Maintaining regular communication with your students and their parents is essential for keeping your martial arts school top of mind. Whether it’s as simple as sending a birthday card to a student or a get-well card to a sick parent, or as involved as creating a quarterly newsletter, staying in touch is a powerful way to reinforce the value of your school and ensure that your students feel connected.

The Power of Newsletters

Every month, martial arts school owners need to remind parents why investing in their child’s martial arts education is worthwhile. With the constant demands on a family’s budget—like braces and new shoes—it’s crucial to keep parents and students aware of the benefits that martial arts training offers.

Newsletters are an excellent way to communicate these benefits. Unlike spoken words, which can be easily forgotten, written words carry more weight and tend to be more persuasive. A well-crafted newsletter can serve as a consistent reminder of the positive impact that martial arts can have on a student’s life.

Through a newsletter, you can recognize student accomplishments, introduce new drills or self-defense techniques, and reinforce the many benefits of martial arts. You might include excerpts from martial arts magazines, self-defense tips from women’s magazines, motivational quotes, or articles about health, fitness, stress relief, and concentration—topics that resonate with martial arts enthusiasts.

You could also involve your students by including letters they’ve written about what martial arts means to them. This not only adds a personal touch but also engages the students in the communication process. Best of all, you can share your own insights and experiences, making the newsletter a valuable resource that students and parents look forward to receiving each quarter.

Providing Feedback Through Report Cards

In addition to newsletters, report cards are another effective tool for keeping students and parents engaged. Report cards serve two main purposes: they clearly communicate a student’s progress to their parents and they motivate the student to continue improving their performance.

By creating and sending out report cards once a quarter, you can give your school a more professional and academic feel. These report cards can be simple and cover key areas such as:

  • Etiquette
  • Attendance
  • Concentration
  • Effort
  • Balance
  • Speed
  • Power

Providing regular feedback through report cards not only helps students understand where they excel and where they need to improve but also shows parents that their child’s development is being carefully monitored. This can significantly boost retention by keeping both students and parents engaged and motivated.