Spalding Gymnastic Academy

Fantastic experience: Lovely clean friendly gymnasium

Positive experience: The instructor girls are nice. They'e absolutely inspiring. What I didn't like, though, is the fact that no child is allowed to wear socks, not even in winter. Instructors do, though. You have GRIP SOCKS these days. Why not make grip socks compulsory, rather than have every child walk barefoot? It's unsanitary, for one thing. You have hundreds of children stepping on the mats every day. If they need a time out to go to the toilet, they're still barefoot when they go. If you're up in the balcony, and you don't know your child is out of the room, she walks barefoot to the restroom. I don't even let my child run around barefoot in her own home, let alone a public place with loads of traffic. The risk of slipping and hurting herself, when all a 4 or 5-year-old does is bounce around on a mat for half an hour, is minimal. The risk of catching something is far greater. Secondly, it was freezing cold in December. The place is a re-purposed warehouse. You wouldn't have people barefoot in a warehouse in the middle of winter, would you? Also, you're not allowed to take pictures, and they train the girls under the balcony, where you have 0 visibility, so you sit there waiting for 10-15 minutes, not knowing where your child is. I don't think it occurred to them to have a monitor in the balcony, so parents can see their kids at all times. Oh yeah, the toilets are adult-size. The floor is concrete. Children can't even reach the sink. You expect them to take their leotards off by themselves, use the toilet, put the leotards back on, and then walk out of there without washing their hands. So much for cleanliness. I pulled my daughter out last month.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic facilities and equipment and all the instructors are great!!