Firstly we would like to wish a Happy New Year to all members and friends of White Rose and we hope that you are all looking forward to the coming year.

Classes for the New Year

As you are aware there has been a break in the normal schedule for the Aikido classes during the Christmas and New Year period. 

From Sunday the 6th of January all classes will resume in the Huddersfield and Wakefield area and the Durham classes will resume to the normal training times on Monday the 7th of January. 

All training times are listed in the dojo section of the website if you have any questions do not hesistate to email us at the normal email address.

Wakefield Course Photos

On the last course of the year Sensei Derrick was kind enough to take some photos of Sensei Alexander teaching and training with a number of the students.   These photos have been published on the website and can be accessed through the media section.  There are also some new video clips of Ian Tyler taking his Nidan back in October 2007. 

Courses

There will be some changes to the course structure during 2008. In the past we have had 4 courses taking place throughout the year, however this will now be condensed down to only 3 courses.  The courses will take place in Spring, Summer and the Winter. Gradings will take place during the Spring and Winter courses only.   One course will take place in Durham and the remainder will take place in the Huddersfield/Wakefield area.  There are guest instructors planned for 2008 however details have not been confirmed. As soon as any details have been confirmed it will be posted in the courses section of the Website.

 Grading

There will be a change in grading structure from 2008. Candidates for gradings will be required to have attended one of the previous courses during the previous 12 months .

For example if you wish to grade on the Winter course you will of have to have attended either the summer or spring course to qualify for a grading. The reason for this is encourage the development of your aikido

Memberships

Membership prices for the year are remaining the same. However, all memberships will now be paid for by the end of March, this applies for both Huddersfield and Durham members.  If a students joins later in the year then they will pay a pro-rata fee for the remainder of the year until March   If you have any questions regarding this you can please speak to you club instructor. 

Website Changes

In the past year you will have noticed there have been changes in the structure and design of the website. We hope that this has made the website easier to navigate and more user friendly. 

There are also more planned changes to the website this year, particularly regarding the information that is displayed. We hope that these will improve your browsing experience and improve your understanding of the association.

Please feel free to send any suggestions that you have to improve the website. We can’t promise to make all requested changes, but all of your feedback is useful.

One of the changes will be an expansion of the section devoted to the Senior Instructors and will include all of the associations’ qualified instructors. This changes will take place over the next couple of months so keep checking the website for any updates.

Sensei Riley Teaching in Durham

Finally Sensei Riley is planning to come up to Durham to teach a class during January or February. There is no confirmed date yet but as soon as any date is known it will be be posted in the course section of the website.