Section A - Lesson Delivery, Structure & Info

Lessons run for a maximum of 45 weeks a year at AquaNewts - these are split into 11 separate monthly blocks.

ALL VENUES ARE CLOSED for the following time periods:

• Easter - 1 week (To fit into the bank holiday weekend and school holiday; commencing or concluding on Good Friday depending on the calendar year)

• Summer - 4 weeks (majority of August)

• Christmas - 2 (For the two weeks of the School Holidays)

Sometimes, additional closure dates may be added depending on the demands of our venues or teachers.

Start Date

• You will usually be able to start as soon as possible. If you start mid block, you'll be invoiced for the remainder of that block. If a space is unavailable you will have to wait until the next block date.

Ratios

• AquaNewts has a strict maximum of One:Four ratio. We aim to keep the ratios at Two:Four or One:Three generally but depending on the venue overheads it may well be necessary to have a maximum of 4 swimmers per group.

• Pools will not deviate from our position on this and aim to keep them our target Two:Four ratios however assistants may be taken ill or absent - this means a 1:4 delivery will be required.

Criteria

• We follow the Swim England pathway; all criteria is completed however additional criteria is delivered. Published copies of this can be found on the website, Social Media, via email on request OR at All venues. Click here to find out more.

Staging Formats (Children)

We do not deliver Discovery Duckling program awards as we are firm believers that the Duckling Program is sufficient for building early skills and elements of the DD program we / already are incorporated into the Duckling Program. 

We welcome 'AquaNewts' from age 2.5/3yrs+ (depending on experience / confidence) into our group lessons.

• Little Newts - Duckling Awards

• Beginners - Stage 1 & 2

• Improvers - Stage 3 & 4

• Intermediates - Stage 5, 6 & 7

• Advanced - Stage 7, 8, 9 & 10

When an ‘AquaNewt’ becomes a ‘Swimmer’ 

It’s so hard not to use the words swimmers when talking about the swimmers (see, I cracked at the first hurdle and throughout many of my emails and these T&Cs!) so each customer will be classified as an ‘AquaNewt’ until the following.

• Children - They have become an Intermediate AquaNewt that has completed their 400m distance challenge and can use a range of all four strokes. 
• Adults - They have reached half way or completed the ‘Be a Better Swimmer’ section of the pathway and can swim at least 100m using a range of strokes. 

Baby Sessions

• We will welcome swimmers from 6 to 30 months into 1:1 or 1:2 lessons. We do not run baby group lessons. 

• This will mean that a Parent needs to accompany the swimmer into the water for the session. 

• The sessions are graded against the Duckling program; if the ‘AquaNewt’ is not at the stage of this yet, then we will focus on preparing for those skills whilst building water confidence - so they continue to progress but won’t be graded. 

Teens & Adult Sessions

Upon reaching of 13 years, an AquaNewt is classed as a Teen & Adult. 

An adult AquaNewts covers the first three steps of the Adult Learn to Swim Pathway.

• Be Water Confident

• Be a Swimmer

• Be a Better Swimmer

We are happy to support delivery in Being a Master Swimmer; by supporting with further coaching from ourselves and our partnering swim schools; we can't always facilitate this in our smaller venues due to the need for longer sessions and distance. 

Lesson Feedback

• At the end of the block, we will send you a Full Feedback Report - you should receive 5 of these a year.

• You can request feedback from the teacher at the pool; but it is readily available on request if you email the office. 

Certificates

• AquaNewts recognition certificates are FREE - these are provided and designed by us to help recognise milestones to improve motivation. 

• Swim England certificates are charged at £4.00 per certificate and badge. This covers the cost of the certificate itself, delivery to the Head Office - then from the Head Office to the pool and preparation. Replacements will be charged at between £4.00-£6.00 depending on the order duration.

 

• We will now longer be providing the branded Swim England distance certificates, this is because we estimate that our AquaNewts complete a range of distances in a variation of strokes - this means that these awards become an expense for families and take a while to reach venues. Therefore, Distance Awards will be provided in house by us for no additional cost.

Awards can be paid for via BACs and will be invoiced.

Section B - Lesson Booking, Payment & Cancellation 

Prices are set per session; but an upfront block payment is bookable in 4 week blocks. Please note this may be reduced depending on when you book your lessons; you will never be charged for more than 4 weeks at a time.

Payment

• Payment is requested and preferred via Bank Transfer.

• We do not accept CASH unless requested; BACs payment is preferred and is mandatory for the first block booking.

• Block bookings are 4 weeks in duration.

• All bookings MUST be paid upfront to cover the costs of overheads.

• Payment can be made via Card / Digital Wallets via a payment link for those who wish to pay via Credit Card, due to transaction fees for both our Payment Provider, Bank and Admin Time - there is a 5% surcharge on all payments made via payment link - this may seem harsh but in order to ensure all our overheads are met. 

Deposit

Taking a deposit

• As of 28th September 2026, a deposit payment of 1 lesson is required. This deposit will be the standard cost of 1 lesson to cover any late payments - excluding any '10% introductory offer' or '5% multi-child discount'. 

 

• Your deposit will be 90% refunded on the following conditions. Please note, we have a 10% refund processing fee for any refund requested.

1. You cancel your lessons with 2 lessons notice. 
2. Your venue is closed and you are unable to transfer.

Loss & Repayment of deposit

1. A payment is made late without prior warning and Director's Discretion. We really do aim to be flexible; however people have taken advantage of our good nature as an Independent business so we have had to become firmer with our stance on deposits.
2. To keep your space, you will need to repay your deposit lesson before returning to any classes.

Notice Period

• You are obliged to let us know at least two lessons before you finish your block of lessons that you will not be re-enrolling for the next block.

1. Upon completion of your block of lessons, you will be requested for feedback and sent details requesting for your Account Name / Account Number / Sort Code so we can refund your deposit or any outstanding credit lessons.

If you are outside the notice period, you will lose your deposit payment. 

Trial Sessions

• We offer trial lessons on our 'Trial Weeks' these occur towards the end of the month and are advertised across social media - we aim to offer a discount for these sessions.

• Outside of our TRIAL WEEKS, we don’t offer trial lessons for group lessons at AquaNewts, if you attend your first lesson and wish to withdraw, you must notify within 48 hours after your first lesson to cancel your place. Please note that there will be an incurred 2 lesson notice period - 10% of this includes any refund processing fee - this may seem harsh however we’ve had to pay for our overheads upfront with your place in mind and these still need to be accounted for. 

Discounts - ONLY FOR GROUP LESSONS ONLY

• A 5% multi-child discount is offered for GROUP SESSIONS.

Discounts - FOR ALL CUSTOMERS.

• A 10% Introductory Offer on your first block.
• A 5% Blue Light NHS Discount is also offered for GROUP SESSIONS.

Please note, the deposit is not discounted and is only 90% refundable providing all the conditions are met.

Late Payment

We always aspire to be flexible as we know that life does get in the way sometimes; please contact us if you have any issues with your payments or the invoice payment date. If we do not receive payment or a delayed payment request by the invoice deadline after we have attempted to make contact with you;

• Late payments will now mean the removal of your deposit. You will be required to repay your deposit before attending any further lessons. 

• If your late payment is delayed past two working days, without prior notice for the Director or Head Office, your space will be removed. This may seem harsh; but we need to cover the expenses of venue hire. 

Cancellations (by you - the customer)

• GROUP -> If you cannot attend a lesson as a one off; we will endeavor to reschedule you in but we don’t promise this due to the limited spaces we have available. Therefore, any unattended lesson is likely to be forfeited. What seems like one small job ends up becoming a huge administrative task and a lot of the time because of the limited spaces at our venues is impossible!

• PRIVATE -> If notified prior to the next block booking you have an absence, we can aim to reschedule or book another session in place of this. Whilst this is not 100% guaranteed, we aim to be flexible. However, one off absence lessons are likely to be forfeited. We sometimes may well arrange for you to attend slightly earlier the following week but must comply with our ratios.

• AquaNewts is under no obligation to reschedule or credit your lessons.

• If for a medical reason you/your AquaNewt cannot continue lessons at all, providing doctors note, we can arrange for you to be refunded or lessons can be credited if that is your wish. Please note that there will be an incurred 10% refund processing fee - this may seem harsh however we’ve had to pay for our overheads upfront with your place in mind and these still need to be accounted for. Please note, this must be with 2 lessons notice - however, 10% of this lost balance will go towards the refund processing fee so any other missed lessons will be refunded in full. In these circumstances, security deposit will also be refundable - minus the 10% refund processing fee. 

• If you cancel mid way through the block, you may not be eligible for a refund - this is solely at the directors discretion. Requests can be made to Head Office via email (aquanewts@gmail.com) and will only be granted in exceptional circumstances. We can request your Account Details and we will refund you within 10 working days; as we need to comply with our venues and external parties.

• If you opt to cancel, you will need to complete your prepaid block of lessons - then notify the office at least 2 lessons before you intend on finishing your lessons.

Cancellations (by us)

• In the highly unlikely event that a lessons is cancelled by us, for example due to a teacher illness or a pool issue, we will give you TWO options.

1. We can offer you invoice credit for your next block of lessons.

2. We can request your Account Details and we will refund you within 10 working days; as we need to comply with our venues and external parties - the standard refund processing fee of 10% will be deducted from this amount to cover the cost. 

• We will always seek cover and hate cancelling lessons... we will not tolerate any abuse for lesson cancellation due to staff absence or pool issue. 

• If your lesson is cancelled during the session, such as due to a public health issue, we may be unable to refund you this will be at the Directors discretion.

• Please note there will be a 10% refund processing fee for any refund - this is to cover the cost of Bank Fees and Admin Time. 

NATIONAL SCALE - Not Permitted to run lessons

• Unfortunately, in the event of War, Pandemics or national crisis that would mean we are not permitted to run lessons; they would be postponed instead of refunded as these are fully out of our venues, our customers and our control - therefore we cannot take responsibility for the refunding of these lessons.

Section C - Safety, Protection, Insurance & Safeguarding 

Head Office

Head Office can be contacted via email: aquanewts@gmail.com for any enquiry whatsover or via our Social Media - @aquanewts.

Our telephone number is 07477 129813

Safety Statement

• Teachers may need to provide manual and physical support in the need of safety or to correct technique - by agreeing to our Terms & Conditions - you give us your permission to use this.

• The use of buoyancy and swimming aids are used in progressive practices or when a swimmer is not yet competent - we only use buoyancy aids that we think are necessary for strength/stroke development and effective for the necessary activity (example; a kickboard or a woggle) or in the need of safety when a swimmer tires - we tend to stick to a Whole-Part-Whole progression. We endeavor that the 'Whole' stroke is performed unaided or with minimal floatation devices.

• Swimmers do tire, do swallow water, do struggle with maintaining their positioning; we will always be on hand to support them quickly and effectively but this is a natural chapter of building aquatic skills; by agreeing to the T&Cs you accept that this may happen. Teachers will quickly distract swimmers to reassure them to prevent creating phobia. 

Insurance & Liability Statement

• AquaNewts Swim Academy / BENPIRE PROJECTS LTD and the pool owners cannot accept any responsibility for any incident (such as injury, illness or death) that was the sole responsibility of the swimming teacher in charge of the class or lesson in which the incident occurred. Full liability, in such cases, is with the teacher delivering the lesson - teachers are insured with the Swimming Teachers Association (STA) and Allianz.

• The business has Public Liability Insurance with INSURE4SPORT - request of this policy are available upon request.

• If you need to make a claim based on the issue with one of the pools, we do not own any of our pools, therefore you will need to make the claim with the property itself in the event - however, they may not accept liability depending on their T&Cs. Our venues T&C are available upon request.

• ALL PROPERTY brought onto our sites is done so at your own risk. 

• ALL instructors are fully insured with the STA coverage up to £10 million. You can request their insurance references at any time from Head Office. 

• All documents regarding Insurance and Qualifications from all parties (Teachers, BPLTD & Venues) are available upon request from Head Office for existing and previous customers.

To summarise...

1. For a claim regarding compensation / business issue - you will hold BENPIRE PROJECTS LTD accountable. 
2. For a claim regarding an incident at the responsibility of the teacher - you will hold the teacher on shift accountable.
3. For a claim regarding an issue with our venues - you will hold the venue accountable.

Photography

• We occasionally will take underwater photographs in lessons or group activities with your permission beforehand. These will be taken by a DBS Enhanced Teacher and will be sent to you - upon sending these will be deleted from the teachers devices; however will still be kept on email. 
• We may request that some photos are used for promotion or marketing to help. 

Safeguarding

“Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children.”

Any safeguarding concern must be reported to the Head Office at either AquaNewts Swim Academy or BENPIRE PROJECTS LTD.

Our Director, Ben, is a qualified and trained Level 3 Designated Safeguarding Lead. Ben renews his training annually. We endeavor to resolve safeguarding issues in house; however we may need to contact the Local Authority or the police if necessary as we have a duty of care to all our swimmers. We are in contact with the LADO for all areas that we hire pools in.

Alternatively, if this is not deemed appropriate for you, there is a dedicated helpline for anyone wishing to raise a safeguarding or welfare concern directly to Swim England called Swim Line on 0808 100 4001.

FINALLY...

Thank you for reading our Fees, Terms & Conditions and we hope this information helps make you aware of how our Swim Academy runs and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Yours Swimmingly,

AquaNewts Swim Academy