Monday, 20 July 2020

It’s All A Matter Of Belief…



It’s all a matter of belief…

The week that has just ended should have been a time for great celebration with a large dose of nostalgia.

The end of a school year is a special time. Children are ready to move on up, with the Year 6 children of Primary Schools all ready for the great leap to their respective Secondary Schools.

Indeed, some schools adopt an interesting policy of moving everyone up for the last two weeks of the Summer term, so they will be acclimatised for the September re-start.

There should have been parties, trips out - all manner of special events.

A whole year of such special experiences has been lost. Schools have tried very hard to make the best of the situation, much to their credit - and 2020 will still go down as an extraordinary year, albeit not in a good way.

None of this extraordinary scenario has been the fault of the children. I have said it before and I will say it again: I carry the shame of my generation.

Children are far more resilient than is generally acknowledged.

What the are experiencing now will stand them in very good stead and they WILL make a difference.

I believe in them.


The school year 2020-21 is going to be an immense challenge.

It is one thing to prepare for a return to normal in September, but in reality it is highly unlikely and now, more than at any other time, there is a need for manifold plans.


When challenged, we must embrace that challenge - and we have certainly not been standing still at Chess in Schools and Communities.


We have been trialing sessions of online delivery across a range of platforms, with Teesside as the main testing area.

Special thanks to Hemlington Hall, Mill Lane, and Westgarth, all of whom were more than willing to help with my initial forays into teaching chess to classes online.

Their help has been very valuable indeed and the members of staff involved in my sessions were all exemplary in every way.

 Committed teachers will always go beyond expectations.

I believe in them.

Standard delivery - with which CSC has been highly successful since 2010 - is still very much on the agenda too.

In fact the options from September onwards will be more varied than ever before. Given the speed of the turnaround of new ideas it is more of a revolution than an evolution.



Schools should head here for further details:



https://www.chessinschools.co.uk

It has all been an extension of the very steep learning curve we have all been experiencing since the lockdown in March.

I know how hard the CSC has been working to keep everything going.

I believe in them.



One very significant aspect of the current emergency is that its scale is far too large to fully comprehend. Every single aspect of our lives is being impacted upon.

Some people will always build bridges; others will always build brick walls. I prefer to build bridges.

I believe in them.

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