Switching from weekly payment to monthly membership was a big change, we’ve been taking weekly payments since we started on this journey way back in June of 2013 but it was necessary to help move the club forward.

Monthly payments mean we can run more classes and gives everyone the opportunity to train more, learn more, get fitter, stronger and ultimately progress quicker.

This has, however, presented us with a bit of a problem. We normally grade students twice a year, once in the summer and then just before the Christmas holidays.

Our original thinking with this is based on students training an average of 20 times over 6 months. For our Juniors 20 hours of training is a flag for us to assess them for the next grade, for our kids this number is 10 hours.

The challenge we’ve been faced with is that under our new schedule a Junior or Kids class student training 3 times a week could potentially reach this figure in just under 7 weeks. Our 6 month gap is no longer suitable and far too prescriptive, so we’re going to make some changes.

From now on all our students will be graded when they are ready, at any time throughout the year.

How will this work? Well, when we’ve recorded 20 sessions of training against a student the next class they attend they will be assessed for their next grade. This assessment is completed against the curriculum and criteria we use to teach and could be as simple as an observation or for higher graded students something more formal.

There’s something really important to be aware of here though, this 20 class milestone doesn’t mean grading, it means assessment. Not everyone learns at the same pace and not everyone will be ready to receive their next grade. We’re not going to reward attendance with belts.

Not everyone learns at the same pace and not everyone will be ready to receive their next grade. We’re not going to reward attendance with belts.
If after this assessment we feel a student is ready, we’ll award them with their grade. This is a celebration of their individual progress and their efforts. We will no longer be charging for grades, any belts or certificates will now be covered as part of your monthly membership.

We will still be holding celebration events over the year, these will be a celebration of progress made by all students with more of a focus on our values as a club and family.