Dear Family of Practical Wing Chun,
I hope this message finds you all well.
Following the speech of our Prime Minister this morning, I understand that a lot of you might have questions about the school.
As a Professional Martial Arts school, we take all Health and Safety matters seriously, your safety and success is our number 1 priority.
Whilst information surrounding the Covid-19 has seen some mixed responses we only deal with the facts from qualified sources.
Things are moving so quickly, with the Government making regular announcements that I'm trying to stay ahead of these decisions.
As leaders, we train ourselves to think of a solution during difficult times like this one ahead of us.
As a Sifu (meaning a Teacher) I teach my students to be pro-active. I was born in Hong Kong, my father is from Hong Kong and my mother is from Taiwan.
I’ve been through SARS and understand the panic and hype we are currently facing. As a father of 2, I understand that parents are concern about their children.
What have we done as a school ?
We have already implemented some additional safety measures since last month which enforces strict hygiene and cleaning at our schools.
On top of that, we are encouraging (and enforcing) additional and regular personal hygiene of all staff and students with hand washing and sanitisation.
We are teaching our children the importance of personal hygiene and most importantly the reasons behind it. I am a strong believer that education is one of the most important thing we can give our next generation
What are we doing next ?
Apart from the normal personal hygiene and isolation recommendations from the Australian Government, we are taking a further step and will be closing the school for the time being not because of fear but because we are a responsible school. We put our community before our business.
We will close the school starting from next Monday 23rd of March till end of 19th of April 2020 (Total of 4 weeks and re-access at closer dates). We will be taking the school online for the time being for our members.
My thought process is to get in early and give our health system time to prepare and catch up. Although it seems like it is severe for a certain age group. But even if we’re young and fit we want to minimise the risk of passing this to the people we care.
Solutions:
✅ We have been running online programs for our distance learning around the world through our online training platform for the past 2 years+.
We will now start our online classes for our Kidsfit students.
✅ All members will have access to our online training through Teachable (Adult/Teen/Kidsfit)
✅ We will be utilising our new Facebook groups to post Facebook live videos, documents, tutorials, and health information from Sifu and instructors to continue to bring you useful and valuable content.
✅ We will be delivering online competitions for the kids to participate in, and to post up online to keep them active.
✅ Online holiday program for the kids during term break
How can you help ?
We have already seen a drop in attendance at our classes and also some people officially stopping their training.
I understand and respect all decisions. The health and safety of your family is of the utmost importance to you, as it is to us.
I anticipate more parents and students will make similar calls in the coming days and weeks.
To keep our doors open, we need to be able to pay rent, basic wages and other day to day running costs.
We are asking that if students wish to continue to practice (and that is probably more important now than ever) that you don’t suspend or cancel your memberships.
What it does mean for us, is coming up with options to keep people supporting the club through their ongoing memberships so we can survive and come out the other side still striving to be bigger and better.
We ask you for your support in the tough times ahead, to make sure we still have some where to train together and we are still here to teach you when this is all over. Tough times don’t last, only tough people do.
As a “thank you” to those who are able to help keep the club viable, we will be offering free workshop or grading vouchers on your return. 1 for every month you maintain your membership while you are away.
✅ FREE Workshop vouchers for every month you missed training ($60 worth) or a FREE Grading voucher
✅ 10% off your monthly membership fee for the next financial year (Starting July 2020) If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Thanks again for being part of our amazing Kung fu family! And thank you so much for your consideration in these uncertain times. Whatever your decision, it is fine. You will be welcomed back to the club with open arms after this craziness has passed.
Kind regards, Sifu Jack Leung