Certificate of Merit

[Neill Cooper]

I am sure that we have told you that we cannot release the whole chess for schools database due to data protection issues (this is because they haven’t signed up for CoM).

When can I ask for my school and junior club be added to the list?

[John Upham]

When can I ask for my school and junior club be added to the list?

Wilson's School is on the list of 35. As soon as I'm convinced that the Office side of things is all in place and that they are committed to CoM then your school can use the application. I will let you know ASAP.

John

[Michele Clack]

With this loss of grant situation it looks really vital to get this CoM project up and running ASAP.

[John Upham]

Results from the first trial of CoM at Yateley Manor School on October 6th, 2009 show that twenty twelve year old children took a total of 141 tests in the space of roughly one hour.

Of these seven passed with Distinction ( > 17 answers correct out of 20 ) Two of these seven achieved maximum scores.

Another four passed with Merit ( > 15 answers correct out of 20 ).

The remaining nine did not achieve the required pass mark.

The children will be presented with their certificates and "other goodies" during a future school assembly by ECF Manager of Coaching, Andrew Martin.

Since each test has a full audit trail, it is possible to analyse tests for each student to see in what areas they need to put in extra study.

They cannot rote learn how to pass a test since each new test randomly chooses 20 questions from a pool of 100. Many of them took multiple tests and could not swap answers with their mates much to their annoyance.

Had the credits for this session been paid for by Yateley Manor then this one hour session would have made :

141 x £5 = £705 for the ECF coffers.

Next trial : Abbey Junior School, Reading, Berkshire on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009.

[Peter Turner]

Evening John

Thanks for the results of the first trial. I agree with your arthmetic but would suggest not to predict possible income to the ECF on schools allowing youngsters to sit an average of 7 tests in a single session at a cost of £35!! This is not nit-picking

Regards

Peter T

[John Upham]

Evening John

Thanks for the results of the first trial. I agree with your arthmetic but would suggest not to predict possible income to the ECF on schools allowing youngsters to sit an average of 7 tests in a single session at a cost of £35!! This is not nit-picking

Regards

Peter T

Peter,

I was not making predictions but merely reporting what happened. Had the credits not been free but been paid for by YM School then I can't guess how many they would would have allowed each student to use : maybe one each? During the testing session (and other times) the teacher in charge may allocate credits to each student from their credit pool. The School can increase its credit pool either via PayPal / Credit Card or by sending payment to the ECF Office.

Individual students not connected to a school or college will have to fund each test personally which might encourage them to study harder before taking the test!

As it was, none of the Yateley Manor students had access to the CoM DVD prior to taking the test and (in my opinion) did very well indeed.

Some of them learnt new material and ideas simply from taking the test, for example, en passant and various types of mating pattern were previously unfamiliar.

[Matt Harrison]

This all sounds good, but I do wonder how many schools could afford £5 per test in the current climate. Budgets at the state schools my children attend are being heavily cut back at the moment.

Possibly a more productive pricing scheme would be something like £1 per test, or £5 to take it as many times as you like until you pass.

[Neill Cooper]

This all sounds good, but I do wonder how many schools could afford £5 per test in the current climate. Budgets at the state schools my children attend are being heavily cut back at the moment.

Possibly a more productive pricing scheme would be something like £1 per test, or £5 to take it as many times as you like until you pass.

Whilst schools would not pay I think many parent's will willingly pay the £5 - though it is a steep rise on the £2.50 for the old written test.

[andrew martin]

I think £ 5 is a bare minimum charge factoring in costs of labour,postage, the children's certificated award etc,badges, VAT etc. Compare this with awards in other sports such as swimming. Maybe £ 10 per exam would be better.

The ECF want to MAKE MONEY out of this scheme and then start ploughing back this money into junior chess to help our young players.

There are no limitations as to who can take the COM exams. Teachers,parents,children,adults anywhere in the world may acheive at the three levels if they so desire and receive official recognition from the ECF as a result.

The scheme may extend, broaden and modify over time, but for heaven's sake let's get the website up and running first before making ANY predictions whatsoever.....

[Stewart Reuben]

People often value something they have to pay properly for rather than it be at a give-away price.
£5 provides about £3 profit per entry. If this were a book, we would be charging (£5-3) x 5 = £10 for a publisher to be interested in it as a commercial proposition.
Perhaps after having paid off origination costs, the price of £5 can be reduced. Alternatively, we might decide that was a loss-leader and increase the charge.

The package costs about £30 to produce. Thus it should be sold at £150, which is obviously ridiculously high. But this is an incorrect business plan. If 30 exam entries are received for each package sold, then the income is £3 x 30 = £90. If we sell that package at £60 then we have a viable business plan. That would then provide profit of about £30 per package.

Once you go above 30 exam entries per package, then it goes into substantial profits. Remembering that there will be certificates higher than level 1 and that anybody can enter, without needing to buy the package, 30 is very conservative.

There is a substantial argument that the package should be sold at £50, or even lower, rather than £60. But there is no argument in favour of selling the package via outlets such as Amazon or Chess Magazine.

Stewart Reuben

[Paul Buswell]

Chris Majer wrote:
I am sure that we have told you that we cannot release the whole chess for schools database due to data protection issues (this is because they haven’t signed up for CoM).

Someone please correct me, but I always thought DP legislation referred only to data about individuals; and not always then if it simply related to them in an official capacity. I didn't think data about institutions was covered.

Any DP lawyers out there?

PB

[Paul McKeown]

Someone please correct me, but I always thought DP legislation referred only to data about individuals; and not always then if it simply related to them in an official capacity. I didn't think data about institutions was covered.

Any DP lawyers out there?

PB

Not a DP lawyer - but I'm sure you're right. I thought DP covers individuals only. Sensitive information about organisations can be protected under various laws (e.g. Official Secrets) or contractually - but not by DP.

[John Upham]

The second UAT trial of CoM took place at The Abbey Junior School, Reading, Berkshire on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 5pm.

The teacher in charge logged in and registered sixteen girls (from 8 to 11 years of age) in around ten minutes via the CoM site.

The students logged-in in the next couple of minutes

They were each given four free CoM credits to get them going.

They took a total of 133 Level One tests between them.

Six students passed with distinction

Two students passed with merit

The rest failed to achieve more than fifteen out of 20.

None of them had seen the content of the CoM DVD as they have not signed-up for the Support package.

There were two chess classes in progress : one was being taught by Ken Coates and the one I took together with WCM Khadija Elflow (Libya).

The girls buzzed with excitement whilst doing the tests and loved learning whilst doing so.

I stopped the class once to explain the En Passant capture and its history.

When the girls were sitting next to each other they tried "What is the answer to number three?" and were shocked to find they were doing different questions.

At the end many of them put their hands up and asked if they could continue at home.

I am convinced that CoM will be a great teaching aid as well as for conducting tests : the enthusiasm from the students was very gratifying for the CoM development team.

I will produce a thorough analysis of the results in due course. The teachers can learn from this a great deal.

I'd like to thank the Teacher in Charge, Mrs Maggie Shepherd and the coaches, Ken Coates and WCM Khadija Elflow for making myself and the ECF so welcome.

The one negative point that irked me was that they were using appalling toy shop chess sets. I was asked "When will we get our sets that we applied for two years ago?" I had to bite my tongue and apologise. I feel like going out and buying them myself and taking them round I was so ashamed.

Next Tuesday I will visit the Battle Office to train Stewart Rueben (is this possible I wonder?) plus the office staff on the admin back -end of CoM.

[Carl Hibbard]

The one negative point that irked me was that they were using appalling toy shop chess sets. I was asked "When will we get our sets that we applied for two years ago?" I had to bite my tongue and apologise. I feel like going out and buying them myself and taking them round I was so ashamed.

Is there any chance of getting a CFS update from any of the ECF officials present on here please?

[John Upham]

Is there any chance of getting a CFS update from any of the ECF officials present on here please?

This thread is for CoM : is there not one dedicated to matters beyond my control i.e. CSfS?

I felt very ashamed that Abbey School had asked many times about their promised sets. However, what we did last night with CoM was very good for the ECF so I did repair the damage slightly.