It’s not just about Gymnastics
Hopefully, you’ve already realised that our classes are more than GYMNASTICS!!
When you enrol as a member, we want to get the message across to you that your child’s well-being is of the utmost importance. Yes, of course, our gymnastics /child development programme is super important. However, we’re here to make your child’s journey through life as seamless & easy as possible.
It’s tough being a little person in today’s day and age! Gosh, we used to play outside in the streets, skipping, doing hopscotch, roller skating, playing ball. Lots of risk taking & problem solving daily (not that we realised we were doing this). You tried, you failed, you tried again, you fell over sometimes BUT, you picked yourself up and tried again. If at first you don’t succeed…… you know the saying
We realise that these days, children don’t always get the opportunity to do half the crazy things we used to do however, they still need to work out how to do these things to get on in life ….. and that’s where we come in. What your children learn at the gym, transfers into their everyday lives
We recreate risk taking and problem solving situations for your children in the safe environment of our gym, so they can learn how to manage different scenarios in real life
Our lesson plans incorporate many valuable life skills, not just the physical ones, but the social & emotional challenges children face on a daily basis. How to share, how to take turns, how to follow simple instructions, how to be nice to each other. Navigating a children’s world today is pretty tricky and we as a Team at Balance & Beam recognise this has become much more difficult since the Covid 19 pandemic
Covid 19 was hard enough for adults, so can you imagine what this must have felt like for a little person to understand what was going on. Not being able to do their normal daily things, not being able to see their friends or go to school. I’m sure some of them loved not having to go to school but for the majority, this has been a real challenge for children & parents.
Children are less able to handle or cope with different situations and we want to do the best we can to help steer them on their path to life
We also realise that children love to be rewarded for the tiniest little achievements. Hence the introduction of our WOW board earlier this year. We hope you see this as a positive addition to our classes as we reward even the smallest of achievements, sometimes just stepping through the door, unaided and joining in can be a big WOW to some children.
Our Awards system takes this one step further
At what age do Balance & Beam Awards start:
If you’re a parent of a 3 – 12 year old, then go to your Member Dashboard and click on Classes & Badges, then Badges under your child’s name
From there you will see which badge your child is on (Badge 1, 2,3 etc.)
You will see the coloured progress key at the top left with how they are getting on when they were last assessed and what skills they are expected to achieve, not all of them physical.
Once your child has passed all the elements of that badge, yippee, they can purchase their badge & certificate from the front desk after class.
We love a celebration, so we'd grab a photo of them with their certificate if that’s OK to help you & us acknowledge their great achievement.
Once you’ve claimed your Award, your child’s next badge will then be automatically uploaded to their account and ready to go
We assess the children every 2/3 weeks on the various skills required so that over the course of a 12-14 week period, your child should be receiving their award.
If we feel that your child needs some help with a particular activity, we will have a chat with you and give you, their parent, some tips and hints on how to help your child with a skill.
If you take a closer look at the badge elements you will see that the badge skills your child is aiming for aren’t just physical. They touch on the 6 SPICES that we believe all children need to be accomplishing as part of their developmental milestones through Key Stage 1 & 2 as part of the National Curriculum:
S = Social Development
P = Physical Development
I = Intellectual Development, including language
C = Cultural Development
E = Emotional Development
S = Spiritual Development
Click the link below for a more detailed description of the 6 key stages we believe are important to your little ones
Have a look at our Website’s Home Page for a more detailed description of the 6 key stages we believe are important to your little ones
That’s why being part of the Balance & Beam family is so important to your child’s life. We like to see your child’s physical & mental wellbeing as important as say a swimming lesson…you can’t do without us!
Granted, we are aware that rolling out this new system has been a little slower than we would have liked or anticipated. It’s hard work assessing over 700 children over 7 days a week in over 40 classes, we definitely underestimated the time needed, and having a qualified member of the senior team available (AKA Lauren & Charlotte) for which I do apologise. We are catching up slowly!
So there you are, I hope you find this useful and of course, we’d really love to hear your feedback about our awards.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask a member of the Senior Team, Charlotte, Lauren, Juliette or myself.
Have an amazing Christmas!
Happy Handstands!
Yvonne Shuttleworth
CEO