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Young people and ringing
Firstly a note about Child Protection, an issue that concerns many tower captains:
Many leaders of young people's groups are understandably wary of activities that take individuals outside of their direct care and prefer to send an adult along to chaperone them, at least for the initial meeting. This particular aspect is best discussed personally on a local basis in the light of local Church and ringers' Child Protection policies. The presence of a parent of course solves any problem.
See also the Council's guidelines on Child Protection in the context of Bellringing.
Training young people
These reports were produced by the Education Committee as part of its response to the recommendation from the CC report on Trends in Ringing 'To consider "fast track" training courses for young people, and to seek ways of providing support to university ringing societies'.
The first is a working paper produced in 2003. It sets out the issues, problems and possibilities, and was published in The Ringing World on 23 January 2004.
The full text of this report is now available online here or you may wish to download a pdf version.
The second paper was produced in 2005. It sets out the conclusions and recommendations, and was published in The Ringing World on 23 September 2005.
The full text of this report is now available for download in a pdf version.
The new Scouting programme
For many years there was a specific bell ringing interest badge for Scouts, but things have moved on. The new Scouting 6-25 Programme was introduced during 2002. There are different sections for different age groups as before, including Beavers (6-8), Cub Scouts (8-10), Scouts (10½-14), Explorer Scouts (14-18) and Scout Network Units (18-25).
Young people can still take up ringing for a Hobbies badge, but there are far better ways to incorporate and gain recognition for their developing skills in ringing right throughout their Scouting life. No longer is there the issue of taking it up for a short while to achieve a badge and then moving on to something new. At the heart of the new programme are six areas of personal development; Body, Mind, Faith & Beliefs, Relationships, Community and Surroundings. Leaders help young people to grow and develop in each of these areas through their involvement in the 'Balanced Programme'.
Part of the programme involves 'Challenge Awards' which can be undertaken individually or as members of a group. Each section has a top or key award for which members must complete specific challenges. The Explorer Scout and Scout Network sections share 3 such awards between them, which are compatible with and can form part of the Duke of Edinburgh's awards.
- Beaver Scouts — Chief Scout's Bronze Award
- Cub Scouts — Chief Scout's Silver Award
- Scouts — Chief Scout's Gold Award
- Explorer Scout/Scout Network — Chief Scout's Platinum/Diamond Awards & Queen's Scout Award.
Cub Scouts
Cub Scouts who are starting their Chief Scout's Silver Award personal challenge are ideally placed to consider starting ringing.
Part of this challenge requires a commitment of 8 weeks, during which they must show improvement in either a new or existing hobby or interest. This challenge is normally started in the last 6 months of Cub Scout membership and is normally completed before the 11th birthday, just before or just after the move to Scouts.
Scouts
For Scouts there are several options. Ringing could satisfy the requirements of Area 1 of the Community Challenge, which involves exploring how an aspect of the local community works and is organised to the benefit of its members. Area 2 of this challenge requires the member to take part in some form of community service, including fund-raising projects, so there are possibilities here too.
The Chief Scout's Gold Award requires, amongst other things, the Scout to undertake personally challenging activities which need a certain degree of commitment. Scouts normally start this challenge about six months before they are due to transfer to Explorer Scouts, i.e. around the age of 14. For the personal challenge element, the Scout must complete the following three areas:
Adventure: Take part in a completely new activity or achieve a higher
standard in an existing activity.
Leadership: Attend at least two Troop Leadership Forum meetings and
successfully achieve an action point from one of these meetings.
Commitment: Complete an activity that demonstrates personal commitment.
This could be community activities, (eg a weekend conservation project or an activity
for younger people), Scouting activities (eg website design and maintenance or helping
with younger Sections), or hobbies and interests (eg extra responsibilities in a choir
or sports club).
Obviously, ringing fits the bill for the adventure area and perhaps the commitment area too.
Explorer Scouts and The Scout Network
The Chief Scout's Platinum and Diamond Awards and the Queen's Scout Award ask, amongst other things, for progress and lasting interest in a skill over a period of between 3 and 12 months depending on which award is being done. Again, this can be either a new or an existing interest.
Girlguiding
The Girlguides have 4 sections: Rainbows (4-7yrs), Brownies (7-10yrs), Guides (10-14yrs), Senior Section (14-26yrs). The senior section has various branches, one of which is Rangers, the uniformed section. All can work towards the same awards.
Brownies
There are 3 ways in which older Brownies can incorporate ringing:
- The general Hobbies interest badge, which requires that they undertake a hobby for 3 months.
- The 'Go!' Challenge for those who are 9 years old. One part of this is "having a go at a new activity, like roller-blading, horse riding or chess" and ringing would almost certainly qualify here.
- The former 4-stage Bellringer badge was retained for Brownies for some time being, but not for the other sections. It could be achieved either through change ringing on tower or hand bells, or through tune ringing on handbells. The tower bell route was far too hard for girls of 10 years and younger, but the tune ringing option was much more accessible, which was the reason for its retention. This badge has recently been discontinued, but it may still be possible for it to be obtained until stocks run out.
Guides
The 4-stage Bellringer badge (which replaced the original Guide badge) has now gone, along with many other 'interest' badges. The basic reason for this is that too few were taking the badges and the organisation felt it needed to respond and move forward. The range of 4-stage badges were available right across the Guiding movement. They aimed to provide a starting point and challenge to any member, whatever their existing skill level or age.
The most obvious choice, and often the only one suggested by Guide leaders, is the Hobbies Badge requiring just 6 weeks' commitment. There is nothing to stop a girl obtaining multiple Hobbies badges for different interests. Other interest badges to which ringing could contribute are Faith Awareness and Team Player. The details of these can be found on the Guiding website. At this level, the young lady is really just having a brief taste of ringing, but that could of course sow a seed.
Secondly, girls do an annual "Guide Challenge" badge. This asks them to do a number of things over the year, including completing two "Go for It!" activities. They are allocated 4-5 sessions within their weekly meeting for teamwork within their patrols for each of these. A "Go For It!" is essentially a theme with numerous diverse activities based upon that theme. It is permitted for a patrol to write their own "Go for It!".
An enterprising young ringer or two, perhaps with an adult's help, could develop something quite imaginative here and it would be acceptable provided it involved the whole patrol. They do not necessarily all have to do the same thing at the same skill level. Diverse activities, for example could be: increasing personal ringing skills, learning to handle, producing an information pack for other Guides, researching and writing an article for the local press, investigating tune/change ringing on handbells, putting together a presentation for the rest of the Guides, finding out about bellfounding etc. Other requirements are to take part in a community activity doing something for somebody else and to complete two activities (as a patrol team) outside their meeting place.
Thirdly, there is the Baden Powell Challenge, which can only be done after two Challenge badges have been obtained. To achieve this a girl must personally complete ten "clauses" from a prescribed range of zones. These should represent personal challenges. The Zone where ringing clearly fits in is Discovery, where an option is to spend 3 months developing a new or existing hobby.
Finally, there is the Commonwealth Award, aimed at older Guides and the Senior Section (formerly Rangers). This has a number of compulsory and optional challenges. Sunday Service ringing (and practice towards it) could satisfy the "Community Action" challenge, which asks that 20 hours over a maximum of 6 months be devoted to a service within the community.
Within the optional challenges there is "Cultural Heritage" — whilst ringing is undoubtedly part of our cultural heritage, it doesn't immediately fall into one of the listed categories. The Guiding organisation will however usually accept a reasoned argument as to how something can fit — eg that ringing is part of the musical cultural heritage of the UK.
Senior Section
Queens Guide Award has recently been revived. One section of this is "Personal Skill
Development". The requirement here is to:
"... over a minimum period of 60 hours over 12 months, take an existing skill to
a new personal level or start a new skill and develop it".
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme
This well known and respected scheme (that has been the subject of earlier RW articles), is for people between 14 and 25 years of age and consists of individual challenges in four sections:
- Service
- Expeditions
- Skills
- Physical Recreation
There are 3 levels of award, Bronze, Silver and Gold. The key thing about all parts of the awards is that they are based on personal development and progress, rather than the achievement of specific standards. Many of the opportunities within the senior Scouting and Guiding programmes can also contribute towards a D of E award, but before starting something a member must be registered for their D of E with a local unit and has to make sure that an activity satisfies its requirements.
The Skills section of the D of E programme requires a young person to:
"... follow an activity and show progression and sustained interest over a period of time ... The skill may be an existing interest or something entirely new ...".
The Programmes Handbook details a number of activities that are recognised as being suitable 'skills'. Change ringing is one of the listed activities and the Central Council Education committee can assist in providing the information and list of sample targets. When beginning a D of E skill, the young person meets with an instructor/assessor and together they agree and record appropriate targets for the individual. Progress is periodically reviewed and targets are adjusted if necessary. The emphasis is on challenging the individual, not on precise achievements.
Further Information
Websites:
Scouting
Guiding
Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme:
Information specific to change ringing
Home page
For further advice, or assistance to do with the ringing related awards for young people discussed here, please contact me and I will do what I can to help:
Pip Penney Tel: 01291 650653
Email: