Sport England recognises and values the commitment made by sports clubs to develop high quality, welcoming environments for young participants. It looks for the development of clubs that encourage young people to take-up sport, improve their talents, possibly play a leadership role and give them the option to initiate and maintain life-long participation in sport is an essential part of supporting the sporting infrastructure in England.
As part of this commitment, Sport England introduced Clubmark in 2002 and this is awarded in recognition of a quality sports club with junior members. It is a standard that is applied across all Sports. Clubs with accreditation are allowed to use the Clubmark symbol. This is like a kite mark and gives parents the knowledge and confidence that their children are attending a safe, quality club and ensuring that young people reach their full playing potential.
The club has been working over the last few months on an application to achieve Clubmark accreditation. We had to demonstrate that we achieved pre-determined minimum operating standards in the areas of the playing programme, duty of care and protecting children and young people; knowing your club and its community; and club management. As part of the application we have reviewed all the policies and proceedures of the club, as well as introducing some new ones. All these documents are available for access through the club website.
We were delighted to hear on 10th December that the application by the club had been successful and that we now have Clubmark accreditation. This achievement will expand opportunities for the club to extend training in the schools, improve access to some grants and funding and will show potential new students and their parents that the club has a rigorously reviewed set of policies for running the club and its classes.nbsp;
There are over 10,000 clubs in England that are accredited. OBTKD is the first WTF Taekwondo Club in the country to achieve this standard and is the first Taekwondo Club of any style to achieve this in Hampshire – a fantastic achievement for the club.