Developing Barron Swim School

Barron’s mission of “building skills for life” is front and center at our swim school.  The state of the art facility has been designed for a learn to swim program for ages 6 months and up, from beginners to a recreational swim team.  The program will not only get children comfortable in the water and able to swim across the pool, but provide them education on safety around water and take them through a journey of learning that will serve them for life.  Our end goal for students who complete all of our levels is for them to be able to safely and fully participate in water activities for the rest of their life.  They will be able to go on a family vacation and swim in the ocean, to surf or ski, to scuba or snorkel, to join a competitive swim team, or to go to the pool with friends and be able to swim in the deep end and jump off the diving board.

Over 3 years of research and learning went into this endeavor prior to opening.  The Barron Family visited around 50 swim schools and attended swim industry professional conferences all over the nation and abroad in Australia.  We consulted with numerous experts in the field to develop our facility, curriculum, procedures, class management and teaching techniques.  We continue this pursuit of education in the field and pass that knowledge and training on to all of our staff.  We have been experts in the gymnastics field since 1978 and many of the gymnastics procedures, policies, staff training and teaching techniques apply directly to the swim school.  You will see the same quality of instruction and facility at the swim school as we have prided ourselves on at our gymnastics club.  We expect no less.  Our family’s goal to be experts in the swim field and history of leadership in the gymnastics industry has not gone unnoticed in the swim industry.  Diane and Julie Barron were both invited to speak at the National Swim Conferences and were able to share and teach other swim experts about staff hiring and training as well as office procedures and customer service.  Barron swim school is a member of the US Swim School Association.

Our Curriculum

Our curriculum is developed exclusively for Barron Swim School in consultation with experts in the swim industry.  Our classes have a low 4:1 student to teacher ratio for a safer learning experience.  Our teachers are fully trained and certified.  We have brought our exclusive Ribbon & Stars Evaluation program from our gymnastics club to the swim school.  Families are able to track student’s skill development from home and students receive incentive awards for accomplishing skill and level goals.

Our curriculum includes:

• Multiple skill levels broken down by age groups; parent & tot, 6 months through 2 years / juniors, 3 years through kindergarten / school age, first grade and older
• Becoming comfortable in the water and banishing fears of going underwater
• Safety around water
• Proper entry and exit from a pool
• Floating on front and back
• Step by step progressions for learning proper technique for kicking and arm strokes
• Proper freestyle, back stroke, breast stroke and butterfly
• Competency and endurance while swimming
• Additional life skills: listening, taking turns, perseverance, how to fail and try again, goal setting, making friends and much more

Our Facility

Our facility was designed with safety, comfort and quality instruction in mind.  The pool is the focal point of the facility, fully surrounded by full glass walls.  This keeps children and spectators safely off of the pool deck while waiting and watching, but allows unobstructed viewing of the entire pool from the comfort of our lobby and viewing areas.  The pool area air and water is kept at a warm 91 degrees.  This allows students to be comfortable in and out of the water; no shivering here.  Our 30’x60’ pool is 4’ deep so it is shallow enough for instructors to safely stand and teach, but deep enough that students can swim without touching the bottom.  There are stairs for easy entry and exit from the pool.  The sides of the pool have built in ledges of different depths so children of any age can also learn where they can touch bottom to gain comfort in the water and stay safe.  Moveable underwater platforms are also used for this purpose.  

Water and air quality is important for the health and safety of our students and teachers.  The warm and wet atmosphere requires a state of the art dehumidification system that is almost the size of school bus.  This system allows us to keep the air temperature in the pool area at 91 degrees without the humidity rising above comfort levels and deteriorating the facility.  We chose chlorinated water for its exceptional benefits of stable, long-lasting germ control.  In addition, our pool is outfitted with the latest in UV sanitation.  The UV sanitation not only kills germs, but provides drinking quality water for your child to swim in which gets rid of “red eye” and skin irritations.  The superior water filtration system completely changes over all of the pool water every hour so that your children and our teachers are always swimming in clean fresh water.  Our comprehensive double swim diaper policy is designed to avoid accidents in the water.  Keeping fecal contaminants out of the pool keeps germs from spreading as well as allows us to keep the pool open at all times per health department regulations.  There is also an on-deck bathroom so students don’t need to leave the pool area to use the restroom during class.  Our pool is fully grounded so that there is no danger from lightening while swimming in the pool.

Our large locker room was made for families so adults can assist children of any gender at all times.  Within the locker room are fully enclosed toilets, showers and changing rooms to protect privacy when needed.  The common area has baby changing counters, cubbies for storing clothing and towels, and child-safe plugs for hairdryers.  There is a row of on-deck showers between the pool and locker room so students can rinse off after their class while still in their swimsuits.  A glass wall protects the parents who want to stay dry when the children get out of the pool.

The Barron Swim school gift shop sells everything you need for class.  Swim diapers, swim suits, goggles, swim caps, wet bags and towels.  We also carry an array of unique apparel, toys, gifts and TY plush.