What has changed in school chess?

[Linda McCusker]

One idea that has come up in the past but never to fruition is for a one day course to be put on for parents & teachers (maybe on an in service day at school) to teach basic chess & how to run a school club & to highlight the benefits it can give.

This is a good idea Jacqui and I think it could work very well. I know there are teachers who would run a chess club which, let’s face it is one of the easier clubs to run equipment-wise ;P, but they do not have the necessary chess experience to do so. Although I am a non-chess player I was fortunate in that I acquired a lot of chess related knowledge thanks to Andrew and Kirsty having played chess so much. Unfortunately, it would be unlikely that this type of course could be run on an in-service day in the near future as all the time on such days is now allocated to the delivery of the new school curriculum and qualifications. A twilight course however, would be perfect for timing, as teachers are used to attending those for CPD, etc

Can we utilise the internet to have nationwide schools events? Technology has moved on and we need to try and embrace it.

Given the restrictions placed on ICT within schools this is unlikely to be easily organised Robin. Plus teachers would need to find the necessary time to organise boards, computers, pupils etc. Maybe the proposed working group could investigate this?

I particularly like Linda's idea of setting up chess clubs at "feeder" primary schools leading to secondary school where a chess club is already established.

I cannot take the credit for this idea I’m afraid. John Montgomery told me about a similar scheme he had been involved with which I though sounded fabulous

To be honest there is a wide range of initiatives which could be out into place to support chess in secondary schools but most require time, volunteers and of the course the dreaded funding =o Perhaps there could be some discussion on this at the upcoming AGM/Council meeting?