Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

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John Upham
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Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by John Upham » Fri Jul 29, 2022 11:00 am

I had an idea to develop resources for any chess children who find themselves at a secondary school that does not have any chess activity.

Before I invest any time and effort into this is anyone aware of anything existing that I can point them at?

Year on year it a continual pain to see keen chess children leave from a primary school bereft of any at their new school.

A hackneyed suggestion would be for them to join an adult club. That is all well and good if they can find an adult club that doesn't treat 11 year olds as a nuisance but I'm sure we can do better.
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Neill Cooper
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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by Neill Cooper » Sat Jul 30, 2022 4:39 pm

Getting a chess club going in a secondary school is not easy. You basically need a supportive member of staff. Without that you are probably doomed to failure.
I think that the question should be changed to ‘What can we do to encourage primary school chess players to continue playing chess after moving to a secondary school with no chess club?’
The best thing is a friendly local chess club. This might be a chess club for all ages, and locally Coulsdon Chess Club has lots of juniors playing on a Monday evening. At Wallington Chess Club we have a few. An alternative is a Junior Chess Club that either is solely for secondary school age (such as that at Harrogate), or has a significant emphasis towards older juniors. I started Castles Junior Chess Club precisely in this way, with the support of the primary school head teacher (who shared the same concern about past pupils giving up chess at secondary school) and meeting at their school.
One other idea would be an online junior chess club meeting weekly with some input (e.g. via zoom) as well as playing online.

Roger Lancaster
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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by Roger Lancaster » Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:31 pm

I agree with Neill but the problem is a dearth of "friendly local chess clubs". Hertfordshire, for example, boasts a dozen clubs but only two of these have a sizable junior section - and keen juniors travel up to 30 miles to attend. Common excuse is that kids are "too noisy". In the few cases where this is justified, I've found that a quiet word with the parent - basically suggesting that, if this behaviour continues, the junior will be excluded from the club for one or more weeks - works wonders. Real reason, not to put too fine a point on it, is too many adults fear losing games to juniors.

NickFaulks
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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by NickFaulks » Sun Jul 31, 2022 3:02 am

Roger Lancaster wrote:
Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:31 pm
Common excuse is that kids are "too noisy".
I find it more common that adults are too noisy, and they are also harder to shut up.
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LawrenceCooper
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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by LawrenceCooper » Sun Jul 31, 2022 7:09 am

NickFaulks wrote:
Sun Jul 31, 2022 3:02 am
Roger Lancaster wrote:
Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:31 pm
Common excuse is that kids are "too noisy".
I find it more common that adults are too noisy, and they are also harder to shut up.
:lol:

Roger Lancaster
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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by Roger Lancaster » Sun Jul 31, 2022 9:29 am

NickFaulks wrote:
Sun Jul 31, 2022 3:02 am
Roger Lancaster wrote:
Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:31 pm
Common excuse is that kids are "too noisy".
I find it more common that adults are too noisy, and they are also harder to shut up.
It's a tough call over comparative noise levels but no question that your last few words are correct.

Neill Cooper
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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by Neill Cooper » Sun Jul 31, 2022 10:31 am

Roger Lancaster wrote:
Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:31 pm
I agree with Neill but the problem is a dearth of "friendly local chess clubs". Hertfordshire, for example, boasts a dozen clubs but only two of these have a sizable junior section - and keen juniors travel up to 30 miles to attend. Common excuse is that kids are "too noisy". In the few cases where this is justified, I've found that a quiet word with the parent - basically suggesting that, if this behaviour continues, the junior will be excluded from the club for one or more weeks - works wonders. Real reason, not to put too fine a point on it, is too many adults fear losing games to juniors.
That is why it is important that junior organisers ensure that their club is suitable for older juniors - and, if necessary, they set up a new junior club for these players.

Andrew Zigmond
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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by Andrew Zigmond » Mon Aug 15, 2022 11:09 pm

I made the same point when this came up on the British Chess News facebook page but, having grappled with this problem locally, I set up a bespoke chess club locally for players of secondary school age. It's officially age 11 upwards although I will in practice go down to the last year of primary school. This gives them their own bespoke environment to play in while interfacing with other areas of the chess community (the year 6s are still free to go to the primary schools club as well while older pupils - and those with exceptional prowess - can get involved with the main chess).

From my experience you probably won't have hordes of players (membership has generally hovered around the ten mark and I have had a couple of slumps) but it's still a sizeable chunk of the local chess community that might not be there otherwise.

And let's face it, if a "clown", "clueless amateur", "****head", "demented blog monkey" "member of the controller arbiter nexus" - all names I've been called on this forum can make a reasonable stab at it who knows what you guys can do!
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Paul Bloom
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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by Paul Bloom » Fri Aug 26, 2022 11:14 am

Neill Cooper wrote:
Sat Jul 30, 2022 4:39 pm
Getting a chess club going in a secondary school is not easy. You basically need a supportive member of staff. Without that you are probably doomed to failure.
I think that the question should be changed to ‘What can we do to encourage primary school chess players to continue playing chess after moving to a secondary school with no chess club?’
The best thing is a friendly local chess club. This might be a chess club for all ages, and locally Coulsdon Chess Club has lots of juniors playing on a Monday evening. At Wallington Chess Club we have a few. An alternative is a Junior Chess Club that either is solely for secondary school age (such as that at Harrogate), or has a significant emphasis towards older juniors. I started Castles Junior Chess Club precisely in this way, with the support of the primary school head teacher (who shared the same concern about past pupils giving up chess at secondary school) and meeting at their school.
One other idea would be an online junior chess club meeting weekly with some input (e.g. via zoom) as well as playing online.

HI Neil thanks for giving Coulsdon a mention we do indeed have lots of strong Juniors playing in Adult club in fact 24 out of our 90 members Rated between 1100 and 2100 as we are split over 7 Divisions this coming season with players coming from sussex surrey and kent some travel up to 40 miles the reason for this is all our games are Fide rated which is very unusual for a chess club and you are guaranteed a Fide rated game around your level with all fixtures being known by email on the Friday before the Monday night . for the benefit of juniors who have not reached a strong level to play adult club we have a strong junior club also Mondays 4.30 until 6.45 we have 40 members of this club from beginner's to 1400 strength where Juniors are split into 4 levels {we have 5 trainers} according to their ability this club can be attended by children aged 4 to 16 so this enables weaker secondary school players to have some where to play chess OTB and guess what they also get one FIDE rated game per week so most juniors who can show a reasonable level of Chess {1000 ECF} can expect a Fide Rating within a term anyone wanting more details can visit our website CCF chess then go to homepage where you will also find our phone number and email address club is managed 5 days a week by an office Manager Emma .

Roger Lancaster
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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by Roger Lancaster » Fri Aug 26, 2022 1:37 pm

Paul Bloom wrote:
Fri Aug 26, 2022 11:14 am
HI Neil thanks for giving Coulsdon a mention we do indeed have lots of strong Juniors playing in Adult club in fact 24 out of our 90 members Rated between 1100 and 2100 as we are split over 7 Divisions this coming season with players coming from sussex surrey and kent some travel up to 40 miles the reason for this is all our games are Fide rated which is very unusual for a chess club and you are guaranteed a Fide rated game around your level with all fixtures being known by email on the Friday before the Monday night . for the benefit of juniors who have not reached a strong level to play adult club we have a strong junior club also Mondays 4.30 until 6.45 we have 40 members of this club from beginner's to 1400 strength where Juniors are split into 4 levels {we have 5 trainers} according to their ability this club can be attended by children aged 4 to 16 so this enables weaker secondary school players to have some where to play chess OTB and guess what they also get one FIDE rated game per week so most juniors who can show a reasonable level of Chess {1000 ECF} can expect a Fide Rating within a term anyone wanting more details can visit our website CCF chess then go to homepage where you will also find our phone number and email address club is managed 5 days a week by an office Manager Emma .
Yes, the paucity of decent junior cIubs is well documented by the fact that keen juniors will travel longish distances to attend them. At Watford, to take another example, we have several juniors coming in from Milton Keynes - again, almost 40 miles away - and other towns between the two. Incidentally, since it's the advertised topic, something like 25% of our juniors are of secondary school age.

Paul Bloom
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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by Paul Bloom » Fri Aug 26, 2022 3:55 pm

Keep up the good work Roger :D :D

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Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Post by Neill Cooper » Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:28 pm

Today I ran a chess tournament at my school for the new year 7 pupils. Now chess is popular at my school but even so, 100 pupils entered - more than half the year group. So you can help juniors transfer from primary to secondary school, if you are a secondary school teacher.

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