6 Steps to Re-opening Your Martial Arts School After Covid-19
As rules around self-isolating start to relax and the end begins to come into view, it is time to seriously consider how your school is going to operate moving forward. Regardless of whether or not the end to lockdown is on the horizon for you, it is never too early to begin preparing for how your school will adapt to the new landscape.
Re-opening your school will be far more complicated than unlocking the front door and declaring that all classes have recommenced. Carrying out a risk assessment will be essential to ensure you can open safely.
6 Step Risk Assessment
- Identify what are the risks and hazards.
Conduct a walkthrough of your facility. Take note of high-risk areas like entry and exit points, bathrooms/changing rooms and places where people would congregate. Consider how you would respond if a student or a staff member reports being infected. Take stock of equipment. Leave no tree unclimbed, no stone unturned. - Ascertain who may be at risk and the various scenarios.
There are two groups to consider when determining who is at risk of infection — your students and your staff. Unlike a lot of other sports, martial arts is unique in how intentional physical contact is. You may need to consider how you can minimise physical contact, whilst still providing a quality training program to your students.
Conduct a staff audit to establish who is most at risk. Note down how often a team member is required to come into contact with others as part of their job, anyone with pre-existing conditions and anyone who has reported being infected or has come into contact with someone who has been infected. - Ask for contributions.
Reach out to your students and staff and ask them to share their concerns. Are they eager to come back? Do they have any specific concerns? What can you implement to make them feel safe to return to your school? This feedback adds another layer of insight and can shed light on things you have missed or validate the concerns you have. - Deep analysis of individual risks.
You will need to thoroughly consider the consequences for each ‘risk’ that you have uncovered to be able to move forward and create a plan of action. Ask yourself — What is the likelihood of this occurring? What are the consequences for the individual(s) it involves? What are the consequences for the business if this were to happen? Look at each risk from all angles and consider how it could negatively impact finances, peoples safety, the long or short term disruption to conducting classes and the potential harm to your school’s reputation. - Make a plan of action.
After you have gathered all the possible information and worked each scenario inside out, you can begin moulding your plan. You will need to factor in any guidance set out by your local authorities regarding social distancing and safety equipment. You may extend working from home for staff who don’t perform face-to-face roles, restrict class sizes and implement stricter hygiene requirements for students. - Block out time in your diary to review results.
Consistently monitoring your strategy is the only way of ensuring you stay on the right path. It will be easy to get dragged back into the day-to-day once you have opened your doors, so block out time either daily or weekly to review how things are going. Be prepared to change direction quickly if things are not going to plan.
Conducting a risk assessment is likely a new task for you or one that you have not had to do in this capacity. Don’t let feeling daunted by the task prevent you from taking that first step. Early preparation will allow you to re-open your school smoothly and with confidence.
