We all have students that want to take a break for the summer. We do everything in our power to minimize this. Even with AM classes and all our fun summer events, we still have a few students that take summer off. And some of these students never return. So summer presents a real retention challenge.
To keep our staff focused on this, we set a goal to have as many students on September 1 as we did on June 1. If you feel like this is a goal you’d like for your school, here are three things you can implement right now to keep summer attendance strong:
1. Summer Contest - For each martial arts class a student attends, they earn a raffle ticket for a weekly giveaway. Kids earn additional raffle tickets for bringing buddies to class. Typically we offer fun prizes for junior students like super soakers, which get raffled off on Fun Fridays or Super Saturdays.
2. Fun Fridays and Super Saturdays - These are themed days ranging from pool noodle sparring to board breaking to fun tournaments. Buddies are welcome at all Fun Friday and Super Saturday Events. Choose different themes for each day and host them weekly from the end of June to the beginning of August.
3. Summer Spectacular – This event is an opportunity for staff and participating students to show a little bit of what they can do. Every summer activity that has a culminating event like this attracts a huge audience and can be a great recruiting event if students invite their friends.
As you can see, it’s good to mix activities designed to keep existing students with those that help you to recruit new martial arts students. Working on retention and new student acquisition during the summer will help you maintain your active count, and keep summer attendance strong.
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Would you like access to our Super Summer Series plan?
We have a complete plan with fliers and posters you can edit or use for your martial arts school, now available to Satori Business Members in the School Owner Resource Library.
Click here to learn more about our programs and speak to our team.
