M1: 4 & 18 Jul 2018 - St Paul's, Birmingham

Most Art Day Courses are run at weekends, but not everyone is free to attend at weekends so this M1 Day Course was run over two Wednesday evenings a fortnight apart. It seems that there are clear advantages, but also some potential drawbacks, with this 'evening class' approach, as one of the delegates reports:

This M1 Day Course attracted bell ringers from all levels and learning experiences: some relatively new to ringing, some who are currently learners on ART's Learning the Ropes scheme, some who learnt ringing in their home towers, some very experienced ringers who learnt from an early age, and some who already teach and were looking to gain the necessary certificates in order to continue their teaching.

Running the course in the evening didn’t seem to pose a problem for people getting there and on time. Despite it being towards the end of the day, which meant diminishing energy levels, people seemed happy to be there and eager to learn. It did however mean that everyone was keen to finish on time, which meant less time for more practice and discussion.

Also it was a lot of information to take in, in a relatively small amount of time. Clare did brilliantly getting the points across and giving us just enough time to try out the practicals. I would have preferred more time in order to continue at a more leisurely pace which is a possible drawback of an evening class.

Spread over two weeks was beneficial. With so much to learn it gave ample time to let it sink in and revise before moving on to the next steps. I think if it had been all in one day, I’m not sure I would have retained an adequate amount of information and would feel a lot less confident as a result.

Currently I don’t have a student and so I couldn’t practice teaching during the interim period, but I did watch some teaching at other towers and could understand more of what was going on, and even suggest a few things to fellow learners.

Overall this has been a pleasurable and very informative learning experience.

Harriet Smelt