Ages 6 – 11
Children's
classes
What it is
A martial art,
not a sport.
There is no competition here, no league table and no medals. Nobody is ranked against anybody else. What a child is measured against is what they could do last term.
That matters more than it sounds. A child who is not naturally sporty, who dreads being picked last, who finds team games loud and exposing — that child can do well here. So can the child who is already good at everything and has never had to be patient with themselves.
The class is half an hour, once a week, after school. It is deliberately short. Thirty focused minutes with fourteen children is worth more than an hour of them being tired.
What children get from it
Six things, and we can evidence all of them.
How to fall
Ukemi — rolling and breakfalling — is the first thing taught and the most immediately useful. Children fall off things. Knowing how to land is a skill they will use in the playground long before they use anything else.
Balance and coordination
Moving deliberately, on both sides of the body, in patterns that change. This is the developmental window where that wiring is laid down, and it transfers to every other physical activity they do.
Attention
Half an hour of doing one thing carefully, without a screen. Not stillness for its own sake — attention with a purpose, because the technique doesn't work if you aren't watching.
Self-discipline, not obedience
The bowing and the etiquette are real, but the point isn't compliance. It is learning to keep going at something difficult that you are currently bad at. That is the whole of it.
Physical confidence
Knowing what your body can do, and being comfortable close to other people without it being a contest. Quieter children in particular tend to stand differently after a couple of terms.
A tradition to belong to
These techniques are around nine hundred years old and children find that genuinely gripping. The history is a hook, and the hook is what keeps them coming back long enough for the rest to work.
What we won't claim
Martial arts marketing tends to promise that a class will stop your child being bullied, cure their confidence problems or fix their behaviour at home. We won't tell you that, because it isn't true and you would find out.
What a weekly half-hour reliably does is improve coordination, teach a child to fall safely, and give them repeated experience of being bad at something and then getting better. Whatever else follows, follows from that.
A session
What actually
happens.
- Line up and bow inThe formal opening. Shoes off, phones away, names checked against the register.
- Warm up and movementRolling, crawling, balance work. Looks like play, and is doing real developmental work.
- UkemiFalling and rolling on the mats, taught progressively. Nobody is pushed past what they are ready for.
- TechniqueOne or two things, done slowly, with a partner of similar size. Escaping a grab, moving off a line, keeping balance.
- Bow outClosing formality, then signed out to a named adult.
Safety
What's in place
before they
step on the mat.
Who is in the room
The class is taught by Shihan Lisandro Serra Delmar, who holds an Enhanced DBS certificate including a Children's Barred List check, registered with the DBS Update Service so it can be verified at any time.
He is assisted throughout by Angela Benton, a DBS-checked, first-aid-trained adult and a student at the dojo. Angela is an assistant rather than an instructor, and a second adult is present for the whole session, every session.
What is not taught to this age group
No sparring. No competition. No strikes to the head. No chokes or strangles. No joint locks applied under pressure. No bladed weapons of any kind, blunted or otherwise — this age group uses wood and foam only.
The practical things
Forty-five square metres of matting is laid for every session. A stocked first aid kit is on site. Children are signed in on arrival and signed out only to an adult you have named in advance. Emergency contact and medical details are collected before a first session and refreshed each year.
A written safeguarding and child protection policy and a venue risk assessment are in place, and you are welcome to read both — just ask.
Photographs
We sometimes photograph training. Your consent is asked for separately from joining, it is never a condition of your child taking part, and you can withdraw it at any time. First names only, never full names, and never anything that identifies a child's school or routine.
Practical
Joining, and what it costs.
When
Thursdays, 3.45 – 4.15pm
School term time only
Where
Eurythmy Room
Steiner Academy Hereford
Much Dewchurch, HR2 8DL
Cost
£7 per session
Booked by half term
No joining fee
What to wear
Tracksuit and t-shirt.
Training is barefoot.
Don't buy a uniform yet
Turning 12
When a child turns twelve they move up into the adult class, Monday and Thursday evenings, with your written consent. Several of our teenagers train alongside a parent.
Ages 6 – 11
Come and watch a class first.
You are welcome to stay and watch before deciding anything. Message first so we know to expect you.
Ask about a place