixture of learning ages. 

Many children have missed out on that initial introduction to their preschool journey this year so our teachers will have to go right back to the start to ensure our swimmers know how to wait their turn and follow the safety rules. We will be contacting swimmers who are the following ages to progress onto the next class up. 

Please be advised that this is not an optional process. We must ensure these children have moved up. We would really appreciate that customers work with us on this, 

Starfish Beginners - 12 months

Starfish Improvers - 24 months

Starfish Advance - 3yrs 1m +

Ducklings - 5yr 3m +

We will do our best to ensure you can remain swimming on the same day and at a similar time. If you would like to begin this process with your swimmer now please contact Steph via the hub. 

We have received lots of messages from customers as to what will happen with the January payment that was taken just after we locked down. 

Communication was sent earlier in January but I will take the opportunity to re-circulate this. We were unable to stop the direct debit in January from being taken as the lockdown was announced with quite short notice. Therefore all customers who have paid the full amount will receive a reduced month of swimming lessons when we return. 

We may be able to offer a week of intensive swimming lessons depending on when the restrictions are lifted and if we have teachers available. More information regarding this will follow. 

As per our earlier emails regarding the DD the system now generates a payment per swimmer, not 1 payment for all. 

So you will make more than 1 payment to us if you have multiple swimmers. They will be for different amounts but add to the normal total that you pay per month. We are confident that all the bugs have now been worked out of the new system and we thank customers for their patience. 

Remember you can check all your payment history and upcoming payments on the hub.