2013: Keeping up the good work
2013 was another successful year of growth for ITTS and ART, as demand for ITTS Day Courses in 2013 just kept rising!
Administrator
Following her appointment as the ITTS administrative assistant in December last year, the demand for ITTS Day Courses increased significantly and Angela had to hit the ground running! She quickly measured up to the situation. The processes for the administrative work were gone through one by one, made into electronic versions and put on to the Moodle site. Angela’s husband Philip started to assist in these areas to make processes more efficient for Angela to use. Philip has undertaken a phenomenal amount of work on the Moodle site this year, including upgrading the whole site to the latest version. This was a massive job without which the site was in danger of failing to deliver what is required for the continued smooth running of the ITTS Scheme. There are now over 1,800 users registered onto Moodle, including teachers, mentors, tutors and new ringers
ITTS Day Courses
In 2012 a total of 35 Day Courses were run, during 2013 this increased to 53.
As delegates in some areas have had time to work through Module 1 – Teaching Bell Handling (for which up to two years are allowed for completion), the demand for Module 2 – Teaching Elementary Change Ringing has increased. The number of Module 2 Day Courses more than doubled from 6 in 2012 to 14 in 2013. This is a trend which we hope, and anticipated, will continue.
ART Membership
Nearly a third of Day Course delegates have now completed a Module and become Members of Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).
In March the first ART Annual Conference was held in Kineton. Sixty or so delegates attended a busy and thought provoking day. There were a series of presentations and practical sessions which could be chosen by delegates. Plans are now in place for the ART Conference 2014, with booking open.
DVDs
The Conference last March was rounded off by the first showing of the first ART DVD – Teaching Bell Handling. This was well received and over 300 copies sold over the following nine months.
This DVD was the first of a series of educational products produced by, or on behalf of, the Association of Ringing Teachers.
A short recruitment DVD, created by Neil Ephgrave will be launched at the ART Annual Conference 2014. This will be put onto YouTube so as to maximise the number of likely viewers and potential recruits, however, it will also be available in disc form the ART Shop website.
Looking ahead, a DVD on raising and lowering in peal is in the process of being produced and ART and the Whiting Society have plans to work together to produce a DVD on developing ropesight.
Mentor Development
Mentoring is a very skilled job to undertake. Following the feedback given by delegates who attended the lecture on Mentoring at the Annual Conference encouraging ART to move forward to offer more education for Mentors, a half-day course has since been created. The “Mentor Development Workshop” is now up and running. The Workshop can be attended by anyone who is planning to become an ITTS Mentor or anyone who is currently undertaking this role. The workshop is accompanied by guidance notes on Moodle for those Mentors undertaking the Module 1 assessments; these guidance notes were developed with guidance from British Cycling. See upcoming Mentor Workshops or request a one local to you via the website.
» Learn more about ART workshops
Toolboxes
For those who would like to run courses for ringers in their areas, a series of Teaching Toolboxes is now on Moodle – available to ART Members and Module 2 delegates. These Toolboxes consist of a series of off-the-shelf course materials ranging from Plain Hunt to Plain Bob Minor and relate to Levels 3-5 on the Learning the Ropes scheme. They contain everything needed to run courses for developing ringers, including Teacher Resources, Student Resources a PowerPoint presentation which covers the theory sections and guidance on selecting suitable delegates. More will be added to the range in the future.
There is also a new Youth Groups Toolbox available, including best practice advice and accompanied by various youth activity resources. This can be found on Moodle for ART Members or can be purchased on CD from the ART Shop website.
Management Committee
ART has now appointed a member of the Management Committee, Paul Lewis, who is a senior lecturer at Harper Adams University to take on the role of “Local organiser coordinator”. Paul will be in touch with those who have organised Day Courses in their locality and who can contact local Teachers and Mentors to assist them to implement the use of the teaching resources which have been created locally. He will also encourage them to communicate and exchange ideas with each other.
The Management Committee has also recently been joined by David Roskelly, who will be focusing on developing value for Learning the Ropes ringers.
Stephanie Pattenden has now taken on the role of Independent Educational Standards advisor for the ITTS Scheme. She is assisted in this important role by Matthew Turner and Richard Pargeter. Her first report was presented at the end of 2012 and others will follow.
Learning the Ropes
ITTS Teachers have registered a total of 952 new Ringers to the Moodle site by the end of November 2013.
The Learning the Ropes scheme has been available to all ITTS delegates since July 2012 and many Teachers are using it with their new Ringers. To the end of November, a total of 367 certificates had been awarded to a total of 324 individual Ringers.
Learning the Ropes – November 2013
Level 1 – Bell Handling
Level 2 – Foundation Skills
Level 3 – Introduction to Change Ringing (Plain Hunt and covering, 2 quarter peals to be rung)
Level 4 – Novice Change Ringer (Quarter peal inside to be rung)
Level 5 – Change Ringers (3 further quarter peals including Plain Bob Minor to be rung)
Looking Ahead
There is plenty of work to do to move ART forward, and there is a great willingness to come on board and help. In addition to the ten members of the Management Committee there are in the order of 20+ people helping out in a voluntary capacity in a great range of areas from film making, through educational advice, IT support to advice on health and safety. Some of these volunteers put in a few hours here and there, some a few every week and a few many hours a week.
The ART Management Committee is extremely grateful to this small army of volunteers for assisting the team as it enables resources to be developed more thoroughly and at a faster pace.
Pip Penney