Setting Up A Chess Club In Your School

You will need to refer to the rules your own school has about clubs and associations that hold meetings on school property.

In setting up a club it would be too easy to think only of the initial stages and not consider what will happen when the club has been up and running for a year or so and you want to compete against local schools, or even enter a County Championship.

Before you announce the Chess Club proposal to the children there are several things you need to consider:

When and where will the club run?

Chess games generally take a considerable time to play. You will need a minimum of 45 minutes for a chess session. Depending on your school day, the club may run during a lunch break or after school. If it is after school you need to ensure that the school site staff know about the arrangement and that the room you are using will be unlocked and available at the time you wish to use it.

When choosing the time of the club sessions you need to ensure that the room you require will be free and that it is convenient for helpers and students alike. It needs to be in a quiet location, but not too far from the washrooms; small tables are best and you may need computer terminals and/or a whiteboard. Think about all of the things you will need in advance.

Will there be enough adults for the number of children attending, and have they all got current CRB clearance?

Again this is something that the school will have its own rules about, but especially if the club is run after school hours, you need to consider staffing numbers.

It may be that you wish to have parents who can help supervise the sessions. If that is the case you will probably need to have a CRB check done for each adult that helps out. You need to discuss your proposals with someone in authority at the school to ensure that you have not contravened school policies on this.

Parental Consent

If the club is held after school, you will need to have parental permission for the child to stay after school. You will therefore have to carefully draft a letter asking for the permission. It is a good time at this stage to ask for permission to keep and share records of the child's progress in chess. When you come to register the child as a player later on, or, to choose a chess team, record keeping will be important.

You will also need the parent to confim how the child is going to get home after the club - walk home alone, be collected, accompany another child... Try to cover all of the bases as you set up the documentation. It will save headaches later!

Funding

Will the school financially support the club? Will it pay for resources such as boards, chess sets, chess clocks (for later on), transport costs to away matches if you join a league... Do not assume the school will find the money. Ask! If the funds cannot be found there is the possibility of asking the PTA or charging a small fee.

It is unlikely that you will get anything for running the chess club other than the satisfaction of stimulating young minds and having extra-curricular activity evidence for your Professional Development interview. But, if you are part-time, you never know!

Keeping Records

You will need to record the details of each member of the chess club: name, date of birth, home address and telephone number and an emergency contact telephone number (in case you are left with a child at the end of a session that has not been collected!).

You also need to know of any medical conditions, the address and telephone number of the child's doctor and whether permission has been given, in the case of an emergency, to take the child to a hospital for treatment.

All of this information will be on the school computer, but at 5 o'clock on a Monday evening the school secretary will have probably gone home - and you may not have access to the school records. This is even more the case if you are returning from an away match.

The PE staff will probably have forms that the football or netball team have to fill in for your school. You need to look at one of these and adapt it for Chess. It is unlikely that a child will suffer an injury while playing chess - but s/he might trip up when moving around the room and bang his/her head, or suffer an asthma attack. You need to be covered. Get the paperwork in order at the start.

School Logo for Chess

It is an idea to have a logo - one that incorporates the school logo and a chess piece or board perhaps. This logo can then be used on all communications with parents and on certificates, posters around school etc. When you finally get to competition level you could even have chess T-shits and/or chess baseball caps for the team!

A logo will give a sense of value and belonging to the members of the club and promote pride in their membership.

You could even make the design of a logo the subjects of a promotional exercise - getting the school to participate in a competition to design one! (Get them to do it as a computer graphic - a gif is best as you can then remove the background - this will make your task of adopting it so much easier!)

Promoting the Club within your school

You could use an assembly to tell the whole school about your new venture. I have written one that you might like to use (Click here).

Posters advertising the venue, time, day ow week etc. should be put up around the school.

Item in the school newsletter to parents - this could bring in volunteer helpers! You could tell parents that this site would help them help their children to learn,