First Step Footy is a football-based activity session for boys and girls born between September 2017 and August 2021. Sessions take place weekly on Sunday morning. We work hard to improve your child's movement, awareness and co-ordination skills to give them the best chance in their future football careers.
We are really proud of our history and love seeing our First Steppers going on to play and captain Herefordshire junior teams and even sign for academy squads. Our link with clubs is underpinned by our affiliation for Hereford FC community programme. This affiliation also gives us access to some great opportunities, including a fun day in Edgar Street itself.
What to expect
The Venue
We use Hereford Sixth Form College as our training base. This gives us access to their indoor sports hall during the winter months and the outdoor 3G pitch during the warmer months. There is ample free parking and toilet facilities.
The Sessions
The sessions are planned in accordance with the children's skill level, attitude and desire to learn, meaning that sessions are varied and progressive. We use a range of games and training equipment to build well rounded sports people with a focus on football. Those in the toddler age group might find children unresponsive at first and often a little clingy, however, this is natural and we often find that after 3 or 4 sessions they are off independently running around. In the toddler age group we encourage parent participation as it further demonstrates the skills we're looking to achieve and allows children to copy from a familiar person. In the older age groups parents are able to sit back and watch their children nailing techniques, although you still need to be on site.
Children will need to be dressed in active clothes and wearing trainers for every session. We also suggest bringing a drinks bottle and ask that these are sports top bottles as they reduce spillages.
The Extras
We run sessions with a little extra theming (and chocolate) at Christmas and Easter, give out First Step Footy t-shirts*, have a training day at Edgar street and an end of season presentation in July with activities and food. All of these extras are included in your monthly subscription so you're never hit with an additional bill.
Your child will be presented with a certificate on their first session with us, you'll need to bring this certificate to each session and we'll fill them up with stickers. Once complete there's a little treat for completing it.
*T-shirts are given out to each child once per season in either November, February or June. Children must have been on roll for two payment cycles to receive their t-shirt.
The Season dates
First Step Footy will be operating for 41 weeks during the 2023/2024 season. We are not running on 24th December, 31st December and 31st March. Our first session of the season is Sunday 10th September and we'll have our end of season presentation on Sunday 21st July 2023. In May we will have a session at Edgar Street (TBC).
Booking details
Booking Process
We use a booking system called ClassForKids. You will need to register yourself first as a parent/carer and then your child onto the system. When you have your account on ClassForKids you can use this to sign up for our classes as well as any other company that uses it, for example, booking into holiday camps with All Star Activities.
When you book your child into their class you will be subscribing to a £27.50 per month direct debit. This will be taken on the 1st of each month. If this is the first time using the club you'll not pay for classes until the following month (ie book on 12th of the month, you'll not pay until 1st of the following month.
Trials/covering payments
We always suggest booking after the 1st of the month, this means you don't pay for your first session, essentially a trial. You'll still need to set up the payments but nothing will come out until 1st of the following month. If your child doesn't like it, you can cancel using the process below. Depending how many sessions are in between your booking, attendance and the following month, we might add a covering payment - but we will always inform you of this before 28th of the month.
How to cancel
To cancel your subscription you'll need to email us at 1stfooty@gmail.com before the 28th of the month. We cannot accept cancellations by word of mouth or social media although we're happy to confirm a cancellation through these methods. For example, your payment will come out on 1st March, you will need to email us by 28th March to cancel April's payment. Your child can attend throughout March.
Age Group Confirmation
Toddler Group: September 2020 and August 2021
Pre-Reception: September 2019 and August 2020
Pre-Club (Reception/Year 1): September 2017 and August 2019