.gif){kind=logo}
Education Committee
The Education Committee exists to promote the training and teaching of ringers at all levels of skill and ability. It organises and runs courses; commissions and produces training materials of all kinds; and tries to encourage others to do the same.
History and Terms of Reference
The 1958 Central Council meeting (Dublin) created a Sunday Service Ringing Committee, which in 1961 (Stoke-on-Trent) became the Sunday Service and Education Committee, and in 1971 (Leamington Spa) was again renamed, as the Education Committee.
The Terms of Reference, as amended by the Central Council meeting in 2001 (Liverpool),
are as follows:
To review, further, and if necessary advance, the best methods of
ringing teaching and learning, and to disseminate this knowledge to
societies and the ringing community; to arrange or assist in the
organisation of training events for societies; to keep under review the
need for up-to-date educational resources using whatever medium best
suits the purpose, and to produce this material wherever necessary.
Committee profile
The committee has 13 members, making it one of the largest on the Council. We meet about 3 times a year at a more or less central location. Historically we have met on Sundays which seemed the most practical way to avoid diary clashes. We have a committee e-mail list for reporting actions, sounding opinion and discussing items between meetings.
The committee's work is varied, with courses and publications as the longest running themes. Individuals undertake specific projects, and some members also perform long term roles. Currently these roles are (with current holders in brackets): Chairman (Barrie Dove), Secretary (Heather Peachey), Treasurer (Catherine Lewis), Custodian of simulator and Co-ordination of Teaching the Teachers courses (Heather Peachey), Co-ordination with youth movements (Pip Penney).
Education Committee's report for 2007
The Committee's report to the Central Council for the year 2007 was presented to the meeting held at Newcastle upon Tyne on 26 May 2008, and was also printed on p474 of The Ringing World. The full text of the report appears on the Reports page of this website.
Services offered
- Courses run for ringing societies:
- Teaching the Teachers course
- The listening skills course
- Mentoring on conducting
- The listening skills course
- Support to trainers:
- Network for Ringing Training
- Support for ringing newsletter editors:
- Ringing Newsletter Exchange
- Developing new books and other training resources to support ringers either learning or teaching others:
- Books and resources
- Advice to youth organisations, such as Guiding, Scouting and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme on bellringing:
- Youth organisations
Courses
Our flagship course, Teaching the Teachers, is a multi module weekend course. We can also run cut down variants, for which the most popular module is teaching bellhandling. New members with the skills to act as tutors on these specialist courses are welcome. They will need to become familiar with the philosophy and details of the course, as well as bringing new ideas that might enable us to enrich it. The committee runs most courses for host bodies (ringing societies, districts or ringing centres) who handle all on-the-ground administrative arrangements. We help local organisers to benefit from our collected experience of all aspects of the course. One of the nominated tutors is responsible for this liaison, together with our course co-ordinator. Periodically we run an open version of the course, at a central venue. These are available to anyone, subject to the number of places.
Our other most popular course is a one day course on Listening. Most of these have been run by John Harrison, and some by Heather Peachey. Anyone particularly interested in this aspect could also become involved.
Mentoring on conducting. We are currently running the pilot phase of a new type of "course" where participants can develop conducting skills over an extended period with the help of a remote mentor.
For full details of these and our other courses visit the courses page.
Stewardship and communication
To do our job effectively, we need to understand what is happening and what is needed across the exercise. We normally allocate a few societies to each member who then tries to develop occasional, informal contact with whoever is involved with organising local training. As well as gathering information, this often also enables us to identify people who would like to host one of our courses. We have recently been trying to identify ways in which we could develop useful relationships with university ringing societies. If you are involved with training in your local area, and you think there is something we could do for you, or something you would like us to know about, please contact Barrie Dove, Education Committee Chairman (address below).
We publicise our activities, and raise the profile of education, notably in The Ringing World and the main e-mail lists. We try to exploit natural opportunities for interesting items or newsworthy items. Members can help spot such opportunities (and ideally write copy as well). We have built relationships with youth movements that include ringing among their activities (Scouts, Guides and Duke of Edinburgh's Award). Pip Penney currently handles this, but any new member with an interest could also be involved. There might be other non ringing bodies with an indirect stake in ringing training.
Publishing
The Committee has been responsible for many of the educational products currently sold by CC Publications. Our policy is to respond to perceived gaps in the repertoire, ie topics not covered, or where there is scope for alternative treatments, innovative products and so on. Items may result from personal initiative or the committee might ask one or more people to develop a new product. Members with a talent for writing can contribute, as too can those with critical minds, as reviewers or proofreaders.
We have several books at various stages of development, including a new improved Beginners Handbook, provisionally to be called the New Ringer's Book.
Even more regular is The Learning Curve. John Harrison edits it, supported by a group of reviewers, occasional contributors and idea generators.
NRT (Network for Ringing Training)
This is potentially our most far-reaching venture. Its aim is to help raise the profile of training as a distinct activity within ringing, and to provide more effective support to those who train ringers. It is still growing and developing, with the main services provided allowing trainers to communicate with each other and to exchange information.
Our vision is for a more substantial, self perpetuating network of people interacting with each other on the ground as well as remotely, in other words a training community. This is a difficult goal, but we believe it is worth working towards. For further details on NRT please click here.
New members who can help to realise the vision of NRT will be particularly welcome.
Framework for training ringers
We have developed a framework that any band can use as a checklist for a systematic review of the way training is organised, managed and conducted. The Framework can also provide the headings for a formal tower code of practice, should one be required.
For full details and copies of the Framework plus an explanatory leaflet please click here.
Reports
The committee occasionally produces reports on major topics that it is, or has been, investigating.
New ventures
In recent years we have identified several areas where there was potential benefit from doing something new.
- Learner helpline We identified the possibility of providing some sort of helpline aimed at learners. This has not yet been developed yet, so any ideas, comments or offers of help would be welcome. Contact us if you can help: .
- Ringing practice toolkit Having started out as Tower captain's resource this product has now been rebadged to give a better indication of its content. This is a collection of useful ideas and other things to help anyone running a practice to make it varied, stimulating and effective, especially in situations that might otherwise make it difficult to do so. Check out this exciting new venture here.
Dipping a toe in the water
There is a wealth of advice and guidance for ringers on all sort of topics. Most of it is published in books, and readily available at very low prices, but many ringers are unaware of what is available or where to find it. If you know that a book contained something of interest to you, you try to get it.
But until you get the book, you don't know it contains anything of interest, so you don't get it.
Every month CC Publications lists over 70 publications in a large advertisement in The Ringing World, but how many of us stop to read it? In any case, what can you tell about the style, content and usefulness of a book from its title? About half of the CC publications are about either learning or teaching, so the Education Committee has agreed to produce a series of "Dips into . . ." various books, to give a flavour of what they contain.
The first few of the "dips" are now available here.
Joining the committee
Membership of the committee is open to any member of the Central Council. All committee posts are filled by election every three years, with additional elections in intervening years if there are any vacancies. If you have any questions about the committee or its work, please contact Barrie Dove, Education Committee Chairman (address below).
Current membership
Thirteen members were elected by the Central Council at the meeting on 26 May 2008 at Newcastle upon Tyne, and membership is currently as under.
 |
Barrie Dove (Chairman), representative for the
Yorkshire Association E-mail: Address: 24 Littondale Avenue, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire HG5 0BQ, UK |
 |
Heather Peachey (Secretary), Honorary member Telephone: 01652 688819 E-mail: Address: Low Wood Lodge, Barnetby-le-Wold, Lincs DN38 6HG, UK |
 |
John Atkinson, representative for the
Beverley & District Society E-mail: |
 |
Claire Bell, representative for the
Oxford Society E-mail: |
 |
Peter Dale, representative for the
Kent County Association E-mail: |
 |
Wendy Graham, representative for the
Carlisle Diocesan Guild E-mail: |
 |
Geoff Horritt, representative for the Hertford County Association |
 |
Catherine Lewis, representative for the
Kent County Association E-mail: |
 |
Simon Linford, representative for the Ancient Society of College Youths |
 |
Pip Penney, representative for the
Llandaff & Monmouthshire Diocesan Association E-mail: |
 |
Brian Sanders, representative for the
Yorkshire Association E-mail: |
 |
David Strong, representative for the
Winchester & Portsmouth Guild E-mail: |
 |
Jan Wyatt, representative for the
Ladies' Guild E-mail: |
An article was published in the Christmas 2007 issue of The Ringing World outlining our work and giving bibliographical details of members at that time. Click here to see/download a PDF version of this article.
[ Previous Site | Go to a Random Site | Next Site ]
[ List the Next 5 Sites | List all Member Sites ]