Students pay £34 for annual membership, which includes their student insurance (known as peer-to-peer insurance). Our year runs from September, in line with the academic year. Students joining partway through the year are charged a pro-rata amount for the remaining months.

Parents who are unsure whether their child will stick with training can delay applying for membership for a month, paying only for sessions attended until they are sure, before moving over to the standard monthly direct debit. During this time they will be covered by our BMABA temporary insurance facility.

Students pay a monthly fee to cover this minimum 90-minute weekly training commitment, taken on the 1st of the month. Our year-round training includes a holiday allowance of 10 weeks, to reflect when training won’t usually be possible and families are likely to be busy or away on holidays: at Christmas and New Year (2 weeks), Easter (2 weeks) 3 weeks in July / August in school holiday time We use GoCardless to collect these regular payments and collect any further fees due, such as for additional training sessions attended, gradings, tournament entries or kit supplied.

There is no long-term commitment or cancellation period if a student wants to stop training at any point.

We currently run three classes per week. Where possible we encourage students to train twice a week, to maximise progress, although the minimum commitment is just one session per week.

• Saturday mornings at Castle Court School Sports Hall:

9.00am – 9.45am: Little Ninjas (3 to 7yrs)

9.50am – 11.20am: Main Class (7yrs + inc. adults)

• Tuesday evenings at Witchampton Village Hall:

6.00pm – 7.30pm (7yrs + inc. adults)

(Meet from 5.50pm to set out the mats).

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, such as tracksuit trousers and a t-shirt - and no footwear is required, as we train in bare feet!

A water bottle is essential and we advise a gum shield as a precaution. Although we don't land strikes to the front of the face in sparring, accidental contact or clashes can happen.

When a student feels ready, we can eoither source or advise them on where to buy a beginners' lightweight gi (the karate suit) We can also supply a full set of sparring gear: hand mitts and shin/foot pads at a substantial discount through our trade supplier, though we have sets of club sparring gear to lend to new joiners until they want to commit to buying their own.

Another common kit investment for students is their own set of focus pads for practising at home with a partner (usually a willing parent!) These can be bought through the club, again at a substantial discount, though we also have club sets of these for training sessions, so students do not need to buy their own set unless they would like to.

Gradings 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, memorable and powerful learning opportunities. Parents are welcome to attend and to take photos and video for personal use.

Grading fees range from just £8.50 for a red belt grading, to £42 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 £110.