Arabian School of Gymnastics is situated within a new modern leisure centre in the famous Code Breakers town of Bletchley, near Milton Keynes. The club a predominately girls club has 500 registered gymnasts on its books. Having said this there are many boys that attend the recreational classes daily. The club operates many recreational tutored classes 6 days a week.

 The club operates pay as you go baby and toddler sessions where parents /guardian may attend the venue to play with their child and often socialize with others. The club has a quite wonderful family feel to it with many staff that have been with the club for many years and the bright vibrant colours and clean smelling facility is a huge draw to the 650 additional children and parents that attend these sessions.

With the parents and children that attend the club there is an estimated foot plate of close on 2000 a week that come through the doors.

The facility is stunning, flags and colourful cartoon drapes covering what would otherwise be mundane walls. The walls themselves are all padded so the club has gone that extra mile to try and make it likely one of the safest gymnastic halls in the country.

In 2006 it was famously awarded sports club of the year for the whole of Buckinghamshire being the only gymnastic club to reap such a prestigious high award. It has also gained SportMK awards of team of the year and many other awards for individual successes.

With 4 high balance beam’s (one being the official arena beam from London 2012) 1 floor beam, Asymmetric bars, a single bar, vaulting table and foam vaulting table, a full sprung floor, a ten metre fast track, trampette, a bouncy castle for baby gym and parties.

There are many other items such as soft play and tunnels and other additional apparatus for the further development of the clubs more talented and also children with difficulties.

A Brief on History

The club originated in 1999, from a small Saturday club called Bletchley Artistic. The conception of the club and where it is today was from Alan Armitage who has been involved in teaching gymnastics at Bletchley leisure centre since 1992/93.

The club now with over 40 staff, coaches, volunteers is jointly directed and managed by Alan and his wife Donna who both place huge amount of time and effort in making sure the club continues to deliver and offer the best possible coaching with quality equipment in a clean safe and enjoyable facility.

Behind them there are volunteer team of trustees who monitor the club’s progress and ensure it is going down the correct paths to deliver to the community for a considerable time in the future.

Gymnasts have developed into competitive gymnasts at the club and competed locally, nationally and also abroad in USA, Canada. In fact top-level gymnasts have trained in Texas, California and East and West Canada.

Often the higher ability gymnasts attend up to 10 events a year. Gymnasts have also been to Sri Lanka to work with school children at schools in the south of the country.

Alan & Donna also bravely assisted in tsunami camps helping orphans and communities that were hit badly, on three separate missions in 2005. The parents and associates of the club helped send them there to carry out what were quite traumatic visits.

The club in 2012 became the first club in the World to perform Balance beam on a football pitch. Arabian is expecting to promote the sport of gymnastics at future football venues in 2013/14

The club is a registered children’s charity and has like many charities it depends on business people or kind individuals to make donations to assist the club with its high costs of equipment and re-furbishment costs.

The club has an amazing good track record of over coming difficulties over the years and with the amazing results of the gymnasts representing the town and city it has become a named sports club that many have heard of..it has become what it is today on reputation …

Gymnasts from Arabian have gone on to represent their country in Rugby, Football and Martial arts. The sport is the foundation of development for children to perform in many others sports, a great deal of the top level girls at the club do Athletics, Martial Arts, Korfball, Dancing, Football, Netball. As a club although we want to develop girls to the best of their abilities, we also promote their involvement in other sports offered at schools.

The club has and still is supported in a most fantastic way by the Community Foundation www.mkcommunityfoundation.co.uk

The community foundation has assisted the club for many years. It has been massively instrumental in the growth of the club and a great deal of the success of the club from grass roots to training a world champion...is down to their financial support allowing the club to generate more classes and develop more children. There is no bigger or better organisation in the city or area that assists charities and sporting clubs like ourselves, than the MKCF.