East Kilbride Gymnastics Club Somersaults to Success with ClassForKids

Discover how one of Scotland’s largest gymnastics clubs streamlined admin, doubled membership, and delivered a standout experience using ClassForKids.

A Legacy of Growth and Excellence

Established in 1972 by Foster McLean with just 50 gymnasts and four council-employed coaches, East Kilbride Gymnastics Club has grown into one of Scotland’s largest and most respected gymnastics clubs. Known for the quality of its coaching staff, the club now supports over 1,250 active members and maintains a 200-child waiting list.  

Our club stands out because of the quality of the coaches we have

Andy Youl, Vice-Chair

But behind the scenes, managing rapidly growing demand with outdated, manual systems posed a significant challenge.  

Flipping the Script and Tumbling into Growth  

As the club expanded and membership grew, the club’s administrative tools struggled to keep up. Bookings and admin tasks were managed through spreadsheets, paper forms, and manual processes. With 400 members, this was already becoming unsustainable.  

Before ClassForKids we were using spreadsheets, bits of paper, you name it, and we had a system that was becoming unmanageable… and that was at a time when we had 400 gymnasts in the club. So you can imagine what it’d be like trying to run a club with 1250 members on spreadsheets and bits of paper.

Andy Youl, Vice-Chair

The solution was clear: East Kilbride Gymnastics Club needed a scalable, digital solution to manage bookings, payments, and parent communication without increasing workload.  

In 2019, the club moved into a new facility in Covilles Place, which was three times larger than their previous space in Greenhills. This marked a turning point. Almost simultaneously, they implemented ClassForKids to streamline operations and support continued growth.  

The impact? East Kilbride Gymnastics could vault to new heights…  

📈 Membership grew from 600 to 1,250 active members

🧾 Bookings, payments, and communication became seamless and automated

⏱️ Admin time was drastically reduced, freeing staff to focus on coaching

When we moved into the new facility here at Covilles four years ago, we had around 600 members, and we have now more than doubled.

Andy Youl, Vice-Chair

Powerful ClassForKids Features to Roundoff Success

Among the many features ClassForKids offers, two have proven especially valuable for Andy and the coaching team: Parent Communication and Camps.  

Parent Communication

As with any kids’ club, effective communication with parents is crucial. The ability to send texts and emails at the click of a button has been a major benefit.  

I quite like the feature where we can actually use text messages as that’s instant, most people will be able to get those messages straight to their phones so if there’s anything due to weather, cancellations etc, we can get that message out very quickly.

Andy Youl, Vice-Chair

ClassForKids also automates invoices, booking confirmations, trial sessions, and waiting list management, making it easier for the team to stay connected, save time, and focus on delivering quality experiences.  

Click below to learn more about our powerful parent communication tools.

Camps Feature, Reimagined for Competitions

One integral part of competitive gymnastics is, unsurprisingly, competing.  

Though originally intended for setting up holiday camps, the club has repurposed the Camps feature to manage competition logistics, such as fee collection and participant tracking.  

Camps are fairly easy to set up, and we are using that feature to capture competition fees, so it’s not actually a camp as such, but it’s an amendment to the system that we’ve learned to use. So we set up a camp for a competition and then ask the parents to pay the fees for the competition via that.

Andy Youl, Vice-Chair

This approach simplifies the admin around competitions, keeps payment data in one place, and offers parents a familiar process for paying.  

Explore how flexible Camps features can fit your needs.

Real Results

Since adopting ClassForKids, East Kilbride Gymnastics Club has experienced:

East Kilbride Gymnastics: Before and After ClassForKids comparison chart: A side-by-side comparison graphic showing key improvements after switching to ClassForKids booking software. On the left, “Before ClassForKids” lists: 400 members, manual admin using paper and spreadsheets, parent communication via phone/email lists, and disparate competition tracking. On the right, “After ClassForKids” shows: 1,250 members (+200 waitlisted), digital automation across bookings and payments, instant messages and auto-notifications, and an integrated camp system used for fees.

And that’s not all… they’ve also seen a substantial growth in revenue and membership, with a fivefold increase (+534%) since their first year using the platform. This growth has been supported by streamlined systems and consistent member demand.  

They’ve also adopted the subscriptions feature to simplify recurring payments, reduce manual invoicing, and ensure consistent cash flow, freeing up staff to focus on coaching and club development.  

The Future Looks Bright

The club’s mission remains clear: deliver a high-quality experience to gymnasts and parents alike.  

As they plan for continued growth, including the possibility of moving to a larger facility, their focus is on maintaining service quality.  

To continue to grow we will continue to give a quality experience to the gymnasts and make sure that parents are getting what they pay for, at the end of the day if they’re not getting a quality experience, we just wouldn’t have the members.

Andy Youl, Vice-Chair

With ClassForKids in place, the East Kilbride team can stay focused on delivering that quality, while the platform handles admin behind the scenes.  

Want to see how ClassForKids could work for your club?

No need to book a live demo, just watch our interactive walkthrough to see our booking system in action in explore the features that matter most to your club.