To help membership recruitment in your club, English Bridge Education & Development is now running an important teacher training initiative to help all bridge clubs to ‘grow their own’ membership through an integrated teaching programme.
The purpose of this course is to provide basic training for club members who are prepared to offer a teaching programme at their club. This needs to be as part of programme to which the whole club is committed and which is designed to attract new members into bridge and then nurture their development within the world of duplicate play.
The key to a successful club teaching programme lies with evolving a whole year group from classroom to club room in no more than a year. Players should be integrated into the club as early as possible through a programme of teaching, supervised play, “no fear” duplicates and above all by providing an atmosphere of encouragement and welcome.
The success of your club development programme should not be measured based on how effectively the student member has learned Blackwood or transfers in response to 1NT. Performance should be evaluated by looking at how many of the year group eventually graduate to playing regularly at your club duplicate sessions. The responsibility of this falls to the whole club membership. The future of your club may depend on it.
The cost of a course is currently £106. A list of currently planned courses can be found at the bottom of this page.
If you would like to attend one of these courses, please contact Lisa Miller on 01296 317217 or send her an email
Participants do not need to be members of the English Bridge Union. They should have played duplicate bridge at club level and have a good level of understanding of the game. It is unlikely that the course will be suitable for anyone with an NGS grading below a 7; but no previous experience of teaching is required.
The EBU actively supports this programme by offering one free teacher training session to each affiliated club within any 24 month period, thus supporting the clubs’ development and need for new members. Second and subsequent teachers may attend the course on payment of the usual fee, subject to available space.
Places on these courses should be booked by the registered secretary of the club to which the prospective teacher belongs.
Any club that takes advantage of our free teacher training must agree to take all reasonable steps to provide training within one year of the course, and use the Bridge for All programme with the aim of producing at least 4 students – hopefully more - as full club player members within 2 years of the course.
In addition the club will agree to remain affiliated for a full three years after the training course has taken place. In the unlikely event of failure to follow these requirements, the EBU retains the right to reclaim all, or part, of the costs involved in providing the course.
This one day course perfectly compliments the 2-day Club Teacher Training Courses run nationally by EBED – see below for details of dates/venues.
Entitled 'Market your Teaching', the course is designed to appeal to both new and established bridge teachers with ideas, techniques and strategies to bring students into the classroom and keep them motivated and committed through the learning process. The first course will be held at the EBU's Aylesbury office on Thursday 8th October with further dates at venues around the country to be announced in due course.
Places on the course must be booked in advance and are strictly limited. The cost of the course will be £95.00 per person (which includes a light lunch and refreshments throughout the day).
Contact simon@ebedcio.org.uk