Virtually everyone comes away from an ART day course feeling energised and enthused. But what can you do with all that energy to make a difference?
We have collected stories and case studies to give you ideas. Some are big whilst others are small; but they are all making a difference. As ART gets more established in more geographies then why not work with other ART enthusiasts in your local area to help each other and do great things?
ART in Action
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The Experienced Tower Captain
A Tower Captain of 40 years who has just spent two years teaching a band virtually from scratch, what can be learnt from ART? Well a lot. “Okay so I knew it all but it certainly reminded me of a things I was not actually doing and should be. I got lots of tips about what to do to stimulate interest and get ringers to progress incrementally with little bits of fun. The practical sessions were excellent.”
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The New Teacher
A mature learner who just missed the Millennium and became tower captain by default! With two ringers who can handle a bell, four recently returned ringers, and two more starting change ringing, making practices instructive and enjoyable for everyone was a little challenging. “It was time I learnt to do it properly!” The result was a fantastic experience which left the head whirling with all that was on offer.
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New Ringers: New Teacher
Building a band at St Mary’s Wargrave with a teacher going through the ART Training Scheme whilst teaching four new ringers bell handling. They are now ringing for services and can ring “10 minutes of quite respectable simple call changes with our two more experienced ringers.” Critical to success was the time and support put in by her local ART mentor and help from the neighbouring band at Sonning.
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The Branch
Taunton Branch shows what can be done to safeguard the future of ringing in an area. Of the 228 ringers in the Branch about a third have started ringing within the past three years; over half its ringers can only ring rounds, call changes or a single method inside. However, by concentrating on the needs of new ringers and teaching them well, the foundations have been laid to enable much progress to be made in the future.
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The Ringing Society
The Barrow & District Society is centred around the Barrow Ringing Centre. Its tutors and a number of other Society senior members are keen tutors, members and supporters of ART. The scheme is in active use at the Barrow Ringing Centre and is being spread to other towers around the area. Ringing Centre tutors teach and support bell handling teaching at towers across the region.
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The Teaching Centre
The Birmingham School of Bell Ringing is committed to the training of new ringing teachers and operates a mentoring system for teachers completing the ART Training Scheme. Students are matched to local towers but the school satisfies their training needs. All tutors are ART trained. The centralised training greatly improves the speed at which people learn and become useful additions to local bands.
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The Older Learner
Starting to learn to ring 2 years ago, not far off her 60th birthday who would have thought that Julie would be ringing a peal? But ring one she did. It started with a quarter peal one year in, then 2 quarters in a day then 3 in a day soon after and finally the full peal at Marston Bigot at the end of September. “The feeling of achievement was amazing – two years ago I would never have thought that I would get this far.”
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The District
The Ledbury District consisted of six active towers who were concerned about their future. They came together to recruit and train new ringers centrally, based on the ART Teaching Scheme. They formed a cluster - on-going learning and social events being cluster rather than tower focused. Find out what worked well and what lessons were learned.
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Young Ringers
On Saturday 22 June 2013, two young ringers at Harborne in Birmingham made history. They became the first people to complete the Learning the Ropes scheme to Level 5 with the “minor approach”. In addition they both started from first principals at Level 1. What is perhaps more remarkable is that they have achieved this in just one year!
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The New Band
If you mention ringing at Minster the first reactions you get are looks of fear and horror. Minster is renowned as not being the easiest tower to ring at even our “ringing circle” looks like it was put in by semi-drunk workmen. The treble and tenor are next door to each other, so if you are ringing the treble you have to look back to the tenor.
Lots more stories from ringers who are teaching and learning with ART are constantly being added to the SmART Ringer blog. » Why not take a look?