About
Goldfish Swim School - Frederick is a state-of-the-art swimming facility located at 353 Ballenger Center Dr, Frederick, MD 21703, USA. It offers a unique learn-to-swim curriculum for children aged 4 months to 12 years, focusing on water safety, skill development, and building confidence in a fun, tropical environment. Programs include group lessons, private lessons, 'mini' lessons, and family swim options.
The swimming pools at Goldfish Swim School - Frederick are consistently maintained at a comfortable 90 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 32 degrees Celsius), providing an optimal and inviting environment for young swimmers.
What are people saying (AI review summary)? Goldfish Swim School receives largely positive feedback for its beautiful, clean, and fun facility, along with its kind, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic teachers. Many families report that their children love attending classes and look forward to them, appreciating the comfortable atmosphere and focus on learning safe swimming techniques. However, one significant concern was raised regarding the evaluation process, particularly for students nearing program completion. Compared to other franchise locations, this school is reported to have insufficient staff for weekly evaluations, leading to delays in skill check-offs and a perceived lack of focus on individual student progression, making it challenging for advanced students to complete the curriculum efficiently.
Location
Gallery
Amenities
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Accepts Credit Cards
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Accessible Entrance
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Accessible Restroom
Reviews
Listing Reviews
September 9th, 2025Daria Artemova
We couldn’t wait for our local Goldfish Swim School to open and now that it has we love it and our kids are always looking forward to their next class. The space itself is beautiful and fun and has everything to make young swimmers and their families feel comfortable. The teachers are very knowledgeable and kind and all of our kids always have fun in class. We love sitting and watching them do their lessons and they can’t wait for the weekly prize on our way out.
September 19th, 2025Karey Tomlin
I really didn’t want to leave a review but feel it’s necessary. I want to start with the positive. It’s a beautiful and clean facility with very friendly staff members. We have a slightly different viewpoint than others as we transferred from another location due to the proximity of this location to our house and we we’re very excited when we heard this location was opening. We expected that even though these are individually owned, they would operate very similarly since it’s a franchise. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Our oldest daughter graduated from the Goldfish program at age 7 (another location) and our youngest daughter is in pro 2 and transferred from another location in that level. They both started at four months of age. Both of our kids recently started on a competitive swim team and we’re still at Goldfish simply because we want our youngest to finish the program since she’s so close to being done. I think if you’re a new to Goldfish and haven’t seen another location operate it’s probably great. If you know how the program is supposed to go, it’s not the best set up. We’re here simply to finish the program. When we first started, the instructor wasn’t a good fit for this class level. She just wasn’t confident and wasn’t teaching our child. We complained and they switched instructors. The new instructor is amazing. The complaint we have are the evaluations. There’s no doubt that if we were at the old location, our daughter would need a couple of stars in breast stroke and butterfly and that’s it. The other location evaluated weekly. The instructor would raise their hand when they felt a student was ready to be checked on a skill and a deck supervisor would come check them off. Three weeks went by with no evaluation in Frederick so I brought it up to the manager. I was told that they didn’t have the staff to evaluate weekly. That being said, the manager did evaluate our daughter that day and marked some things off. Today was another two weeks and I asked for our daughter’s back stroke to be evaluated as it’s proficient in my opinion. No evaluation was done and the deck supervisor said again, they don’t have staff to evaluate and the back stroke wasn’t the focus today. Our daughter is the only one in her class and I feel like we should be working on skills where stars are needed not skills that we’ve already completed. We were told that the focus right now is getting kids into the correct level. That’s not fair to us. While the other location had two deck supervisors and Frederick only has one, they had four times the amount of kids swimming and still checked things off daily. We NEVER went more than two weeks without getting something checked off. Once again, we’ve been at Goldfish for over seven years. I hate to complain but just can’t seem to get through to them in regards to this. The deck supervisor walked around today and didn’t evaluate a single swimmer. You can’t possibly evaluate every swimmer once a month on every skill as a deck supervisor. The instructor has to be involved. I was told by the manager that if we saw a skill that we thought was ready to be checked to let them know and it would be checked. That’s what we did today and it didn’t happen. That’s also not our responsibility. At the other location the deck supervisor went to each instructor at the beginning of class and told them what skills the children needed to work on. We’re talking every lane full with 4 swimmers per lane and they made it happen. I don’t think the instructors in Frederick even know what skills the kids need to work on. We stay at this location simply because we should be finished in less than two months, if our child is evaluated properly. The school might be good at teach new swimmers but completing the curriculum certainly isn’t on the top of their agenda.
August 31st, 2025Stephanie Biggs
Granddaughter who is 6 is taking lessons. It's a wonderful atmosphere with great teachers. I highly recommend it.
August 23rd, 2025mark Sargent
Collin is my son lukes instructor is amazing. love this place
September 9th, 2025MajPixelT
Great place. Safe and clean.. the teachers are super excited to help our kids learn safe swimming techniques.
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Opening Hours
| Sunday | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM |
|---|---|
| Monday | 9:00 AM – 8:00 PM |
| Tuesday | 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM |
| Wednesday | 4:00 – 7:00 PM |
| Thursday | 4:00 – 7:00 PM |
| Friday | Closed |
| Saturday | 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM |
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