01.12.24 Important Notices
Last updated
Last updated
Some parts of this notice are now out of date.
The short version for busy people;
There are some changes to our terms. You will need to sign these before the 6th of January
We are moving payments to Direct Debits to be paid on the 1st/15th of each month. We will send you a form which you must complete by the 20th of December
Club is closing for Winter from 20th of December to 6th of January
Prices are going up by £3/£4/£5 per month for kids/teens/adults to cover our increasing costs - contact Flick if there is any issue with this at all
Licenses will now auto renew and be automatically charged
We're adding kickboxing classes to our timetables, Mon/Wed/Fri will now run 1 hour of Karate followed by 1 hour of Kickboxing
Dear Members,
Please ensure you read the below club announcements carefully as they contain important information about payments, schedule changes, and more.
As always these changes are being made with the student's best interests and the club's continued ability to operate at the forefront of our minds.
Our last class of 2024 will be Friday 20th December, after which classes will run as normal from Monday 6th January. This is to cover the festive period, to allow time for administrative changes, and to give the instructing team some much needed rest whilst class attendance will be at its lowest.
From January, we will be changing all payments to be Direct Debits, to be taken on the 1st or 15th of the month. Emails will be sent to every student to arrange this. The transition process is very simple. Direct debits must be in place by the 20th of December. Funded students are not affected by this change.
In order to cover our higher venue costs and the increased costs of running a safe and effective club, we are making a small increase in prices. This will be £3 per month for children, £4 per month for teens, and £5 per month for adults. These changes will be effective from January. Current discounts will be considered in increases. The confirmation of your new subscription amount will be sent with the direct debit.
If these changes put you in any financial difficulty, please inform Flick or Matt immediately, and we can discuss options and Karate for Good Funding.
All funding projects from the National Lottery are on a temporary basis. We expect to begin the process of transitioning the model and practices of our funding throughout next year in preparation for the expiration of the Your Community Greenspace project with Nene Park Trust.
As a result of this the Club is seeking new avenues of funding to continue the fantastic work the Karate for Good Partnership (with YCG/NPT) has done.
We do not anticipate any impact to funded students, and are actively seeking to continue to support students.
This does not currently affect existing students, but is for your information. We are changing our pricing models, there is some aspiration to align new pricing models over coming years.
Principally our intention is to reduce support for Foundation packages, in favour of encouraging students to train 2+ times per week as we believe that offers the students the best opportunity to progress, and the instructing team the best opportunity to provide the most value and impact on the lives of those in our communities.
Minis (Under 9)
4
£40
£2.50
Kids (9-11)
7
£40
£1.43
Teens (11-17)
6
£45
£1.88
Adults
6
£50
£2.08
Orton Only (one session)
1
£20
£5.00
Orton Only (both sessions)
2
£30
£4.38
Werrington Kids Only (under 11, up to orange belt)
1
£20
£5.00
To continue to encourage families to train together, we have the following package deals
Siblings (2 under 18s)
£70
Family Package (Up to 2 Adults, 2 Children)
£120
Parent Child (1 Adults, 1 Under 18)
£80
Don’t forget that you can earn up to £30 towards the costs of your training (including gradings, licencing, equipment, etc) by referring a friend.
You’ll earn a one-off 25% for every student you refer, as soon as they sign up after their free trial and we've received their first monthly payment. This is calculated on their monthly subscription rate.
Our normal grading schedule for a year is every third month (March, June, September, December). With Flick being due to give birth at the very beginning of April, and to ensure viability of our gradings, which are expensive to run, we are tweaking this schedule for 2025.
Our provisional grading dates for 2025 are as follows;
20th of April
20th of July
16th of November
Licences and insurance will now be automatically charged/renewed. This is to save any risk to our compliance, ensure students are not placed at risk, and reduce administrative overhead. We will renew your license with the same cover as you opted for initially, unless instructed otherwise. For the vast majority of people this will be the £15.00 digital only package.
Where appropriate, the changes in this document will be reflected in our terms of service, which will be reissued to all existing students. This primarily is to allow the club to run more efficiently and add clarity around timetable changes, for the time where the team’s capacity is reduced due to maternity and other commitments. Additionally, we are adding clarity around consent for multimedia, social media, promotional materials, and removing said consent. All students will be required to sign the new terms in order to continue training from the 1st of January 2025.
The changes are as follows (changes/additions are in bold).
I understand and agree that, for the purposes of improving training, analysis, and promotion, including on social media, photography and videos may be taken by authorised agents on behalf of the Club. I understand that I can opt in and opt out of consenting for these images/videos to be taken and shared, however in the event of me revoking my consent, the Club is under no obligation to remove previously published content, and is only responsible for ensuring new content is not published with me/my child. I understand that it can be impossible to remove content once published, specifically as once published online or printed and distributed, the Club is not in able to remove that content. In the event where there is a material, serious, and credible risk to the safeguarding of a child or vulnerable adult, the Club will do everything it practically and reasonably can to remove these images from platforms where it has the ability to do so.
I understand that any fees paid to the Club for any reason are non-refundable, and that the Club is not responsible for any fees paid to any external parties, and that some fees will be automatically charged (such as licensing with regulators), to ensure the Club's compliance and the safety of all members.
I understand and accept that from time to time the Club may change its pricing, and will do so with not less than 1 calendar month's notice, and will give more notice where possible. Members have the right to cancel without notice or refund in these scenarios. Where the Club honours pricing for existing members, this is at the discretion of the Club and the Club retains the right to change pricing or cancel memberships at its sole discretion.
The Club may modify its timetable to ensure it remains operational, and in this scenario the Club may offer refunds or credit at its sole discretion, timetable changes do not affect monthly pricing unless explicitly stated otherwise. Where this causes material and direct impact to a student, students have the right to cancel without notice or refund.
You may have seen we are now offering our custom kickboxing fight suits / uniforms. Alongside the club’s continued ambitions in the realms of kickboxing and freestyle Karate, we are now offering dedicated classes for Kickboxing. These classes will focus more heavily on dynamic moving and striking, fitness and conditioning, and sparring drills/techniques as well as live sparring.
With this in mind, you may notice some tweaks to our branding and messaging to align with our new timetable and expanded offering. We are already registered with 2x international kickboxing bodies, and I am already an internationally registered kickboxing coach.
This change simply allows for students to focus their training on their area(s) of interest, rather than enforcing a “one size fits all” approach for all students.
Training Kit
Traditional Gi
Kickboxing Trousers and Club T, or Fight Suit
Class Content
Kihon, Kata, Kumite
Points, LightCon, KickLight
Ages
4+
9+
Instructions
Traditional Japanese
English
Gloves
Kumite
Points / Boxing
Headguards & Gumshields
Strongly Advised
Mandatory
Focus
Traditional Karate Development
Padwork, sparring drills, sparring
Self Defence Included
Yes
Yes
Competition Rulesets
Kata, Kumite, Points
Points, LightCon, Kicklight etc.
Syllabus
Kihon, Kata, Kumite
Drills, Fitness, Sparring
Grading
Gradings every 3-4 months
Attainment based in class
Whilst the kids classes are covering a freestyle Karate syllabus, they will grade on the traditional syllabus.
We're changing our timetable to include Kickboxing specific classes, this new timetable will be in effect from the 1st of January. Second session classes through December will be a mixture of grading syllabus and kickboxing.
Monday
6.00 - 7.00
William Law
Karate
Monday
7.00 - 8.00
William Law
Kickboxing
Wednesday
6.30 - 7.30
Vivacity Werrington
Karate
Wednesday
7.30 - 8.30
Vivacity Werrington
Kickboxing
Thursday
5.30 - 6.30
William Law
Kids Freestyle Karate
Friday
6.30 - 7.30
Herlington
Karate
Friday
7.30 - 8.30
Herlington
Kickboxing
We are looking to add support for competitors and senior grades in specialised sessions, as well as being able to offer 1:1 sessions on a first come first served basis to support individual goals. These sessions are likely to cost around £25 for 1:1 and £10 for small group sessions.
If you haven’t already seen, we now have custom fight suits available! These are Oubaitori branded and are seen in point fighting and lightcon competitions. Contact Flick for more information. A more cost effective option for those training in kickboxing classes are kickboxing or Gi trousers and a t-shirt, club t-shirt preferred.
In line with our commitment to being a non-profit organisation, and in order to ensure the smooth management of the Club, and the balanced leadership of our organisation - specifically in order to continue to unlock additional funding opportunities - I would like to thank the following Directors for their contributions in 23/24: Flick Johnson, Samuel Sheppard, and Samantha Liddle.
All of the above have agreed to continue into 24/25. They are joined by new additions Ciaran Heagren, Clare Humphries, and Emily Hanger. I will remain on the Board for the Club. Michelle O’Mahony continues in her role on the Governance Board as Junior Assistant Instructor in our children’s class and Student Welfare Officer. Flick continues in her role as Club Secretary.
Matt Johnson
Head Coach,, Company Director, Governance Board, Safeguarding Lead
Felicity “Flick” Johnson
Assistant Instructor, Company Secretary, Company Director, Governance Board
Samuel “Shep” Sheppard
Assistant Instructor, Company Director, Governance Board
Ciaran Heagren
Junior Assistant Instructor, Company Director, Governance Board
Michelle O’Mahony
Junior Assistant Instructor (Kids), Governance Board, Student Welfare Officer
Emily Hanger
Lottery Senior Contact, Company Director, Governance Board
Samantha “Lids” Liddle
Company Director, Governance Board
Clare Humphries
Company Director, Governance Board
Our board is set to be reviewed annually and is expected to be in place from the 1st of November until the 31st of October each year. Should you wish to be involved in our Board of Directors or Governance, in the future please let a member of the team know.
To ensure that all students are represented in club decisions and to encourage the voices of our members to be heard, we are starting a committee for parents/students to be able to voice any concerns, opinions and represent students to the Club. If you are interested in joining this committee, please let us know as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Matt, the Directors and Governance Board
Oubaitori Karate Club Limited