Puffins Swim School Ltd holds the name, address and contact information on its members and the parents/guardians responsible for these members. The Swim School also holds medical information and swimming assessment data, this information is used solely for the business of the school as a teaching swimming organisation and is not shared with any third party. If any additional use of the information held would require written permission of the member. We will only contact you regarding affairs to do with swimming such as pool closures, enrolments, newsletters, class times, intensive courses, payment reminders and to discuss a child’s progress. We never use your information for marketing purposes or share with third parties.

When making online purchases Puffins Swim School with credit/debit cards. We use third party specialist secure card processing provider when taking payments. Puffins Swim School does not hold your card details.

Puffins Swim School has an ICO certificate- ICO membership reference number ZA461950

Changing room policy for Puffins Swim School.

For the safeguarding of children; Puffins Swim School follow swim Englands guidelines.

Swim England Changing room policy:

Parents should not be in the changing room while their swmmers are changing, unless the swimmer is of an age where help is required from parents of the swimmer or requires additional specific assistance.  This generally is 7 years of age.  In such circumstances the parent must be the same gender as the child, unless the facility has family facilities or a ‘mixed changing village’.

At Puffins Swim School we are aware that this is not always feasible and often there are mums that bring their sons and dads bring their daughters. Often children younger than 7 are able to change themselves, but for those that need assistance our policy is that the sex of the changing room that should be used when a child needs help in getting changed is of the same sex as the parent/adult that is helping. ie, a mum helping her son should be using the female changing rooms and a dad helping his daughter should be using the male changing rooms.  for the safeguarding of children we ask that children do not get changed on poolside or in the viewing gallery of in front of others.

Thank you

Swim England changing room policy : 

Parents should not be in the changing room while their swimmers are changing, unless the swimmer is of an age where help is required from parents of the swimmer or requires additional specific assistance. This generally is 7 years of age. In such circumstances the parent must be the same gender as the child, unless the facility has family changing facilities or a ‘ mixed changing village’.

At Puffin’s we are aware that this is not always feasible and often there are mums that bring their sons and dads that bring their daughters. Often children younger than 7 are able to change themselves but for those that need assistance our policy is that the sex of the changing room that should be used when a child needs help in getting changed is of the same sex as the parent/adult that is helping. Ie. A mum helping her son should be using the female changing rooms and a dad helping his daughter should be using the male changing rooms. For the safeguarding of children we also ask that children do not get changed on poolside or in the viewing gallery in front of others.

Pupils should not arrive at the Pools until 5 minutes before their lesson and should come swim ready. Meaning they are to have their swimming costume already on with a onesie or hooded towel poncho over the top. We would also encourage our clients to leave the pools after swimming in a hooded towel/poncho or onsie once you have dried.

We understand that this does not apply to adult swimmers and young babies.

Please shower before you come to the pools when possible.

There is a hand sanitiser station situated outside the front door and this is to be used before entering the building. 

All adults are encouraged to wear a face mask in all areas of the building apart from in the water.

There are now two sinks in the changing room, and please can you make sure you wash your hands after going to the toilet.

If your child is  7 years old or over, they are to be left at the door to enter the changing rooms on their own to get ready for the lesson. Clients should enter the building one at a time to avoid any cluster points.

On entering the building shoes should be taken off and put in the child’s/adult’s bag and taken into the changing room with them. 

If you are aiding your child to get dressed, please observe social distancing guidelines, otherwise please wait for your child outside the fire exit door.

All clothing should be put in your swim bag and then hung on the pegs.  All customers who are in the changing room area will now be leaving the premises through the fire exit and there is a hand sanitiser station near the door which is to be used before exiting the building. This is also the point that parents should be waiting after their child’s lesson has finished and we would ask parents to observe any social distances guidelines that are in place.

We appreciate that parents will want to see their children swim and the best way for us to achieve this is for you to communicate with the other parents within your child’s lesson and sort out a rota of when you can observe the lesson at the window. Each pool must not have more than 6 parents/guardians per half hour in the viewing gallery and again all adults are encoraged to wear a mask while in the building. 

Parents from the next lesson should wait outside until the previous parents have left the viewing gallery before going upstairs so we can maintain the 12 adults only rule.  We are only allowing 1 sibling in the viewing gallery at this time but will always be reassessing our procedures in line with Government Guidelines.

The lost property box is not allowed to be used in this climate so will be taken away, any items left at the pools that can be disinfected overnight will be, and parents are to collect within 24 hours otherwise unfortunately we have to dispose of the garments left after 72 hours. 

For the Parent and Child classes we will be supplying changing mats and a baby playpen for you to use if you want to. There will be antibacterial spray and blue paper towel please spray before and after use. We will also be cleaning these items during the morning and each day after sessions have finished these items will them be stored away ready for the next day. 

We also cannot allow any child to bring their own equipment from home.

No adult is allowed on poolside.

Where possible teachers will be teaching from the side, but our priority is the safety of the children so will be in the water when necessary  to be able to teach them in safe and fun manner.

We have a Covid Officer in place at Puffins her name is Paula Murray and she will be keeping me up to date with any changes we need to make. Any swimmer who lives with a family member who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 must inform Puffins immediately so contact tracing can take place. Any calls of this nature will be confidential.

It is SO IMPORTANT that if anyone who has a new persistent cough, temperature or loss of taste and smell must not swim for 14 days, this also applies if you are living with a family member who is presenting these symptoms.

If you have any questions or concerns Paula can be emailed at paula@puffins-swimschool.co.uk all communication is strictly confidential and we will aim to respond to you within 48 hours.