North Ayrshire - Chess Scotland schools initiative hailed as a success

 

The Education Department of North Ayrshire Council (NAC) commissioned from Ian M Barr Consultancy an independent evaluation of the Continuing Professional Development Initiative: Chess in Schools.

 

Click here for Dick Heathwood's summary of the report.

Click here for a download of the entire report.

Background

The Chess in Schools arose from discussions between Lesley Owens, Head of Service at NAC, and John Glendinning, President of Chess Scotland and aimed to

Give teachers an opportunity to learn how to play chess
Summarise the history of chess playing
Explain the practical implications of running chess clubs in schools
Explore the wider educational benefits of playing chess.

The McCrone Settlement was an important consideration inn the creation of the NAC initiative. The increased expectation on teachers to undertake CPD on an annual basis raises questions of what that CPD should comprise and how it should be delivered. Innovative solutions are clearly needed in order to ensure teachers find the CPD menu interesting. The NAC chess project was such an imaginative solution to this challenge. It shows that some of the professional development needs of teachers can be provided for through provision that is very different from the bulk of conventional in-service provision. The initiative deserves to be strongly commended for the creative and imaginative approach it has adopted to CPD provision.

 

Thanks

The delivery of Chess Scotland's side of the project was kept firmly on track by Dick Heathwood's professional project management. Alex McFarlane's course tuition materials provided the cornerstone of the teaching. And the actual teaching - and chess displays - were delivered by Alex McFarlane, Gerald Bonner, David Leslie, Steve Mannion Snr, Norrie Mathie, Maureen Mathie, IM Craig Pritchett, IM John Shaw, Stephen Taylor, IM Steve Mannion and Dick Heathwood.

CS's particular thanks go to Lesley Owens and Irene Gilmour of NAC for their untiring commitment to the project's success.

Positive outcomes

The initiative has led to a significant increase in chess playing and the creation of chess clubs. It has been seen by a large number of teachers as a valuable aid to the development of personal and social skills, pupil motivation and behaviour management.

The project can certainly be said to have delivered ‘pay-offs’ in terms of an:

increased awareness in NAC schools of the educational value of chess;
enhanced level of understanding of chess on the part of
those teachers who attended the workshops;
effective and positive relationship between NAC and CS;
improved perceptions of what NAC will offer as part of CPD provision.

The wider context

Schools Development Director Craig Pritchett is now actively pursuing one of the recommendations in the report. Securing funding for a National Development Officer post for Chess in Scottish Schools has the potential to make a significant step forward in schools chess throughout Scotland a more practical goal.

Longer term, this could be the real success of the North Ayrshire project.