It all began because of an imbalance in Birmingham between people wanting to learn to ring and teachers who were either inundated with learners or not teaching at all.

My tower was one of the lucky ones, with lots of learners. But I didn’t feel lucky – we had 15 learners, as well as around 15 other experienced ringers, so that was a lot of people cramming up the tower. I used to go home every week feeling despondent, knowing that people were not getting a good experience of learning to ring and that it was unsustainable. At the other end of the spectrum I knew that there were some good teachers out there, but their towers just weren’t attracting learners.

In the wider Birmingham area, served by the St Martin’s Guild, we realised that towers were struggling to teach people well. Ringers were not making progress and there were poor standards at basic levels. There was a huge divide between teh expert ringers in the city centre and the grass roots ringers at the suburban towers.

We came up with the idea of centralising all the resources available, and using the Learning the Ropes teaching programme to offer a high quality, consistent and enjoyable route for people to learn to ring. The Birmingham School of Bell Ringing was born.

This is how it works:
• Four towers run every Saturday morning following the LtR programme;
• Sessions are concurrent and don’t clash with other tower practices;
• Group sizes are limited to ensure focused teaching sessions with progression built in;
• An experienced tutor runs each session with five experienced helpers to ensure a strong     band around each student;
• Students progress from one tower to the next at their own pace, moving up at appropriate points in the programme.

We took the decision to charge students, so the weekly fee is £5 with a concessionary rate of £3. We wanted people to value the training and show commitment, and we wanted those delivering the training to be committed too. In addition we need to cover costs!

Does it work?
Yes!

The table below shows our recruitment and retention figures since the School opened in September 2013. (Figures include students currently working towards each level.)

August 2017	Students starting	Students finishing	% finishing
Level 1	59	46	78
Level 2	39	26	67
Level 3	30	17	57
Level 4	16	9	56
Level 5	9	5	56

What have we achieved?

Students have benefited from skilled teaching with support from skilled helpers, but more than anything from peer support. Our Facebook page has regular posts of congratulation and support from the students. From the start, friendships developed between students from different towers, and often they visit each others’ practices.

Helpers have benefited by giving something back. Not only that, they are taking skills and ideas back to their own towers.
Exposure to good teaching is good too.
Quite a few of our helpers have told us that they feel their own ringing has improved.

Tutors have benefited from sharing the load.
Practice makes perfect. Teaching on a regular basis really makes a difference to your skills because of the different challenges that different individuals present.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing….and we have had to modify what we offer so we now have a three – week tower rotation plan. The bell-handling tower runs every week and the other three towers run two weeks out of every three. And it works.

The plan included using the more advanced students as helpers in the L1 and L2 groups. This has worked and has had spin-off benefits. It builds confidence, inspires other students, promotes peer support and helps the School. The students think it’s great and get a lot out of helping. For those that have graduated and stayed on as helpers, they get hours of consolidated practice at those basic methods that are the building blocks for progression.

And they have other talents. Just because someone is a tutor doesn’t mean they will remember to bring milk for coffee every week, or notice that supplies are running low, or remember to take money for sessions. But some of the students will…..

Students are our future

They are the helpers, tutors and Tower Captains of the future. It’s happening already. All five of our graduates have returned as helpers. Three students have gone on to join the ART Training Scheme and have attended ART day courses. Three of our students have been taught bell handling by students who have graduated from the school.

We are lucky to be based in an area of high population density with lots of towers close together. We know it’s very different in more isolated or rural areas, but what we have learned will work for everyone in every area. Working together creates a great social network and improves social ringing.

This article was first published in the October 2017 edition of Tower Talk, the quarterly free e-newsletter written for new ringers. To read more or to subscribe to future editions, please click here.