Making Waves Swim School

Supervisor and front desk staff are great. That’s why I’m giving three stars. My son started swimming lessons for the first time. The lessons started off great with his coach Emily. I wish we were told before they switched coaches for the last three classes. Emily was a great coach. Victoria or Veronica is horrible. When my son first ran inside she gave him a disgusted look. Turns out she was his new coach. She started late and was incredibly rude. She was in the pool with her assistant and watching the class made me uncomfortable. They kept giving looks to each other when dealing with my son. It got the to point where I went to the front desk to see if I can get my money back for the remaining two classes that I already paid for. They were laughing at him and clearly didn’t like dealing with him. You would think she’d know how to deal with a toddler since she’s teaching the class. How she and her assistant dealt with the class was extremely immature. She definitely made us not want to go back. They can have the money for the remaining classes. We won’t be returning. She definitely ruined our entire experience for my sons first swimming lesson experience. We will be going elsewhere.

Making Waves policies have made my family feel unwelcome and we have been forced to pursue the swimming journey for our children elsewhere.
Despite saying they prioritize family and claiming to value empathy, they raised the rates for their accessibility classes by 120% for the fall (claiming inflation as the reason for the price hike, despite the inflation rate only being 7%). That is on top of limiting the days that accessibility classes are offered.
This make me feel that my child with special needs is being pushed out and is unwelcome there.
Also, the price did not increase by that amount for my child who does not have special needs, which makes the accessibility price hike feel discriminatory.
I will no longer be able to recommend Making Waves, as my son is so disappointed to not be able to continue his lessons there.

I've signed my daughter up for the Spring Session in the level she was supposed to be signed up for and when they sent me the information they changed the Session I signed her up for and put her in a Session that she's been in for two years already (this is the 3rd year). I asked why she was is that Session and that I want her in the Session I signed her up for. They said that Session wasn't available anymore and that's why they put her in the Session they put her in. I wasn't notified and they just put her in that Session. Not happy about this and I won't refer anybody. I won't be signing her up again at Making Waves after this Session.

While my son loves his swimming class at making makes swim school in maple, Vaughan. We feel that the quality of instructors have done down over the past several months. A few observations -

1) While the head coach and supervisors are great the instructors have been giving my and my wife the same feedback about our son for the last 3-4 months. My question is if hr is not improving why is he at your school?

2) they put my son in a higher level and then put him back to a lower level - we did not really understand why that happened - it is discouraging for parents and our children to learn that we are going back after spending so much time and money

3) My wife is a swimmer and she’s given some feedback to the coaches to help our child be more aggressive in the water (for eg if he does not put his head in the coaches simply don’t try - then what are we paying for?) best part is that this is the same for the last 3/4 months and we don’t see any improvement at all.

Overall, we are super happy with the facility and the staff but “coaching” needs a bit of a refresh

I can't say enough good things about this place. This is our third semester with Making Waves, and they go above and beyond to accomodate every little person, the happy ones, the scared ones, the tricky ones, the neurodivrrgent ones and all the families too. They are extremely respectful of parents' choices and comfort level regarding how far to push the kids if they're not loving the water initially.

Thank you Emma, Daniel, Micheal and everyone else at Making Waves Maple.

When we moved to Richmond Hill, I was on the look out for a new swimming place for our toddler. I couldn't have found any better place than Making Waves. Staff is very considerate in returning the calls and accommodating new students. Of course, the instructors are super motivating and encouraging as well. My little guy has been in love with these classes for sure. Unfortunately, the only downer is they dont have any make-up classes.

My son was 2.5 years old when we enrolled him. At the time we thought he was ready for the beginner class because we were doing parent and tot classes in the community and he kept wanting to do the skills by himself and also he goes to daycare so not super attached to us. At first he would cry and say he didn't like swimming anymore which was fine because I get that it's a new environment with new faces. After a few weeks he started to bond with the instructor and say he liked swimming again and didn't really cry anymore when we brought him. After that though, they changed his instructor twice and it just went downhill from there. Then they got me to fill out a survey and when I expressed my feelings about not being the happiest with his results. They pretty much stopped giving us progress reports at the end of the class probably because he would cry pretty much the entire 1/2 hour. I thought given his age and the likelihood that he would have some separation anxiety, they could have paired him with more experienced instructors. Ones that are more skilled in dealing with a child who initially cries a lot. My advice is. Unless you did parent and tot classes at the same facility then it's probably fine to enroll them into the beginner class earlier, but if you didn't then wait until your child is older. Not the greatest experience for us and definitely not worth the $500 plus we spent.

This was my first trip to Making Waves. The classes were more costly then our local community centre so we were interested in knowing the differences. We liked the facilities. The staff were kind and the front desk took the time to give me a quick tour. There were separate changing stalls in the change room which was great for privacy. One bonus was the bathing suit drying machine so that we did not have to go home with a wet bathing suit. The change room also had individual seats for kids and provided individual hair dryers. The pool was kept warm for kids at 91° F so it was perfect for learning. The classes were small - in our class it was a 3: 1 ratio so my daughter got a lot of swimming time. The instructor was kind and patient. He also took the time to let us know how our child did and what things they should work on for the next class. Overall we had a good first experience and look forward to more lessons at Making Waves!

Received amazing service from Richard from the Mississauga location (but I think he's attends all locations) - so friendly and very helpful! He went above and beyond to accommodate our daughter mid-season and answered all of our questions. So happy we were able to get him on the phone, we would highly recommend Making Waves based on his service.

Making Waves is simply the best swim school. For so many reasons, but it wouldn't be the same without the incredible people that make it so special. When my daughter walks in the door, Sabrina greets her like she's a rockstar and continually thinks outside the box to make things happen for our schedule. Alessia (her instructor) teaches like she would her own little sister - with patience, kindness and wonderful teaching techniques.my daughter started a year ago as a Sea Turtle and now soon will be going into Level 6. And Salia (site supervisor) not only knows my child, but knows what level she is, how she is doing and what she needs to improve to get to the next level. She's not just "supervising". She's in the pool. I'm so happy I found them.

Very happy with my son's progress. The instructors are great and work well with the kids to increase their confidence and skills

Calling the number given on the web, doesn’t give an option to speak to someone but right away giving to leave a voice message.

Great place for kids to learn how to swim, great staff and they provide good feedback. Of progress.