FAQ & Policies

Joining Meridian

What do I need to do to join the club?

In the first instance, please put your child on our waiting list by following this link. We are currently accepting members in preschool and GFA (4-9yrs old). We do not currently have availability for 10yrs+ from outside the gym or for boys aged 8yrs+ due to staff and qualification constraints.

What are the costs of joining the club?

Joining the club requires the following fees:- club membership fee (£25) and a British Gymnastics membership fees (£24) as well as the cost of your monthly class which starts at £48 per month in GFA. In addition, there are occasional costs including a £5 badge charge every 10 weeks, a £2.50 East Region charge once a year and optional competitions.

How do I buy a club leotard, tracksuit, shorts or other item?

We have a club shop on this website which sells everything that we hold in stock, including the optional BG Rise medals that accompany certificates sometimes awarded in class. We also have a Facebook Community Group which is open to members only and has a thriving second hand market. Our hoodies, onesies and other stash are available directly from Stitcheze and delivered to the club.

Admin & Payments

How can login to the admin system?

You can login to your members area here. Within this space you can find a series of downloadable files such as our handbooks, badge curricula, leotard and equipment guides, competition entry guides and explanations of how our groups and move ups work. You can also find records of your child’s current badge, active subscriptions and how to withdraw from the club.

How can I change the card I pay from?

We use GCS for our administration system and the card processor Stripe. If you wish to change your card details, please use this link with the email address you use to login to GCS.

Can I change my payment date to one that suits my needs?

Yes you can but this has to be done manually by our admin team so please email the office.

My payment is bouncing; what has gone wrong?

Stripe will try to take payments from you on your subscription date; if the card has expired, or there are insufficient funds, it will continue to try for a short period and then send you a direct payment link. If you receive emails of this nature, they do require direct action.

Please note that once your fees are more than one week overdue your gymnast will be unable to train. If you are in short term financial difficulty, please get in touch with us.

Why have I been notified of the end of a ‘free trial’?

We have a series of payments that are charged once a year (East Region Membership, Badges, MGC Membership) which are set up in advance of their charge date on GCS/Stripe. The time before they are first charged is created as a ‘free trial’ on those systems and you will be notified of the end of those ‘trials’ to warn you of the charge you are about to receive. Please ignore the ‘free trial’ aspect of this; it is just a wording we can’t change but the charges are not optional and part of the normal running of the club.

What happens if my fees are not requested?

We are adding the following rule to our terms and conditions effective August 2024. Terms and conditions are that you must notify us if your fees are not collected on any given month. Please do ensure that you let us know if you notice any discrepancy as you will be liable to pay any back fees owing.

British Gymnastics Membership

British Gymnastics Membership (which we sometimes refer to as ‘insurance’ to differentiate it from our annual Meridian Club Membership fee charged in January) is a requirement of belonging to Meridian Gymnastics Club. It is purchased directly through the British Gymnastics website and for most members (those who were involved in gymnastics before June 2024) runs from October to September every year. For those who have joined gymnastics more recently, their new system now runs from the 1st of the month you joined in and continues for 1 year.

Club Support & Rules

Can I watch my child train?

We have an open balcony which is available for you to watch from. We do reserve the right to close it and ask parents not to use it in certain circumstances. We have a strict no filming policy from the balcony, and ask that other children are kept quiet while in that area, that it is left clean and tidy and that parents do not communicate with their child from it while they are being coached.

What do I do if I can’t park?

There will never be enough parking spaces for everyone to stay and watch. Please park responsibly and do not park along any of the edges of the carpark, near the building or near the entrance to the car park. In particular, our fire door near the roll up door opens outwards and we regularly use it to let in air to the building. Parking there may result in your car being damaged, for which we are not responsible. Parking along any edge may mean emergency vehicles cannot attend the premises, putting lives at risk and additionally makes it hard for children to navigate the area safely, putting them at risk. When parking elsewhere, please do not park anywhere on the business park that blocks access to other premises, makes the road difficult to use or uses space allocated to any other business.

What happens if I’m late?

We will always keep your children safe until you arrive. However, we do close at 8.30pm and we are obliged to keep two members of staff with a child if they have not been collected for safeguarding reasons. We fully understand that ‘things happen’ but if a child is repeatedly collected after 830pm, we reserve the right to charge £10 for every 15 minutes or part of 15 minutes beyond 8.30pm in order to cover that staff cost.

My child can’t attend their class; can they do another one for one week?

Our sessions run on strict coach:gymnast ratios and all classes are kept full. We therefore have in our t&cs that replacement sessions are not an option as they would breach the ratio we are insured to keep too.

My child is injured and cannot attend; what is your policy?

If a child was injured outside the gym, or inside in an unavoidable accident, we have a policy of reducing fees by 50% for a maximum of 3 months to retain the place in the gym; after that, a return procedure will be put in place specific to each case. If there was an incident where we consider ourselves at fault, a different arrangement will be made. A 50% payment will hold a GFA/General place for 3 months; in the event of a prolonged absence for a higher level group or squad, a return to the original group may not be in the best interest of the child but the gym will work with the family on a case by case basis to ensure their physical and mental wellbeing. The 50% policy is NOT available in the case of requesting absence from the gym for non-injury reasons and it would be considered a breach of membership agreement to report a non-existent injury to gain the 50% discount.

The Club Year (Half Terms & Holidays)

Are you open in half term & holidays? And what about Bank Holidays?

We are open for 50 weeks of the year and only close for two weeks across the Christmas break. The cost of this closure is built into the cost of our fees across the year. We do not open on Bank Holiday Mondays and Monday fees are adjusted to accommodate this. From 2025 we will not open on for GFA and General on Good Friday and a similar adjustment will be made to Friday fees. Squads will be unaffected.

Can I pause my payments during holidays?

Our terms & conditions are that classes run throughout the year (except for the 2-week Christmas break) and cannot be paused or put on hold for holidays or trips abroad. This is because we need to keep our classes full in order to meet our financial obligations to coaches and our overheads and cannot simply sell on a temporarily available space in a session. Therefore the options are either to pay for sessions during your trip or give one months notice and go on to our waiting list when you return. In order to be fair to everyone, including those on the waiting list, we apply this policy equally across the whole gym.

Badges, Rosettes, Rise & Move Ups

How can my child move up through the gym?

Move ups are based on a combination of skill set, perceived future ability, age and emotional readiness, coupled with having space for children in groups of the next level that we believe will benefit them. We put a lot of time into group moves to try to best serve the emotional and physical needs to the children in our care but we also only have a finite capacity and this is also a factor. Moving up is based on different factors at each level and age within the gym but typically a child will be ready to move up from Foundation when they can handstand, forward roll, circle up on bars and work independently with enough confidence to join in and benefit from a floor skills warm up. Children are generally ready to move on from Improvers when they have a low bar routine or at least a back hip circle, a flat back vault and strong weight bearing skills on floor; alternatively they may move up when they are approaching 10 years old and will move into our multi-ability General programme. There is a file in your members area with a longer explanation of this.

What badges can my child achieve?

In GFA (Foundation, Improvers, Mini & Future Stars and some intermediate groups), gymnasts work on a series of badge programmes. Our Rainbow series 8-1 are most commonly used, with a parallel Bronze (1-6) scheme which supplements this if they are not ready to move on to the next Rainbow badge. Bronze is also used in some of our Development groups. Following this, gymnasts move on to Silver (1-6) and we will be implementing Gold and Platinum (1-6) for our Intermediate, Advanced and General groups in 24/25. We are also now implementing BG Rise as an additional award scheme. These certificates are included in membership fees, but you can buy the medal once your child has been awarded it if you wish.

How often do you do badges in GFA and is it compulsory?

We test badges for 2 weeks in every 10 weeks and they are charged automatically as part of our membership agreement. We only ever award a badge if it was truly passed and so we have our parallel Bronze system (similar levels, different skills) to save disappointment and tears. We present badges for 2 weeks, normally around 2 weeks after testing and uncollected ones are then left in the lobby for collection. We charge all GFA children for a badge every 10 weeks and catch up those who are away in testing weeks, but also refund anyone who truly does not pass or who it is not right to test on that particular occasion. BG Rise is being implemented 3 times per year and will extend into General if coaches feel it will benefit their group, on a rolling basis to suit the readiness of the children.

What are the skill rosettes and how do gymnasts achieve them?

We have around 100 skill rosettes that are awarded on completion of a new skill performed to the an ability set at coach discretion eg a GFA child might achieve a beam cartwheel one for a good repeated low beam cartwheel, but a child in a development squad might be asked to perform it to a technically strong standard on a high beam for a number of sessions. Skill rosettes are a free (you are not charged) perk in the gym and keeping all these in stock is a vast cost and enterprise and we do not always have them all the time; gymnasts who leave the club before an achieved one is presented are not entitled to receive it subsequently nor do we present them to gymnasts who already had a skill before joining us. We are not able to keep records of exactly who has received each rosette (we’ve tried, it is basically impossible to have a central system for this), but quite happy to be asked if one is in stock or can be tested if we’ve made a mistake. We are only human, but we are quite nice humans!

Competitions

What competitions will my child get the opportunity to do?

We host one competition each year that all Foundation, Improvers and General Gymnasts are invited to attend (with the occasional exception of a few of the oldest and most experienced General Gymnasts who are invited to an alternative). This is called Rainbow Champs and is in late/Feb/early March each year. We host an an additional club comp for those of 9 and older in the late summer, called Eclipse and this is also open to everyone in the club of the correct age. Our Meridian Stars competition (early December) is a predominantly squad level competition is open to other clubs and only a small selection of our gymnasts will be entered for this one. Outside of the above there is invitational competitions (hosted by various clubs including ourselves and County competitions (open to all clubs in Cambridgeshire) and each coach decides on what competition is a good fit for their group and cohort of gymnasts.

Why didn’t my child get a chance to do a competition that their friend was entered for?

Competitions can delay progress and so they are not always the best next step for a group. There may be other factors, including coach availability, skill sets or even how many children we can enter. We try to share the opportunities around fairly and beneficially but the coach decision is always final and all gymnasts are bound by our competition entry rules which are available in our GCS download area.

Why does the programme say my child is 10 when they are still only 9?

All gymnasts are counted as the age they will be on the 31st December of each year. Therefore a child born on 1st January and 31st December in the same year are the same age in gymnastics terms. We don’t make the rules, but those are the rules!

Competition Leotards

Please see above and also our leotard guide in our GCS download area.

Trials & Joining Squad Groups

My child attends another gym and would like a squad trial. What do we do?

We rarely have spaces for gymnasts in squad as most are filled internally but will help where we can. In the first instance, we recommend you speak with your current club/coach to try to resolve issues. If this is not successful, you can register your child on our waiting list and send in a covering email describing skill set and level. We will always ask permission to tell your current club you are attending for a trial; our balcony is open to parents and therefore it is unlikely to remain secret anyway. We do not guarantee to offer a place following a trial, but our goal is that children get to stay in their sport if possible. We categorically do not ever approach gymnasts from another club and ask them to trial with us. We keep an up to date record of available in the squad system and update these, with the skill criteria of each group on our Current Squad Spaces page.