Education Committee Members
Chesterfield District |
Karen Jeffrey and Don Jones |
Derby District |
John Heaton and Gill Hughes |
Ilkeston District |
Vacant Post |
Peak District |
Peter Humphrey and Philip Mehew |
This year saw the Education Committee taking a long hard look at the sort of courses it puts on. Quite often a lot of work goes into the preparation and a lot of money is spent posting details to every tower but the courses can often actually only accommodate 6 people and the committee felt that this was not very cost effective. This year the committee tried two events both new to this Association but well tried and tested elsewhere.
In May we held a seminar entitled ‘Towards better Practice Nights’. This was based almost entirely on a very successful day held in the Ely Association and we were very grateful to Richard Pargeter, from that association, for his helpful advice. This day dealt with such topics as the art of standing behind, mixed ability practices, things to do when only 3 or 4 are gathered together, and a student’s perspective on what they want from a practice night. This day was very successful with representatives from fifteen towers attending.
We chose November for a training day based at the Gordon Halls Ringing Centre where we booked all the towers in the area around Eckington and ran eight different sessions ranging from call changes to Oxford Treble Bob. This day was immensely popular with over 60 people joining in, for many it was their first training experience outside their own tower and there was a lot of positive feedback. Many pupils met up for the lunch break in Eckington church hall and the room was buzzing with chat about the morning’s sessions. When is the next day was a frequently asked question. The committee is grateful to those members of the Districts who helped on the day and who continue to run training sessions locally.
As a direct response to feed back from students on the year’s training events we have made preliminary preparations to run short ½ day courses on methods requested by potential students. See the report from the Ringing Centre for more detail. With the experience of the good response to this year’s events we look forward with enthusiasm to organising training events in the coming year.
Gill Hughes