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A Growth Area at last
by
Denis Goodley
Having written a previous article on the need for all clubs to go out there and hard sell their bowls club it was a major boost to have a subsequent chat with Frank Drewett of Rugby who has become heavily involved with the growth of school bowls in that region.
Whilst chatting to Frank it became clear that we had both experienced similar problems when trying to introduce bowls into schools, so it may save some of you time if you learn from our experiences.
At my club, Acle in Norfolk, we had tried unsuccessfully for 10 years to get involved in the local High School, but then a change of PE staff, solved the problem. We also looked at access to the six feeder junior schools and whilst as a club we were unsuccessful in obtaining grant aid for short mats, junior bowls etc., for use in these schools, an application by one of the schools was successful and we now have two 30’ short mat carpets and a number of sets of woods to share between the six schools.
We start coaching in Sep. at the first two schools.
Our members have also been busy outdoors during the summer, coaching 30 children from another High school and 15 children from a primary school. The children from the High School were then invited to come along to one of the local outdoor clubs on Saturday mornings to continue their coaching and they now have eight regularly turning up.
Frank in Rugby contacted the Schools Partnership Manager and the School Sports
Co-ordinators (SSCO’s) for the eight secondary schools. They met to talk things over and this resulted in fifty-four, 13 year olds boys and girls coming to weekly coaching sessions at the five outdoors clubs in the town. 25 of them then played on Wednesday afternoons indoors throughout the winter, being charged £1 per session at the local indoor club and this is scheduled to take place again this winter.
8 youngsters have now joined local clubs and are playing confidently in matches.
Before you even contact the local schools you should ensure that your own club would be giving you 100% support. You need to gather together a willing band of helpers; qualified coaches, all accredited with CRB checks and all to have attended Child Protection Awareness courses. There would be nothing worse than arranging for 30 children to descend on your club and suddenly find that no-one was willing to assist to coach, supervise etc., you cannot expect the teachers to be always on hand.
At the earliest opportunity start the dialogue with the parents who come along, not only, hopefully, will they want to have a go at bowls themselves, when they see their children enjoying themselves, but they may also volunteer to assist during the summer breaks. I coached one 12 year old this summer on our usual Saturday open coaching session, who was then joined by his younger brother the next week, then dad, then mum and now a school friend. If from every new pupil we suddenly have 5 new members join a club we will soon overcome the loss of numbers playing bowls.
With your trusty band of helpers all ready to go, I would suggest the first approach to schools may vary from region to region, do you know the headmaster? are some of your members teachers?, ex teachers?, helpers at the school ?etc. It may even not be the school you contact direct but your local authority school sports co-ordinator, a very valuable ally.
As stated before in Rugby, Frank was very successful with his first approach to the Partnership Manager and SSCO’s.
These SSCO’s are new animals to a lot of us. Their task is to get more children involved in as many sports as possible and bowls is now accepted as an excellent pastime for the children of all ages, skills and disabilities to become involved in.
Other organisations/people it may be wise to become involved with are the local authority staff who are responsible for a number of different types of grant you may be entitled to. You will need a goodly supply of assorted bowls, coloured ones I would suggest, they have more street cred. Talking of which it may improve your chances if you have a local junior international on your team.
For those us who were at school some time ago the organisation of sport and after school activities has changed considerably. The Sports Council with the assistance of local authorities have formed Community Sports Partnerships who have access to funds from the Youth Sports Trust and European Social Fund. There are also School Sports Partnerships. Quite a maze of organisations but do not be put off by this, contact your local Sports Development Officer of the local authority and he/she will guide you through.
So where are we now, well, we have persuaded the SSCO to assist us, the school is ready to go and the local club have enough coaches and bowls to get the bowls rolling. Of course it will be a great success because we have a great product to sell, but what next? You need to be able to pass the keen ones on to other clubs in the area, which hopefully will not kill their enthusiasm, and you need to be looking at competitions and tournaments for them to be playing in.
I hope this has wet your appetite and should you require any further help please feel free to contact Frank Drewett of the English Schools Bowling Association on 01788 521140 or myself at the Acle IBC, 01493 750869 or via the EIBA headquarters.
Good look, good recruiting, see you at the national finals, I’ll be leading for my star pupils if they’ll have me.
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