M2C: 19 November 2022 - Stoke St Milborough
On Saturday 19th November I attended an ART M2C course at St Milburga Church at Stoke St. Milborough in Shropshire. This church has a peal of eight Italian bells which were cast in 2019. The course was led by ART Tutor Paul Lewis.
I’ve previously attended M1, M2F and M2C courses as a teacher and found them extremely useful. This time I returned as a mentor for one of my ringers at Broseley who I’ve taught through the five levels of the Learning the Ropes scheme and is now teaching learners himself.
We had a small group of five teachers and mentors of varying levels of experience on the course, coming from towers with varying levels of ringing expertise. The day was well structured and organised, with PowerPoint presentations taking place in the church, interspersed with lots of practical exercises up the tower.
The course started with a discussion on foundation skills such as listening, bell control and ropesight. We were shown various exercises to help with other essential skills such as changing speed and leading. We then considered various exercises that can assist towards plain hunt including Bastow and Cloisters. In the morning we were joined by two learners and it was great to hear their point of view on the various exercises. They enjoyed watching more experienced ringers make mistakes and realising they don’t always find things easy either! Later we covered methods that can help to break the journey to Plain Bob Doubles or Minor into smaller, more achievable steps. During the day we also shared our personal experiences with the group.
Despite having attended the course previously, I found it extremely enjoyable and worthwhile. I’ve put many of the tools in practice at my own tower already, but it was useful to reconsider other tools I didn’t get round to trying out on my own ringers last time around. I’m also looking forward to mentoring and helping someone else complete their accreditation over the next few months.
I strongly recommend this course to other potential teachers. It was an extremely useful day for those who want to coach their learners through rounds to plain hunt and method ringing and you will go back to your own tower with lots of new ideas and enthusiasm.
Ginette Pardoe
Course Tutor: Paul Lewis
Teaching Elementary Change Ringing
Learn how to teach the skills of change ringing.
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