Membership & Fees
Membership & Student Insurance
Students pay £35.50 for annual membership, which includes their student insurance (known as peer-to-peer insurance). This provides students cover for their liability in the event of another student being injured as a result of their actions.
Our membership year follows the academic year from September. Students joining partway through the year are charged a pro-rata amount for the remaining months.
Students pay a monthly subscription of £32.50 for their weekly training sessions, taken by direct debit on the 1st of the month. We use GoCardless to collect these regular payments and any other fees due from time to time, such as for additional training sessions attended, gradings, tournament entries or kit supplied.
Our year-round training incoporates a holiday allowance of 10 weeks, to reflect when families are usually busy or away: 1 week each school half-term, as well as 2 weeks at Christmas and New Year, 2 weeks at Easter, and 3 weeks in the summer holidays.
There are no membership tie-ins, long-term commitments or cancellation notice periods should a student wish to stop training at any point.
Parents who are unsure whether their child will stick with training can delay applying for membership for a month, proceeding on a pay-as-you-go basis until they are sure, before paying the membership fee and moving over to our monthly subscription. During this time they will be covered by our free BMABA temporary insurance facility.
Training Sessions
We currently run three classes per week.
Although the minimum commitment is just one session per week, we encourage our older students to train twice a week where possible, in order to maximise progress.
Little Ninjas classes are 50 minutes.
Main classes are 1 hour 30 minutes.
Saturdays at Castle Court School Sports Hall:
Little Ninjas (Reception, Year 1, 2 & 3 children):
9.00am – 9.50am
Main Class (ages 8+)
10.00am – 11.30am:
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Tuesdays at Witchampton Village Hall:
6.00pm – 7.30pm (Ages 7+)
Training equipment:
Beginners and new joiners need no specialist equipment to train to start with whilst they decide if they are going to commit: just loose-fitting clothing – and no footwear is required, as we train in bare feet! We have sets of club sparring gear to lend to new joiners until they want to commit to buying their own.
A water bottle is essential and we advise a gum shield as a precaution: although we don’t intentionally land strikes to the front of the face in sparring, accidental contact or clashes can happen. As with any sport, there is a risk of injury, though since risks are carefully managed, karate is usually a very safe activity and injuries are rare and usually minor.
When a student feels ready, a beginners’ lightweight gi (the karate suit) can be bought for around £10 for juniors, £23 for adults. We can supply a full set of sparring gear: hand mitts and shin/foot pads at a substantial discount through our trade supplier.
Gradings
Little Ninjas gradings take place alongside the main Saturday morning class.
Gradings for older students are arranged separately from lessons and usually taken in pairs or small groups of similar grade students, so that they can partner each other for aspects of the grading, such as sparring. We always tailor gradings to our students, and occasionally this will mean grading solo.
We aim to make these important rites of passage challenging and memorable as well as powerful learning opportunities. Parents are welcome to attend and to take photos and video for personal use.
Grading fees range from just £11 for a red belt grading, to £45 for a brown belt grading (which would usually last in excess of two hours). A black belt grading, being a huge milestone, is longer still (typically up to 3 hours long) and involves at least one external examiner. It is therefore more expensive – currently £125.
