Terms & Conditions
Before you book — the important bits
- Fees are not refundable. Once you have paid for a block of sessions, that payment is not refunded or credited if your child stops attending, for any reason.
- Judo is a contact sport. It involves gripping, throwing and controlled falling. Injury is uncommon, but the risk cannot be removed. By booking, you accept that risk on your child's behalf.
- We must have full medical information. Your child cannot take part until we hold complete medical, allergy and emergency contact details.
- Your child must be collected on time. We are responsible for your child only from the start of the session until they are collected by an authorised adult.
1. Booking
1.1 A place is confirmed once your booking is accepted and payment has been received in full. Until then, no place is held.
1.2 Places are limited by the safe capacity of the venue and are allocated in the order bookings are received.
1.3 Sessions are booked in blocks. The number of sessions in each block, and the fee, are shown to you before you pay.
1.4 New participants may join in the first two weeks of a block. After that we do not usually accept new starters, because judo is taught in sequence and a child who has not learned to fall safely cannot safely join a group that has. This is a safety decision.
2. Fees and payment
2.1 Fees are paid in full and in advance, before the first session of each block.
2.2 If payment is not received by the date given, we may release the place.
2.3 If paying is difficult, please contact us before the deadline. We would rather talk to you in confidence than lose your child from the programme.
3. Refunds
3.1 Fees are not refundable. Once you have paid for a block of sessions, we do not refund, credit or carry forward any part of it.
3.2 In particular, no refund or credit is given where your child does not attend a session for any reason, including illness, injury, holidays, appointments, other clubs or commitments, school trips, a change of mind, or suspension for behaviour.
3.3 No refund is given if you withdraw your child part-way through a block. You are free to withdraw at any time, and you will not be charged for any future block.
3.4 The reason is straightforward. When you book, we hold a place we cannot offer to another family, we book and pay a coach for every session in the block, and we commit to the venue. Those costs are the same whether or not your child attends on the day.
3.5 Where we are unable to deliver a session, we will run a replacement session or add the session to your next block. We will not simply keep the fee for a session we have not delivered.
3.6 We may stop running a class where it is no longer viable or cannot be run safely. If we do, we will refund any sessions you have paid for that we do not deliver.
4. Judo is a contact sport — risk and injury
4.1 Judo is a physical contact sport. Sessions involve gripping, throwing, being thrown, controlled falling and groundwork, with a partner, at close quarters. This is what judo is, and it cannot be taught any other way.
4.2 Serious injury is uncommon. Minor knocks are not. Bumps, bruises, jarred fingers, sprains and strains are a normal part of learning the sport, and your child should expect them from time to time. Less commonly, more significant injuries can occur — including to joints, and including head injuries.
4.3 We manage this risk carefully. We teach breakfalls before we teach throws, match techniques to age and ability, pair children deliberately rather than letting them choose, supervise all practice, restrict techniques by age in line with national guidance, and check the mats and the hall before every session. Our coaches are qualified, licensed, DBS checked, safeguarding trained and first aid trained.
4.4 Even so, the risk of injury cannot be removed from a contact sport, and we do not pretend otherwise. By booking a place for your child, you confirm that you understand this and accept that inherent risk on your child's behalf.
4.5 If your child is injured, we will treat it, tell you the same day, and record it.
4.6 Head injuries. If we suspect a head injury or concussion, your child will be taken out of the session immediately and will not return that day. If in doubt, we sit them out. Your child cannot return to judo without your written confirmation that they have recovered, and medical clearance where symptoms have continued. We will apply this even where you would prefer us not to.
4.7 Please do not send your child to a session while unwell, concussed, or carrying an injury that has not been looked at. Tell us instead — we can adapt a session, but only if we know.
5. Medical information and emergency treatment
5.1 Your child cannot take part until we hold complete registration details, including medical conditions, allergies, medication, current injuries, additional needs and emergency contacts.
5.2 You must tell us in writing of any change before the next session. We cannot manage a condition we do not know about.
5.3 By booking, you consent to a qualified first aider giving first aid to your child, and to your child receiving emergency medical treatment, including transport to hospital, where that is necessary and we cannot reach you first.
5.4 We do not give medication, other than helping in a life-threatening emergency with your child's own auto-injector or inhaler where you have given written authority. We will call 999 in any such case.
6. Kit and safety rules
• Fingernails and toenails must be cut short. Judo is a gripping sport and long nails cut other children.
• All jewellery must be removed, including earrings. We cannot tape them over.
• Long hair must be tied back with soft ties only — no hard clips or slides.
• Clean clothing, clean feet, and no zips, buttons or pockets.
• Please do not send your child with valuables. We cannot supervise personal property and are not responsible for anything lost or damaged.
• Children should not attend within 48 hours of vomiting or diarrhoea, and open wounds or verrucae must be covered.
7. Collection
7.1 We are responsible for your child from the point they are received by a coach and marked present, until they are collected by you or by an adult named on your registration.
7.2 Please collect promptly. If someone different is collecting, tell us in writing in advance. If we cannot verify the person collecting, we will not release your child and we will call you.
7.3 If there is a court order or other arrangement affecting who may collect your child, you must tell us in writing when you register.
7.4 If you are running late, call us. If your child is not collected, we will keep them supervised, hand them to school reception where the school is open and able to receive them, and contact you and your emergency contacts. Our coaches will never take a child home or transport a child in a vehicle.
7.5 Where a participant is old enough and you have authorised it in writing, they may leave the session and travel home unaccompanied. Once they have left, they are no longer in our care.
8. Behaviour
8.1 Judo works because every child trusts their partner to stay in control. A child who will not follow instruction is a risk to the child they are working with.
8.2 Where a child behaves in a way that endangers themselves or others, a coach may take them off the mat for the rest of that session, and we will tell you the same day.
8.3 Where behaviour is persistent or serious, we will speak with you. Where that does not resolve it, we may suspend or exclude your child. No refund is due for sessions missed as a result.
8.4 We ask that parents and carers do not enter the mat area or interrupt sessions, and do not criticise any child, coach or official. We will not accept abusive or threatening behaviour towards our coaches, and may withdraw a place where it occurs.
9. Safeguarding
9.1 The welfare of every child at our sessions comes before everything else. We operate a written safeguarding policy, we have a Designated Safeguarding Lead, and every coach is DBS checked and safeguarding trained before they deliver a session.
9.2 Where we have a concern about a child's welfare, we will act on it, including by sharing information with the school and referring to statutory agencies. Where a child may be at risk, we may do so without your consent and without telling you first. This is a legal duty.
10. Photographs
10.1 We will not photograph or film your child without your consent, which you give or withhold when you register. Refusing consent will never affect your child's participation, and you can withdraw it at any time.
10.2 Images are never published with your child's full name. Please do not photograph or film sessions yourself — other families have made different choices, and your photograph will usually contain someone else's child.
11. Your personal data
11.1 We use your and your child's information only to run the sessions safely, to meet our legal and safeguarding duties, and to administer bookings. We share it only where necessary, and we keep it only as long as we need to.
11.2 To ask what we hold, or to have it corrected or removed, email us. Some records we are required by law to keep.
12. Liability
12.1 Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.
12.2 Subject to that, our liability to you is limited to the fees you have paid for the block in which the relevant event occurred, and we are not liable for loss that was not foreseeable.
12.3 We are not responsible for your child before they are received by a coach or after they have been collected.
12.4 We are not responsible for personal property brought to a session.
13. General
13.1 If you are unhappy about anything, please raise it with the coach first. If it cannot be resolved there, email us and we will respond within 10 working days. Safeguarding concerns are acted on the same day.
13.2 We may update these terms. The current version is always the one published at the time you book.
13.3 If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.
13.4 These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.
13.5 Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer.