Contacts with secondary schools

[Andrew Zigmond]

Over the years, and particularly since becoming secretary for my club a few years ago, I've tried to forge links with the secondary schools in my town of which there are six (one independant and five state, two of whom have a joint sixth form) and several more in the sattellite towns.

A lot of the schools mention a chess club on their website and, as proved when we had two surprisingly accomplished lads turn up at the club about five years before dropping out just as quickly due to academic pressures, there appears to be some activity. However for two years I've sent letters addressed to the `Chess Club Organiser` (except in the one case where I have a named contact) and have had no response.

This is something I'm quite passionate about as we currently have no members in their teens or twenties and a third team that gets progressively greyer year on year. There is a local primary schools association that has been going for years but never considers the progression of players to secondary school (and doesn't seem overly concerned either). My aim would be to have 13+ year old players who I could feed into the club teams (without necessarily being club members - I'll have that one out with the committee if I have to) and we have had training evenings at the club before we could easily open to schools. There are plenty of possibilities if I could only make contact and set the ball rolling.

Any thoughts on what I could do differently?

[Neill Cooper]

I recognise the problems you face Andrew, but there is no simple solution. Whilst primary schools encourage the involvement of parents and outsiders offering services, most secondary schools tend to work from within. The vast majority of secondary school chess clubs and teams are run by school staff, and have little outside involvement. Many secondary schools will advertise chess as an activity at the school, even when the club has not met for years.

Before I was a teacher I formed Castles Junior Chess Club to build on the platform of a successful primary school chess club whose pupils then gave up chess at secondary school. Over the years it has had some success at keeping primary school pupils playing chess when they went to secondary school. What some clubs do is run a junior club meeting at their venue earlier in the evening, before the main club meeting.

[John Swain]

You could consider running the UK Chess Challenge at your club. This starts in January and the first stage is a seven round swiss event. Entry details should be available soon.

I'd write to the Headteacher of each of the local secondary schools, explaining that you are offering this opportunity to his/her pupils and that the players have the chance to qualify for county/regional finals (Megafinals) and even national finals. Most Heads would jump at the chance of getting some welcome free publicity and you would benefit from the new members who might stay with your club after the initial seven rounds.

If it goes well in 2014, those in Year 6 who play at their primary school in the UKCC will join you in 2015 when they are in Year 7 at a secondary school with no chess club.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"I'd write to the Headteacher of each of the local secondary schools, explaining that you are offering this opportunity to his/her pupils and that the players have the chance to qualify for county/regional finals (Megafinals) and even national finals. Most Heads would jump at the chance of getting some welcome free publicity and you would benefit from the new members who might stay with your club after the initial seven rounds. "

You would hope they would react like that. Some years ago, a secondary school was covered in the local paper, saying the club has really taken off, we are very short of sets etc. So I wrote on behalf of Redhill Chess Club and said, we have some spare sets which you can have. Also we can provide assistance with coaching if you like or offer any other advice, but we will understand if you want to keep it internal - it's your club. They didn't even bother to reply!

[Andrew Zigmond]

Thanks to everybody who has responded and I'm sorry it's taken me a while to follow up on my own post. I'm glad to hear it's not just me who has this frustration. It did occur to me that in the late nineties (and in the shadow of the Kasparov/ Short boom) my club only peaked at about five teenage members including myself. John's idea of running the UK Chess Challenge from the club is an interesting one and I may consider that.

I have a few ideas anyway so will keep trying.

[John Swain]

As I mentioned on the North-South divide thread, there is a cost involved in the UKCC. When I last posted on this thread, I didn't know what the amount would be, but details arrived yesterday outlining the charge of £40 for 30 players. For this, you do get pairing cards, a results chart, badges for all the players and some small prizes; the more successful children have the opportunity to play in regional and national finals (the cost of this is met by the individual).

Even if you only got a few children to join up, most parents would not object to paying a small amount for seven weeks trial membership of your club, so you could run it at nil cost to your fellow club members and some children would presumably join the club subsequently.