There was a good turnout to the ‘Have your Say’ event on 17th April in the Undercroft. There were two brainstorming sessions and everyone was invited to put their ideas and thoughts on post-it notes, which were then stuck on the wall and sorted under headings. A lot of useful ideas and feedback were obtained and everyone really did get their say. The results of this session and the survey will be discussed by the Education Committee to help develop their future programme, and we hope by Districts too.
Results of post-it note brainstorming exercises
Attendees were each given three post-it notes each and asked to put down three issues/ideas for the Guild to address. These were then put up on the wall and grouped together under different headings. Attendees were then asked to vote on which three headings they considered the most important by placing a green sticky spot against the heading.
1. What does the Guild need to address?
Communication and engagement (12 votes)
Guild to communicate directly to members, not through tower captain
Look at towers that have young ringers and training to see what works
Increase involvement of ‘ordinary’ ringers
Help more members feel engaged
Better teaching – not just technically but in the right social environment
Get parents, children, schools involved
Involve parents – kids should go to the pub
Community spirit – is good to have that feeling of belonging and having friends
Communication
Help to progress (12 votes)
Additional learners practices (call changes, plain hunt)
Establish learning groups to get learners together and aid retention
Identify the needs for each tower
Establish ‘professional’ ringing courses
Organise scheme of education and training
More teachers, tower by tower, district by district
Districts to help more teaching
Clear learning pathway and better visual aids
Education and teaching aids
Use more technology to develop self-learning
Help ringers from smaller bands to feel welcome at practices at towers with larger/more experienced bands
Establish pathways for those progressing – encourage
Improve awareness of ringing learning resources
Get out more – experienced + learners
Help in own tower from one or two experienced ringers
Help in towers from experienced ringers to enable band to progress
Teach good handling (12 votes)
Teaching teachers/list of teachers (bell handling)
Hold regular masterclasses to correct/refine learners bell control skills
Teaching good handling
Improve teaching
Recruitment (8 votes)
Improve resources on website for non-ringers and raise profile – links from local information sites, libraries, adult education etc.
Become more efficient at passing details of those at Guild level on two towers who can teach them
Commitment, teaching fundamentals, recruit families
Recruitment old and young, could argue a case for either strategy
Improve recruitment and retention
More innovative recruitment
Improve recruitment
Improve retention (6 votes)
More encouragement of groups of churches to have a combined band to aid teaching etc.
Improve retention
Make learners feel welcome at special events – like the annual Winchester Cathedral district practices
Retention
Improve retention
Improve retention
Image (6 votes)
Bellringing needs a better image
Improve the recruitment pitch/take down barriers (church membership)
Change the culture – more inclusive and ethnically diverse
Improve relations with the neighbours – i.e. Less public noise
Young ringers (4 votes)
Develop young leaders
Youth practices
Environment (1 vote)
Improve comfort of ringing rooms
Improve state of ringing rooms
Improve ringing environment (ringing room)
2. How can the Guild address these issues?
(We didn’t have time to vote on these)
Encourage group teaching at a local level
Collaboration with local towers for ‘targeted’ practices
Local tower collaboration more regular and focused on ringing level
Focus on creating hubs with large numbers of teachers and teaching sessions
Group churches/teachers together so tasks and learning can be spread out
Collaboration between local towers
Encourage more ringers to be involved with local initiatives (e.g. Group/tower networks)
Benefice based teaching and learning
Get good ringers, not just tower captains involved
Group training (several towers) sounds good
Benefice practice
Education committee being able to supply 2 to 4 teachers for group tower sessions
Holiday courses for school-age ringers (intensive training)
One of my Ringing Remembers recruits said that if they got a few learners together for a class to let them know.
Training by Districts
More district learning courses
More courses may be at district level
Very, very simple stuff (rounds and call changes or plain hunt)
Favour (centralised, if need be) training sessions for Learners Only,
Encourage/reinforce good bell handling teaching skills
More ‘improvers’ sessions of the Alton/Holybourne type – LOCALLY BASED
Invite learners to special sessions (not too few, keep within districts)
Establish trainers and location for REGULAR masterclasses, especially in BELL CONTROL
Handling masterclasses and listening skills
Targeted practices for each level
Newer ringers can feel quite intimidated by the ‘experts’
More systematic ongoing practice provided and District level for learners completing one day courses
Two day courses (not just a one-off training day, but follow up each pupil afterwards)
A slide at the end of the course notes, suggesting the learners ask to ring the method at their local practices/district practices or organise people to ring a quarter or practice with them
Districts to provide extra instructor support for practices run by local groups of towers at a particular level
Guild education committee (group of experts) visit tower practice nights.
Support and develop tower captains
Encourage tower captains – surveys and questions on what support they need to improve their teaching
Create system for teachers to get together and share best practice and encourage each other
Annual meetings for towers – to many towers with un-elected TC’s or TC’s been in role for too long
Leadership courses
Tower captain/ringing Master courses
Too many teachers demanding learners to ring on Sundays (once progressed)
Develop more teachers
Teach more teachers
Teach to teach courses
Run courses explaining ‘other pathways’ encourage people to take an interest in maintenance, history etc.
Teaching to conduct courses
More and better use of technology
Show/teach how computer programs and phone apps can be used for self-help away from tower. Also books available as well
Look at practicability of fitting and using dumbbell for teaching bell handling
One tower with simulator in the area that is available to use the practice
Dumbbell
What teaching centres have we (W & P) got locally? Publicise them!
General
Newcomers – target with invite to ring (welcome pack)
Initiate projects that are sustainable over the long term with ideas from good practice
WPBELLS 
There is some great stuff here with lots of food for thought! I notice the comment about people wanting the Guild to communicate directly to individuals and not through their towers. I agree 100% with this but to do this the Guild needs a database. We have been talking about this for ages. Was a database discussed and do you think that there is an appetite among ringers for this? Heather Frazer
I agree that members should be contacted directly, and about the need for a central database. I feel that people should apply to join the Guild by filling in a (well-designed!) form which would give their contact details, like any club or society these days. (Similar forms would need to be completed for existing members to get the database going). But I would support retaining Tower Contacts for District communications.