COVID-19 Update
#WeAreSport
Physically distancing but socially together
Thanks for your patience during this difficult time. Hopefully you've been part of our online community benefiting from classes and advice of our team and access to other great content. We can't wait to welcome you back to the facilities!
General FAQs
We fully understand how much the facilities being closed has affected your training and lifestyle therefore we are very busy behind the scenes working on our reopening plans to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all our customers and staff.
We are very excited about these plans and what we can offer in the coming months, please keep an eye on the website where we will be posting updates, in the meantime please take a look at some FAQs below, some great news stories that have occurred over lockdown in our student page and some initial exciting news regarding our membership offer for staff and public. Keep a look out for our Members, Tennis, Swim School and Student Sport E-newsletters with more specific information.
Although there has been some challenging times we are enthusiastic about what the future will hold.
FAQs
When are you going to reopen?
Is the Outdoor Pool open?
What has happened to my membership?
Please go to the membership tab for detailed information about the fantastic membership offers and loyalty bonuses that we have.
What has happened to my swimming DD payment?
All swimming DD payments were suspended from when we closed to customers on the 17th March. Please visit the swim section for further information. We are working on our swimming plans with a view to opening in September.
How can I carry on with some home activity provided by you?
Please join our Health and Fitness group on facebook where there is lots of home exercises and classes that you can do https://www.facebook.com/groups/503479397209559/.
What measures will be in place when you reopen?
The measures that will be in place are as follows;
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Current members only for August and the start of September.
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Bookable Russell Seal Fitness Centre sessions of an hour long with a half an hour gap for cleaning between sessions. Booking will be online.
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Extension of the Russell Seal Fitness Centre to the indoor tennis courts to allow for social distancing.
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Hand Sanitiser located throughout the building.
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Reception and gym desk screens to protect staff and customers.
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Covid-19 workshops for all staff.
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Covid-19 inductions and assessments for all staff
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To start with our changing rooms will be closed and we advise all customers to attend ready to train.
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Cleaning products located around the building for a 3 pronged process of asking customers to clean equipment before and after use as well as by staff between sessions
What will happen to competitive sport?
This will depend on Government advice and when sporting leagues allow fixtures to return. Please visit the Student Sport section for more information.
How will you keep the facility clean?
Cleaning products will be provided for customers to clean equipment before and after use. Staff will be cleaning the building between sessions, at the start of the day and at the end of the day. We would be thankful if customers used the cleaning products rather than a towel to wipe down the equipment.
How will you contact me about reopening?
We will be sending out emails at regular intervals to all our customers, if you are unsure if we have the correct email address please contact the Sports Admin Team. We will also be posting updates on this site.
What will be the timeline for reopening?
08/06/20- First walk through of Sports Park facilities undertaken to map out what the facility could look like taking into account social distancing.
16/06/20- Site visit to start preparing the setup of the facility for reopening.
23/06/20- Site visit to plan customer flow around all facilities and review gym plans.
24/06/20- E-newsletters sent out to all our members.
Late June- Initial reopening plans submitted for approval to the University Safety Team.
07/07/20 and 14/07/20- Site visit to move equipment in preparation for reopening.
W/C 13/07/20- Further communications regarding reopening to be provided.
*all dates and timelines are Government and University pending
Customer Survey
Membership
We are very carefully planning how we can reopen with customer and staff safety as priority, there may be some changes to how we operate and how you will interact with the facilities - but this will all be explained in due course. We have had several site visits to plan customer flow around the facilities and review the gym provision, as well as planning staffing needs and reviewing our online content.
Look out for member surveys which will help us plan our reopening, your feedback is essential to ensure our plans are relevant to you. Thank you to those of you who completed the recent quick survey (part of a National Gym users survey), which broadly showed that you want to come back to the gym and how you miss the environment and the motivation of staff. You don't have to wait for official survey's though, if you have any questions or ideas we would love to hear them, please contact our Sports Admin team.
Member updates
We send regular e-newsletters via our communication portal to our members, so it is essential we have the correct email for you. If you are not receiving them please let our Sports Admin Team know and we'll get this sorted for you.
All Members E-Newsletter 24 June 2020
St Luke's Sports Centre Reopening Update - 11 September 2020
Student Membership
If you had full year membership and missed Term 3, the membership will be rolled over to Term 1 for the start of the next academic year. As a loyalty bonus you will be able to use the Russell Seal Fitness Centre during August for no additional cost and we are providing you with an incredible exclusive offer of £140 for the rest of the academic year for the Health and Fitness Membership.
Please contact the Sports Admin Team to discuss your options. This is your gym, your space.
University of Exeter Sport - Student Member Update 20-07-20
University of Exeter Sport - Student Member Update 05-08-20
Staff Membership
As hopefully you all know, all monthly payments have been suspended since we closed at the start of lockdown. As a thank you for being a loyal member and for your continued patience, we are pleased to say that we will not start your payments until 25th September. This means you will be able to use the gym in August and September before we restart payments! From the 25th September (end of Sept payroll) we will take this payment and provide you a 33% monthly discount off the full price up to the end of December. For anyone who has paid in full we will extend your membership from the original end date for the equivalent number of months missed.
For all if you are nervous about returning or do not see yourself using the gym over the first term, please let us know and we will give you a FREE Sports Pass membership giving you access at the discounted members activity price so you can use the gym at great value, plus we will suspend your monthly payments or full membership until 25th December.
Please direct any queries to the Sports Admin Team.
University of Exeter Sport - Staff Member Update 20-07-20
University of Exeter Sport - Staff Member Update 05-08-20
Community Membership
As hopefully you all know, all monthly payments have been suspended since we closed at the start of lockdown. As a thank you for being a loyal member and for your continued patience, we are pleased to say that we will not start your payments until 25th September. This means you will be able to use the gym in August and September as a good will gesture! We will restart payment from the 25th September and we will provide you with a 15% monthly discount off the full price until the 25th December. For anyone who has paid in full we will extend your membership from the original end date for the equivalent number of months missed.
For all if you are nervous about returning or do not see yourself using the gym over the first term, please let us know and we will happily extend the freeze until 25th December.
If you have any questions on this please email the Sports Admin Team
University of Exeter Sport - Community Member Update 20-07-20
University of Exeter Sport - Community Member Update 05-08-20
Tennis Courses
We can't wait to welcome you all back to the facilities and to our coaching programmes! Our courts are eerily standing empty, we need you all to bring them back to life. We are working hard to ensure that our facilities are approved as Covid-safe, which will mean some changes to how we operate and how you interact with us but working together we can continue to create a safe and enjoyable experience.
Our plans include bookings systems, access control, customer foot-flow, equipment, reception set-up, coaching course numbers, coaching plans and much more. Please keep an eye out for our Tennis Customers emails - it is important that we have an up-to-date email for all our customers, if you haven't received anything from us please contact the Sports Admin Team who can help.
E-newsletters
Tennis enewsletter 22 May 2020
Tennis E-Newsletter 24 June 2020
Players on the Spring Term Coaching Programme
It's a shame that we couldn't finish the last 2 weeks of the programme, but don't worry we'll ensure that you don't miss out. We are planning the Autumn Term Programme with a view to offering you a great price taking into consideration the missing two weeks. If you are unable to attend the Autumn Tennis Programme please let the Sports Admin Team know who can look into a refund for the missed weeks. The coaches worked hard to produce players reports so you can see your progress and we will be in contact soon about appropriate levels and lessons for the Autumn Coaching.
It will be great to see you all again soon, as soon as we have a plan for Autumn, we'll let you know.
Thank you for being part of the Tennis Coaching Programme and your continued patience whilst we plan for reopening. If you have any questions about the Coaching Programmes or your payments please contact the Sports Admin Team.
Easter Children's Coaching and Summer Term Tennis Programme
The reception team worked tirelessly to contact all booked customers and explain that we were unfortunately not able to offer the sessions and courses and offer a refund. If you feel you have been missed please let the Sports Admin team know and we will get this resolved for you as soon as possible.
Tennis Courts
Whilst it would be great to invite you back to play tennis on the courts (inside and outside) we can't open any facilities until they are all approved to reopen by the relevant authorities. We are working very hard on our plans and hope to announce soon when the courts are open for bookings. We eagerly await the Government guidance for the Leisure Industry which will help shape our plans. Hopefully you can make use of some of the community courts that are open, available and free to use and please have a go at some of the challenges our coaches have been added to our online content!
Swim School
Thank you for being part of the Swim School at St Luke's Sports Centre and your patience during these challenging times.
General Information
We are working with Government, Industry, Swim England and University guidelines with regards to safe operation of both a swimming pool and a Swim School. We will not open any facilities until all buildings are approved to reopen and we can implement all necessary changes to ensure your safety. We are excited to welcome you back to the Swim School soon but please be assured that the safety of our customers and staff is essential and we will not reopen until we can provide a safe environment. Following the recent Government update we are continuing to review our plans to ensure they are robust but we don't have a date for restarting the Swim School at this stage.
We don't know exactly what the social distancing measures will mean for the lessons at this stage, or indeed for parents on pool-side. We are doing everything we can to continue to offer a great value Swim School to as many swimmers as possible, we will keep you updated as much as we can. Please check these pages for the latest information as well as the Swim School e-newsletter - if you have not received any of these please get in contact with the Sports Admin Team who will be happy to help.
Our Indoor Pool remains eerily silent and we can't wait to see you all swimming and bringing the facility to life.
Payment Information
To reassure you all that our DD partner (Harlands) were able to freeze all payments from the 24 March, this was a complicated process and we worked quickly together to ensure the entire process could be actioned. The process can be reversed easily to restart payments, meaning that we don't need to trouble you for any information. We will obviously take into consideration the date of the freeze (24 March) to ensure that you don't miss out, it may be a little bumpy as we restart but we're sure that if we work together we will get there.
Please don't cancel your DD with your bank or Harlands, when we restart payments you may be in default and incur charges plus we will then have to set you up again.
1 to 1 lessons and Intensives
For those of you not on our continuous programmes who were on 10 week blocks or 1-to-1 / 2-to-1 lessons we will work through the bookings and seek to rebook you onto slots when we reopen - so you won't miss out. You may receive an automated email from the Swim School system as the dates pass your original end-date, this may say that we are sorry you are leaving, whilst this is a great automatic function it is a little confusing at the moment! Please ignore these as we know who is / was booked on the sessions and we will be in touch soon.
Pool Information
Whilst there has been some information about swimming pools in the media, we will not be opening any facilities until the buildings are approved to reopen and we can implement all our planned safety measures. Your safety is our priority and we are sure you appreciate that we will take the necessary time to get this right for you.
E-newsletters
Swim School enewsletter 22 May 2020
Swim school E-Newsletter 24 June 2020
Swim school E-Newsletter 24 August 2020
St Luke's Sports Centre Reopening Update - 11 September 2020
Student Sport
We are busy preparing and are very much looking forward to welcoming you back into our facilities and programmes as soon as feasibly possible but the safety and well-being of our students and staff has to be at the forefront of our minds and we are carefully planning our approach to reopening. Whilst at this time we are unable to confirm an official start date for our sporting programmes, we wanted to share with you what we are working on*:
- Planning a safe approach to reopening facilities in line with Government recommendations and social distancing guidelines, working with the industry body UK Active to ensure we consider all areas and deliver best practise.
- Reviewing our student sports club and performance squad timetable and numbers, considering social distancing and the cleaning of the equipment and spaces between sessions.
- Working closely with BUCS and NGB’s to understand what a return to play will mean in each sport. It is expected that the main BUCS leagues will not start until January with some competition possible in Term 1. However, this is evolving all the time and we will of course keep you updated as information is made available.
- To clarify there will be no pre-season training commencing before the start of term, the only exception being where any teams are to return to weekend domestic competition in early September. We will confirm this in due course.
We understand you may still have questions, so please do send these over to us so we can respond fully; auadmin@exeter.ac.uk or sportsperformance@exeter.ac.uk
Through this challenging period it has been great to see all the innovative ways our clubs, teams, members and student athletes have remained physically distanced yet stayed socially connected. Check out what some of them have been up to in our latest news story!
We know you are all eager to get back, as are we and we thank you for your continued understanding and patience. We look forward to seeing you again in the very near future. Stay safe, stay healthy and look after yourselves and each other.
Student Sport Update for full details.