Foundation School of Martial Arts provide weekly classes for students age 2 and up and holiday camps throughout the year. We also work with nurseries, mainstream and specialist provision schools, providing curriculum enhancing courses, projects and workshops.
Foundation is more than a martial arts club. We are a family. We’re here to be inclusive and accepting, to support and build each other up, to celebrate the progress and achievement of our members and to recognise that everyone learns at their own pace. We use positive reinforcement in our teaching and constantly show and encourage respectful behaviour between students, coaches, instructors and family. Our students come from many different home environments. We embrace neuro-diversity and all our classes are accessible to all levels of physical ability. Just let us know if you need extra support, if you’re worried about anything or if we can help and make changes to support you.
Foundation School of Martial Arts was established in 2013 by Simon Melhuish and James Lee as a Social Enterprise. This means we are focussed on making our students lives better, we are affordable and independent. We live by our values. Any profits we make are put into providing classes and respite camps for children and young people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to such things. We’ve been working with, providing lifetime scholarships and raising money for Barnardos Young Carers since 2016.
Our Approach
Our classes are based on the traditional Japanese art of Ninjutsu with focus on:
- Practical self protection
- Confidence building
- Social skills
- Strength
- Fitness
- Resilience
- Discipline
- Self discipline
- Respect
- Honesty
- Mindfulness
Our students also gain awareness of Japanese language, both verbally and through practicing shodo (traditional calligraphy), because we found that it helps our students to understand our martial art if they appreciate the culture it comes from.