About the SPM
Who are we?
The SPM is an alliance of the UK’s leading Pilates training providers. Formed in 2020 as a not for profit organisation, it is founded upon many decades of Pilates experience.
It will work to protect the reputation and integrity of the Pilates Method through the knowledge, skills, and passion of its registered teachers and through the comprehensive educational programmes that are offered to them.
We aim to be an open, supportive and inclusive organisation – whether that is for our member training providers; for those teachers on the SPM Register; or for any teacher who wants to join the Register by taking a ‘bridging course’ with an SPM member.
We will also work to ensure that clear career pathways and development opportunities are in place for any teacher who understands that the teaching of Pilates is a professional vocation that requires continued learning and dedicated self-practice.
Our Aims
- To be a collective voice for the Pilates profession
- To create a unified body for fully comprehensive training providers
- To protect the integrity of the Pilates Method and its practice
- To work to improve diversity in our community of Pilates students, teachers, and tutors.
- To provide support and ongoing training for Pilates teachers in the UK
The SPM was founded by Body Control Pilates, MK Pilates, and the Pilates Foundation.
Alan Herdman Pilates and Pilates in Motion joined as Founding Members.
We welcome UK-based Pilates training providers who deliver a comprehensive training in both studio apparatus and matwork, or who are already offering matwork training and are committed to including full apparatus training in their syllabus within a given timeframe.
If you are a UK-based training provider and would like to join the SPM as a Professional Member, we ask you to complete a simple application form. Please contact us at info@thesocietyforthepilatesmethod.com
To go onto the SPM Register, your Training Provider or parent organisation must be an SPM member. They must be able to confirm that you have been regularly undertaking professional development courses in the past. You also need to continue professional development whilst on the Register.
If you teach Pilates and hold, at a minimum, a Level 3 Matwork qualification, please get in touch with your Training Provider to check whether they are planning to become an SPM Member.
All applications from individual teachers to join the Register must be made through an SPM Member.
If you would like to be listed on the SPM Register of Teachers but the provider that you trained with is not planning to become an SPM member, we’ll do our best to help. Please contact one of SPM’s member organisations to discuss a route plan for joining. You may have to undertake a short “conversion” or “integration” course” if your original training needs to be aligned to the new SPM standards.
In principle, yes. SPM membership is open to Training Providers who offer teacher training in both Matwork and on the full range of studio apparatus (through to Advanced level). They must also adopt, and their courses be ratified against, the SPM Matwork and Comprehensive standards.
In this initial phase of the SPM, we are contacting training providers who already meet this requirement. When we are in a position to do so, we will then open up contact with matwork-only training providers who want to work towards delivering a full programme of apparatus training in the near future. We will do what we can to support them on this journey.
As a Pilates professional, it is important that you update and extend your skills and knowledge through continued professional development (CPD). This can be through courses, workshops, and classes and should typically amount to 2-3 days each year. Ongoing membership of the SPM Register of Teachers is be based on you meeting this. The SPM Register requirement is aligned to the CPD scheme run by your parent organisation as an SPM member.
For the time being, the SPM Register will only denote two qualifications: Matwork and Comprehensive (Matwork plus Studio Apparatus). Your Training Provider must be an SPM member and your training must be deemed to have met the requirements of the new standards.
Further standards for specific areas of Pilates teaching are in development with PD:Approval and will be published in due course. When a teacher has met this qualification, this will be listed on the Register.
If you hold a current Reformer qualification issued by your Training Provider, this is still valid and is recognised for insurance and teaching purposes.
Your Reformer qualification may count towards your SPM Comprehensive Qualification if you choose to complete the apparatus training. You will only be listed as a Matwork teacher on the SPM Register of Teachers until you have completed the apparatus training.
You will, of course, still be able to list all qualifications you hold on your own website and, where appropriate, in the listing on your parent organisation’s website.
No, the SPM Register of Teachers is not a reference for insurers. You will be able to continue to take out insurance cover based on the qualifications you received from your Training Provider.
Please drop us an email at info@thesocietyforthepilatesmethod.com