What a school receives
A block, in writing
Before a block starts, the school gets a written plan. After every session, a short note. At the end, a report on every child. This page shows all three, filled in for an imagined class, so you can see the shape of the thing before agreeing to anything.
An example. Rowan Park National School does not exist, and neither do these twelve children. The plan, the session shape and the chess are exactly what a real block uses; the names are invented so that nobody’s child is on a website.
1 · Before the block
The plan
- School
- Rowan Park National School (imaginary)
- Group
- 1st and 2nd Class, 12 children
- Programme
- Playing the Game
- When
- Tuesdays, 2.15 to 3.05
- Block
- Six sessions
Four aims, and how each one is measured
Play a complete, legal game from the first week
How: Every session ends with a full game. Rules are corrected at the board, not from the front.
Measured: By week 6, a game finishes with a result, not a shrug.
Notice when a piece is attacked, and do something about it
How: Week 4 is only this. Set positions where one piece is in danger and the child has to find it before the clock says so.
Measured: Fewer pieces lost for nothing, counted from week 4 to week 6.
Finish with a basic checkmate
How: King and queen against king, practised until it works with the instructor as the losing side.
Measured: Each child delivers it once, unaided, by the last session.
Lose, and start the next one
How: Games are short on purpose, so losing happens often and stops mattering. Every game ends with a handshake.
Measured: No child leaves a board mid-game by week 3.
Fifty minutes, every week, in the same shape
Children learn the shape by week two and stop asking what is next. The proportions are the point: more than half of every session is playing.
- Warm-up. One puzzle on the demonstration board. Everybody answers with a finger, nobody with a voice.
- Teach. One idea. Shown twice, then named once.
- Guided practice. Set positions where the idea is the answer. Pairs, easier and harder versions on the same table.
- Play. A full game. The instructor moves between boards and corrects at the board.
- Review. One position from the room, put up on the demonstration board and looked at together.
Six weeks, one idea each
Week 1
All six, properly
Every piece and how it really moves, including the pawn capture, which is the rule everybody gets wrong first.
At home: They can set the board up correctly, which most adults cannot.
Week 2
Check, and getting out of it
What check is, and the three ways out of it. Then games where getting out of check is the only thing that matters.
At home: They will start announcing check, loudly.
Week 3in full below
Checkmate that finishes
A basic checkmate practised until it works, so a game can actually end instead of drifting.
At home: They can finish a game rather than giving up in the middle of one.
Week 4
Your piece is being attacked
Noticing that something of yours is in danger, and the four things you can do about it. This is the week a child stops losing pieces for nothing.
At home: Fewer pieces disappear, and they notice yours are in danger too.
Week 5
Is this trade good?
Counting before committing. Not values memorised from a poster, but working out whether what you get back is worth what you gave.
At home: They pause before taking something. That pause is the lesson.
Week 6
A full game, start to finish
Complete games with castling and the whole set, played properly, and a first look back at a game to find where it turned.
At home: They play a real game of chess, by the real rules.
How this group learns, written after week 2
Every group is different in the same four ways: how it settles, how it pairs, what it works for, and how it loses. Four lines, kept for the block.
- 1Loud at 2.15, settled by 2.25. The warm-up puzzle is what settles them; starting with talking does not.
- 2Pairs by level, not by friendship. Two friends at one board play fast and learn nothing; two strangers at the same level play properly.
- 3This group wants to explain. A child who can say why a move is good is asked to say it to the room, and that is the reward they work for.
- 4Losing is still hard for three of them. Games are kept short so it happens often and stops being news.
2 · One session, in full
Week 3: Checkmate that finishes
Objective. Every child can say what checkmate is, spot one on the demonstration board, and deliver king and queen against king at least once.
Materials. Twelve sets, the demonstration board, and the week-3 cards (one easier, one harder, on every table).
Warm-up · 5 min
White to move. There is one move that ends the game. Point to it.
Everybody answers with a finger. Then one child says it in words.
Answer: Qh8#. The queen next to the king, guarded by the bishop on d4. Nothing can take her, nothing can block, nowhere to run.
Teach · 8 min
- Checkmate is check with no way out. Say the three ways out from last week, then show a position where none of them works.
- Name it once, after they have seen it twice.
Guided practice · 12 min
Easier card. King and queen against a lone king, with the black king already on the edge. Find the mate.
Harder card. The same, but the black king in the middle. Push him to the edge first, without stalemate.
On every table: The rook can take only one of the two black pieces. Which one? (The knight on d7. The bishop is off the rook’s lines.)
Play · 20 min
Full games, 20 minutes. Any game that reaches king and queen against king is stopped and the child plays the ending out against the instructor.
Review · 5 min
One position from the room where a child could have mated and did not. Looked at together, no name attached.
What success looks like
At least eight of the twelve deliver the mate once unaided. The other four do it with one prompt. Nobody stalemates twice.
If it does not land: Week 3 is repeated as week 4 and the block runs a week longer. This is planned for and costs the school nothing.
3 · After every session
The note the school gets
Four lines, the same evening, to the principal or the class teacher. Never more than a screen, never a sales message.
Subject: Week 3 at Rowan Park, 1st and 2nd: checkmate that finishes
All twelve present. The warm-up mate took under a minute, which is a first.
King and queen against king: nine children delivered it unaided, three with one prompt. Two stalemates in the room, both noticed by the child who caused them, which is the point.
Games are finishing now. Four of six boards reached a result inside the twenty minutes.
Next week is “your piece is being attacked”. If a child mentions a piece they lost for nothing this week, that is exactly what we are fixing.
Odei
4 · After the block
A report on every child
First the four aims, each against its measure. Then the numbers week by week. Then six skills, three marks and four lines for every child. The school keeps this; each family gets their own child’s line as a progress card.
Aim 1
Play a complete, legal game from the first week
10 of 12
finish a complete legal game
Met
Aim 2
Notice when a piece is attacked, and do something about it
14 → 5
pieces lost for nothing, week 4 to week 6
Met
Aim 3
Finish with a basic checkmate
10 of 12
deliver the mate unaided
Met
Aim 4
Lose, and start the next one
0
boards left mid-game after week 3
Met
Week by week
Counted in the room, not remembered afterwards. Attendance was 69 of 72 child-sessions.
Children, of 12
| Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 |
Boards, of six, reaching a result inside twenty minutes
| Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Children, of twelve, from the week it is taught
| Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
Counted from week 4, when it is taught
Fewer is better. Not counted before it is taught, on purpose.
| Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| not counted | not counted | not counted | 14 | 9 | 5 |
After week 3 After week 6
| Skill | After week 3 | After week 6 |
|---|---|---|
| Sets up the board | 10 | 11 |
| Moves every piece correctly | 9 | 10 |
| Announces check, and gets out of it | 8 | 8 |
| Delivers a basic checkmate | 9 | 10 |
| Notices a piece under attack | 3 | 4 |
| Finishes a game, win or lose | 6 | 10 |
- 3 to the senior group in January
- 7 continue with this group
- 2 continue, with a catch-up start
Every child, every skill
| Child | Class | Sets up the board | Moves every piece correctly | Announces check, and gets out of it | Delivers a basic checkmate | Notices a piece under attack | Finishes a game, win or lose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aoife | 2nd | ||||||
| Tadhg | 2nd | ||||||
| Saoirse | 1st | ||||||
| Oisín | 1st | ||||||
| Fiadh | 2nd | ||||||
| Cian | 1st | ||||||
| Éabha | 2nd | ||||||
| Senan | 1st | ||||||
| Lily | 2nd | ||||||
| Noah | 1st | ||||||
| Hannah | 2nd | ||||||
| Rían | 1st |
Yes Getting there Not yetAll twelve children are invented.
Every child, in four lines
What holds their attention, what gets a better session out of them, what to watch, and where they go next. Written for the teacher who has them every day, not for a brochure.
Aoife · 2nd Class
12/12- Likes
- Being asked why. She will explain a move to the room without being told twice.
- What works
- The harder card, every week, and an opponent who beats her sometimes. Praise does nothing; a problem does everything.
- Watch
- Boredom. If the game is easy she starts helping her opponent, which is kind and not the point.
- Next
- Senior group in January
Ready for the senior group in January. Started winning games in week 4 and started explaining why in week 5.
Tadhg · 2nd Class
11/12- Likes
- Speed, and winning material. He counts captures like goals.
- What works
- A rule for him only: touch the piece, count to three, then move. Framed as a challenge, not a correction.
- Watch
- Fast hands when winning. He has lost two won games by not looking.
- Next
- Continue with this group
Plays fast and loses pieces to it. The pause before a capture is the whole of next term for him.
Saoirse · 1st Class
11/12- Likes
- Endings, quietly. She was the first to see a stalemate coming and said nothing until asked.
- What works
- Being asked. She will not volunteer, and she always has the answer.
- Watch
- Being paired with a loud child. She goes silent and the game becomes theirs.
- Next
- Continue with this group
Quiet, careful, and the first to spot a stalemate. Needs more games, not more teaching.
Oisín · 1st Class
10/12- Likes
- The knight. Everything about it. He will play a whole game with one knight if allowed.
- What works
- A job: he hands out the boards and collects them, and it changed how he arrives.
- Watch
- Losing. Week 2 he left a board. Games are kept short for him and he has not left since.
- Next
- Continue with this group
Loves the pieces, finds losing hard. Left a board once in week 2, never since. Real progress.
Fiadh · 2nd Class
12/12- Likes
- Teaching. She taught Cian the mate in week 3 better than I had.
- What works
- Give her someone to help for five minutes, then a real opponent for fifteen.
- Watch
- Nothing yet. She is ready for the senior group and knows it.
- Next
- Senior group in January
Delivered the mate in week 3 and then taught it to Cian. Ready for the senior group.
Cian · 1st Class
11/12- Likes
- Fiadh's explanations, and the demonstration board when it is his move.
- What works
- Peer teaching. He learns from a child faster than from an adult, which is normal and useful.
- Watch
- Giving pieces away when he thinks nobody is watching. Somebody always is.
- Next
- Continue with this group
Got the mate from Fiadh, which is better than getting it from me. Still gives pieces away.
Éabha · 2nd Class
11/12- Likes
- Being ahead. She is a good winner and an honest loser.
- What works
- The three questions, out loud, before each move when winning. She skips them when confident.
- Watch
- Overconfidence. Two lost games from winning positions this block.
- Next
- Continue with this group
Solid on everything except noticing danger. Plays too quickly when winning.
Senan · 1st Class
5/12- Likes
- The pieces as characters. He has names for his rooks.
- What works
- One piece at a time. He is a week behind and knows it, and he wants the next block.
- Watch
- Knight and bishop still muddled. Not a worry at six; a worry if it is still true in March.
- Next
- Continue, with a catch-up start
Joined in week 2. Knight and bishop still muddled. Another block would sort it; he wants one.
Lily · 2nd Class
12/12- Likes
- Beating the instructor. She did, in week 6, with the mate from week 3.
- What works
- Real opposition. She needs the senior group or she will coast.
- Watch
- Nothing. Move her up.
- Next
- Senior group in January
Beat me in week 6 with the mate from week 3. Senior group in January.
Noah · 1st Class
10/12- Likes
- Rules. He announces check for other boards.
- What works
- Being the referee for a game he is not playing, then playing the winner.
- Watch
- Speed. He is careful to the point of running out of time; the twenty minutes are a friendly clock for him.
- Next
- Continue with this group
Steady. Finishes every game, announces every check. Got the mate in week 5 and has not lost it since.
Hannah · 2nd Class
12/12- Likes
- Danger. She spots an attacked piece across the room.
- What works
- Positions where something is hanging; she finds it every time and it builds her.
- Watch
- Finishing quickly. She wins the material early and then relaxes; the mate arrived in week 6 and needs repeating.
- Next
- Continue with this group
Best in the room at spotting an attacked piece. Delivered the mate in week 6, and that was her last gap.
Rían · 1st Class
4/12- Likes
- Being at the board with a friend. He is happy there and that matters more than the content, for now.
- What works
- Catching up quietly with one other child, not in front of the room.
- Watch
- Attendance. Two weeks missed is a third of the block. He should continue, and he wants to.
- Next
- Continue, with a catch-up start
Missed weeks 3 and 4. Happy at the board and behind on the content, which is fixable. Recommend he continues.
The block, in one paragraph
Sixty-nine of seventy-two child-sessions, 96%.
Ten of twelve play a complete legal game and finish it. Ten deliver the basic checkmate unaided. Three are ready for the senior group in January.
Recommendation for next term
Continue as one group in January with the four newest children, and move Aoife, Fiadh and Lily to a senior group if the school opens one. If it does not, they stay and are stretched with the harder card each week.
Each child takes home a progress card with the six skills marked and two sentences from the note above. Nothing a parent has not already heard from their child.
A plan like this, for your school
Tell us the class groups and the afternoon, and the written plan for your block comes back before anything is agreed.