COVID PROTOCOLS
We do our best to adhere to all Ontario Public Health (OPH) and Ottawa Public Health protocol measures. Please keep your child at home if they are experiencing any cold or flu symptoms and follow the necessary COVID protocols as mandated by OPH. We appreciate your diligence in helping keep each other healthy.
MASKING
Provincial mask requirements have been lifted in most public settings and is not required in our facility. Please continue to wear a mask if you feel that is right for you and your family. We kindly ask everyone to respect each other’s choices.
If you are sick and unable to attend class please email admin@rideaugymnastics.org of your child’s absence (there are no refunds for missed classes).
WELLNESS/ILLNESS
Please inform us of any physical or medical information regarding your child that may affect their performance. Please keep your child at home if they are feeling ill in order to limit the spread of germs and/or illness!
In order for your child and all the other children in the class to fully enjoy the class, please inform us ahead of time if htere are any physical or medical information that we should know about. Please speak to our front desk or our Recreational Director so that we can properly inform the instructor and provide extra support for the class should that be necessary.
ARRIVAL / PICK-UP
Starting your recreational class on time is crucial in ensuring that your child is happy and ready to participate. Being late can sometimes stress a child out and also means missing out on fun warm ups! Please do your best to arrive 5 (no more than 10) minutes before your child’s class begins so that you have ample time to check in at the kiosk and for your child to put away their clothing/shoes before class starts. We appreciate your regular and timely attendance.
Please ensure your child uses the bathroom facilities before class to maximize practice time. Athletes should not be on the gym mats or equipment except during class time and accompanied by a coach. Gymnasts are required to wait in their designated areas until they are instructed to enter the gym floor by a coach.
Rideau Gymnastics permits a 10-minute grace period for occasional and unexpected circumstances.
COMMUNICATION WITH COACHES
It is important for the coach to know if your child has any special problems or anxieties as these are sure to affect your child’s performance in the gym. You can talk to the coach very briefly before or after practice, but for matters that are important and require time, call the office to arrange to get together at a mutually convenient time. Please do not hesitate to communicate with the coach if you have any concerns. It is important that lines of communication are open and any misunderstandings and/or concerns are addressed promptly.
PARKING
Safety of our athletes and your vehicles is important. Therefore, please park in designated parking spaces only. Please do not park in or block the lined entrance or exit to and from the facility. There is NO PARKING in the drop-off area! A drop-off stop allows no more than 5 min (to help your child to enter the change room). For everyone’s protection, we ask that you please drive slowly. Do not take a chance on your child running to and from your car. The parking lot is unsupervised and not safe for unattended children. Thank you for your help with this.
STUDENT ATTIRE
We recommend students dress in comfortable active wear such as gymnastic suits, t-shirts, and shorts. Baggy clothing, items with strings, hoodies, jean shorts or shorts with pockets not permitted as they pose a hazard when participating in the gym. Students are required to have bare feet during practice.
Children are required* to be barefoot in the gym because socks/tights are slippery on various equipment and pose a safety risk. Gymnastic shoes and water shoes are accepted. Please refrain from wearing rings, bracelets, necklaces, watches, and hoop or dangling earrings during practice. Small studded earrings are permitted. Any long hair should be pulled back with a headband, elastics, and/or barrettes.
*Ninja Obstacle Class: this class requires all athletes to wear clean indoor running shoes. If you do not have shoes for this class, you will not be allowed to participate in the warp wall.
SAFETY / DISCIPLINE
Gymnastics is a sport requiring great discipline. Gymnastics skills themselves, due to their nature, involve a certain degree of risk and potential injury. Gymnastics class activities, due to the constant movement of students, on multiple apparatus, through many levels and planes of space, can also contain a certain degree of danger. Students are expected and benefit themselves from maintaining focus, self-discipline, and control while in class. It is the responsibility of the athlete to use the equipment safely and to behave in an orderly and respectful manner at all times. Students must remain with their class, in their designated area. Horseplay, disruptive, distracting or otherwise dangerous behavior of any kind, including disruptive or distracting language, will not be tolerated.
PARENT VIEWING
Rideau Gymnastics has an open-view policy so parents are welcome to drop in at any time to watch their child practice. However, our lobby and waiting areas are not very large, we kindly ask you to be mindful of those around you and have only 1 parent accompany your child when possible.
Rideau Gymnastics offers complimentary Wi-Fi for parents and guardians. For the safety of your child/children and for insurance purposes we ask that you remain in the viewing area and not be a distraction to the athletes and/or coaches. As a parent in the viewing area, please keep in mind that you are also a member of Rideau Gymnastics and as such are a representative for Rideau Gymnastics and the athletes and coaches who train and work here. It is your responsibility to maintain respect for other parents, athletes, and coaches. A positive conversation will make others feel welcome and will encourage them to be actively involved, foster a stronger parent group and cohesiveness among parents.
CLEANLINESS
We try to keep our facility as clean as possible. If you see something that needs our attention, please notify us immediately. Since we develop high-level athletes, they go through a case of chalk every three months which keeps them safe but ends up in our filters and vacuums every day. So, please excuse the chalk when they are at work!
LOST AND FOUND
Rideau Gymnastics Center is not responsible for any items lost or stolen on our premises. We cannot guarantee the security of personal items left in change rooms or in the cubbies during classes and we cannot guarantee that lost items will be found. Therefore, please leave all valuables at home. Should you lose something, there is a Lost & Found bin for clothing which occasionally we will clear out by donating the unclaimed items to charity. Please check it regularly.
FOOD/WATER
Please bring your own water bottle, they can be refilled at the sink in the kitchenette area. We also have bottled water for sale for $1 if you forget your own, please see front desk. Sports drinks and sodas are not permitted.
There is no chewing gum/food allowed inside the gymastics area.
Please do NOT bring any nut products into the facility as an allergy precaution for anyone in our building.
CAMERAS
Parents may take pictures (with no flash) and video of their family athletes from the parent viewing areas. Photography and video in the gym area is allowed only with coach/staff permission.