Covid-19 Policy

Introduction

As we all adapt to a new normal, there will be changes made to your Great Waves lessons to ensure that we are COVID-19 secure. This policy has been written to provide information on how the Great Waves Team will be managing COVID-19 and our procedures for anyone symptomatic, self isolating, or if it is announced that there is a localised lockdown. The situation is currently very fluid with Government guidance continually changing, we will update and amend our policies as required to ensure that we are always adopting best practices. As we all get used to new procedures, the Great Waves Team are here to assist as required and can be contacted as follows:

Telephone: 02086444982

Email: hello@greatwaves.co.uk

 

Hygiene, cleaning and new COVID-19 procedures

We are working very hard behind the scenes to ensure that we offer a COVID-19 secure environment. The safety of everyone at our sessions is our main priority and we have planned new COVID-19 procedures, completed new Risk Assessments and have adopted best practices at our
lessons.

Our team have been trained on our extra cleaning procedures and on maintaining a COVID-19 secure environments and we now need your help to support us during your lesson. We are asking you to follow our new procedures:

• ✅  Arrive ‘Swim Ready’ for your lesson.
• ✅  Santize your hands on entry. Help us to maintain good hand hygiene by using the hand sanitiser on entry to our facilties and throughout your lesson.
• ✅  Arrive at your allotted changing time, which will be 5 minutes before the start of your lesson. This helps us to minimise the numbers in the facilities and keep to our rigorous cleaning timetable.
• ✅  Keep to the 10 minute changing time once your lesson finishes. Regrettably inline with government and industry standard guidance, showers are out of action.
• ✅  Only one spectator per swimmers/ family swim bubble and where possible, please do not bring siblings.
• ✅  Spectators wear a face covering
• ✅   Ensure your personal and medical information is up to date in case we need to contact NHS Track and Trace.
• ✅  Do not attend your lesson if you have any COVID-19 symptoms.
• ✅   Communicate with us immediately if you present with any COVID-19 symptoms so we can monitor you and contact Track and Trace if required. Please note that there will be different procedures for each pool location.

 

Symptoms

The main symptoms of COVID-19 are detailed on the NHS website as follows:

• A high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• A new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• A loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Most people with coronavirus have at least one of these symptoms.

If you have any of the main symptoms of coronavirus:

1. Get a test to check if you have coronavirus as soon as possible.
2. Stay at home and do not attend your swimming lesson – only leave your home to have a test.

Anyone you live with, and anyone in your support bubble, must also stay at home until you get your result.

 

Symptoms and Swimming Lessons

If you, your swimmer or anyone you live with/ support bubble develop any COVID-19 symptoms DO NOT ATTEND your swimming lesson and follow the above NHS advice on testing. Please also contact Great Waves as soon as possible and provide us with the following information:

• Who is presenting with COVID-19 symptoms – please remember that anyone you live with or in your support bubble must also stay home until you receive your test results.
• Let us know the result of your test.
  • i) If you are negative, please see our policy below for catching up any missed lessons.
  • ii) If you are positive, please let us know and follow NHS advice to self isolate for 10 days from when your symptoms started. We will document the relevant dates on your file and please see our policy below for self isolation.

 

Becoming Symptomatic at the session

If any of our team notice that you or your swimmer(s) present with any symptoms during your lesson, we will ask you to leave the lesson immediately. You will be directed to get dressed in our COVID-19 symptomatic changing area and we will inform our pool partner that there is a potential symptomatic case. We will direct you to contact NHS to organise a free COVID-19 test. We will follow your progress and wait to be informed of the result.

 

Positive Cases of COVID-19

If you, your swimmer or anyone you live with/support bubble tests positive for COVID-19, you must NOT attend your swimming lesson and must follow self isolation procedures as per the NHS track and trace advice. You must let us know immediately that there has been a positive COVID-19 test so that we can inform all relevant organisations/ individuals. You must not return to lessons until you have completed your self isolation period. Track and trace and self isolation If you are contacted by NHS Track and Trace informing you that you have been in touch with
someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Please DO NOT attend your lesson. Inform us that you have been contacted by NHS Track to self isolate and the date that you will be self isolating up until. We will monitor your return and contact the relevant organisations if required.
COVID-19 positive or self isolation credit and recovery lessons If you test positive for COVID-19 or are instructed to self isolate by NHS Track and Trace you may be unable to attend lessons for potentially up to 14 days.

We do not want this to impact swimmer progress and so we are able to offer the following:

1. Recovery lessons once you are able to return to the pool. These lessons will be organised in addition to your normal lessons. They differ from Catch-up lessons as they focus specifically on what was missed during your self isolation absence. These lessons are designed to recover the skills that will have been missed during the self isolation to set swimmers on a strong footing returning to lessons.
2. Credit a maximum of two lessons to your next payment. To offer any of the above sessions, we will be required to have proof of requirement to self isolate, this can come in the form of a text message or email from NHS testing or Track and Trace. We will also accept an isolation note from the NHS which may be used by your employer. This can be found HERE.

 

Catch-up lessons for negative COVID-19 tests

Thank you for support us and maintaining a COVID-19 secure environment by getting a test and not attending if you are any COVID-19 symptoms. If you receive a negative test, we will endeavour to offer you a catch-up lesson for any sessions that were missed whilst you waited for COVID-19 test results.

You are able to request a Catch-up Lesson HERE.

Please see our revised policy for all Catch-up lessons.

 

Track and Trace

Before starting lessons, we require all swimmers to update their contact information. We will collect the following information at every session :

1. Name of Swimmer(s) and accompanying adult
2. Contact Number (if the accompanying adult differs from the parent(s)/carer(s) on record
3. Entry and Exit time
4. Changing room used and seat allocated.

If we are informed that there is a positive case in our cohort at a session you have attended, we will inform you that we intend to share your information with NHS Track and Trace. This is voluntary and we encourage you to share your information to help track any other cases. However if you do not wish for your information to be shared, you are able to withdraw consent for us to do so. We will hold information on each session for a minimum of 21 days based on current Track and Trace guidance. This information will be stored inline with our GDPR Policy.

 

Local lockdown and pool closures

In the event that there is a localised lockdown or a pool closure due to COVID-19, we will endeavour to contact you are soon as we are made aware.

If we have more than 3 hours notice, we will send you a text message and email to provide information on the lockdown/ closure.

If there is lesson than 3 hours notice, we will send a text message, call you and email you.

 

Customers returning after Lockdown

For customers who attended Great Waves Swimming Lessons before the COVID-19 national lockdown. We will work to support your return at your pace. If you have credit on your account in September 2020, but are unable to return at that point, we will currently hold your place until
October Half Term 2020.

This place is dependent on a trial on return to assess swimmer ability as the class may be at a different ability to the swimmer returning.