Advice for parents?

[David Blower]

What advice do chess clubs give to parents?

[Michael Flatt]

Assuming that the children genuinely enjoy playing and are not unduly pressured by their parents, I would suggest allowing them opportunities to play a wide variety of players of their own or slightly better standard. Parents need to be supportive without getting too involved in their offspring's games.

A certain amount of coaching helps but nothing beats gaining experience by playing, playing and playing. So, join a good chess club or start one if one doesn't exist!

If parents are able to join the county junior chess association and help organise junior events that would help too.

[David Blower]

Thanks. Just in case you wanted to know I am on the committee at my chess club, hence the reasoning for all these questions. We tend to let children referee their own games at the chess club.

[Michael Flatt]

Thanks. Just in case you wanted to know I am on the committee at my chess club, hence the reasoning for all these questions. We tend to let children referee their own games at the chess club.

It obviously depends on the age of the juniors and how many of them attend the club.

With Primary School aged children it is essential that there are sufficient adults to supervise them and that those running the club have appropriate DBS clearances. Parents tend to be excluded from the playing room.

It sounds as though your juniors are of Secondary School age and play in an adult club.

In our club we have a Junior club for one hour preceding the adult club. Some of the older Juniors attend the adult club and participate in the ladder competition (15 minute quickplay games) and occasional league games. Secondary School students often have exams which limit their participation in the league.

[David Blower]

Yeah we are an adult club, that accepts children. I can not imagine a CRB check is needed to join an adult chess club even if it accepts children. After all no swimming pool requests you display your CRB check, and they accept children! We are not a specialist junior only chess club.

[Michael Flatt]

If it is an Adult club the Juniors would need their parent's permission to attend.

If the parent's don't attend the club themselves, I would suggest that, the Club Secretary or another Club Officer on a club evening have access to an contact telephone number for the parents in the event of any emergency at the club (power failure or emergency evacuation, etc.).

Whatever arrangements you make for supervising the Juniors obviously has to be appropriate to their age.

I think that you should consider introducing a Safeguarding Policy regarding Junior Members even if you decide that those supervising them need not have a DBS certificate. Make the parents aware of the Club's Safeguarding Policy.

The purpose of a Safeguarding Policy is to make everyone aware of risks and to introduce a protocol to manage risks to an acceptable level and a system for reporting any concerns.

I am no expert but I would suggest that you clarify what the ECF's advice is on this issue.

[Michael Flatt]

David,

Below is the link to the ECF Safeguarding Policy:

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/child-protection-policy/

[Michael Flatt]

David,

I see from the link to your club website that you have a named contact for Juniors who is an ECF Arbiter with experience of Junior Events. He will be aware of your club's Safeguarding Policy and will most likely have a valid certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

The new DBS online registration system permits your certificate to be continually updated by paying a small annual subscription. When first registering the associated Identity Check is very strict and only a very limited selection of documents is accepted.

There is no requirement for ordinary Club Members to be DBS checked, only those in regular contact with Children or who supervise them have need of it. DBS certificates contain Confidential Personal information and are subject to Data Protection legislation.

Further information is available on the DBS website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisat ... vice/about

[David Blower]

Thanks Michael. I am currently rewriting the whole of the "Where to Find us" page of the club website (hoping you agree it is good. I am the webmaster!)

And yes I know it is 5am, don't worry I do have the day off work tomorrow (later today.)

I have read the link you have given and the ECF advice of: "Don't play physical contact games with young people," makes me laugh. If anyone is worried we don't throw chess pieces at the children!

The main one is we are always careful that an adult never has 1 to 1 contact with a child, and we are careful about how a child gets to and from an away match venue, the parent is selected either in the team themselves or comes along to the venue with their child. The named contact does have a DBS check.

Obviously it is something to be aware of, and we are. However my original question was meant to be more of a case of "what advice do clubs give to parents to help ensure their child enjoys the game, and gets better at it," rather than a debate about which club members need a DBS check. Clearly we want all of our members to enjoy playing chess and to learn chess, (adults and children) and that is more to do with players willing to learn, trying out ideas, remembering what they have learnt and applying it.

[Michael Flatt]

Sorry, about sidetracking with DBS.

I can't really say much more than I did at the head of this thread. Just get the youngsters playing as much as they can and try and set them a few challenges on the way.

Make sure they play adults who have some experience to fall back on and an occasional wiley move. Some adults, however, seem somewhat intimidated when playing a junior.

It is certainly one of the best ways to increase the membership of the club if you have a few dedicated adults willing to support and encourage them. Well worth the effort.

[David Blower]

The "Where to find us" page has been renamed "Joining the club." The tag line has been changed (we are no longer the champions of Dudley Chess League division 3 anyway ) The link to the homepage of the website is below but the link to the specific page of joining the club is here: http://brewoodchess.webs.com/joiningtheclub.htm

It includes a specific "Advice to parents" section, which is quite long, but also hopefully useful. Previous juniors have joined (for 1 or 2 weeks) and then left as it was not what they were expecting. Please let me know if you think something is obviously wrong with the page. (Hence the reason for this topic, to check there is nothing obvious we are missing.) Some advice is specific to our club and most of it applies to any parent or junior around the country (maybe even all chess players in general!)

And I suppose I'll take this opportunity to suggest if you have googled this and found this forum topic and you live near Brewood please come along to the club. We would be happy to see you (both adults and children.)

[Michael Flatt]

Hi David,

I've taken a look at your "joining the club" web page and think that you may want to rethink the structure of it rather than its content.

It seems to me that you have attempted to put too much on one page which causes it to be over long. Visitors would, I suggest, prefer to be able to pinpoint what they want without having to scroll down too far.

Have you thought of using sub-menus or an index at the top of the page comprising hyperlinks that point to each individual topic?

[David Blower]

Its took me 3 months (extremely busy earning a wage from doing a job!) but I have now updated the club's "Joining the club" page again. Any comments are welcomed.

On reflection I think the original update meant that the "advice for parents" section was too long. It has been shortened.

The link to the homepage of the website is below but the link to the specific page of joining the club is here: http://brewoodchess.webs.com/joiningtheclub.htm

Yes the idea of using sub-menus or an index at the top of the page comprising hyperlinks that point to each individual topic has been considered and will hopefully be used asap i.e. when I have a spare few days to do this.

Of course hopefully the point has been made that we want children to enjoy themselves at our club.