parrskool | 08 Mar 2015 9:56 a.m. PST |
Do any schools (or youth groups) in the UK still have "battlegames" clubs, or is it still "incorrect" ? |
Marshal Mark | 08 Mar 2015 10:10 a.m. PST |
We have one at my school. One of my gaming group runs it. |
KatieL | 08 Mar 2015 10:21 a.m. PST |
Not at schools that I know of, although one of the chaps on the Other Forum runs a gaming group at the boys home he works at. |
MajorB | 08 Mar 2015 10:25 a.m. PST |
Do any schools (or youth groups) in the UK still have "battlegames" clubs, or is it still "incorrect" ? Well, it wasn't "incorrect" when I ran one at my school back in the early 70s. |
David Manley | 08 Mar 2015 12:21 p.m. PST |
My son's old primary school has a wargames club. But his high school (which has about 30 times the number or pupils) doesn't |
20thmaine | 08 Mar 2015 12:48 p.m. PST |
I know of one local school that runs (ran?) a Warhammer club at lunchtimes. I don't think that "political correctness" would be an issue – more having a teacher who wants to take on the extra work of running a club at lunch or after school. |
GarrisonMiniatures | 08 Mar 2015 1:13 p.m. PST |
Not working in a school these days, but when I was (up to about 2004/5) I ran quite a successful school club in a large Secondary School every Friday. I believe that the club was still in existence for at least a couple of years after I left – again, a particular teacher joined the school who had an interest in wargaming. |
parrskool | 08 Mar 2015 1:19 p.m. PST |
I recall that in the 1970's/80's the NUT were pretty much against clubs that "promoted" conflict. |
GonerGonerGoner | 08 Mar 2015 1:21 p.m. PST |
Don't blame the NUT. Increases in workload mean a teacher has to be demented to run a club in their own time these days. |
GarrisonMiniatures | 08 Mar 2015 1:29 p.m. PST |
Have to confess… ran club, set everything up… brought in figures terrain… but eventually the kids ran their own games while I downloaded and printed stats for a learning program my department was running… so I was there anyway… |
Foxgamer | 08 Mar 2015 2:14 p.m. PST |
I've run two primary school clubs in my time. One a war hammer 40k club run by the children mostly. The other club was a DBA club using plastic 1/72 figures and painted 2x4 foot MDF boards. All the children enjoyed the experience – even when confused by 'double score blades versus spears'! |
20thmaine | 08 Mar 2015 4:29 p.m. PST |
@GarrisonMiniatures – but that's the ideal – school provides the premises and the adult presence, children in time learn to organise themselves – adult presence is to act as an umpire who prevents it going all "Lord of the Flies" And to add continuity as children age, get other interests, leave school. I don't think you should underestimate the initial start up and enthusiasm you provided – it needed a catalyst and adult support. |
MajorB | 09 Mar 2015 2:45 a.m. PST |
school provides the premises and the adult presence, it needed a catalyst and adult support. Adults? When I ran a school club with a couple of friends we were just 6th formers. All the school did was give us permission to use the school library after hours. No adult supervision at all. |
parrskool | 09 Mar 2015 5:05 a.m. PST |
Marshal Mark.. Can you contact me re: the school club you mention ? |
20thmaine | 09 Mar 2015 6:15 a.m. PST |
@MajorB – although to be a 6th former would have meant you were 17-18. Adult, under much of UK law. At 16 – old enough to join the army. Not old enough to vote though. |
MajorB | 09 Mar 2015 6:30 a.m. PST |
although to be a 6th former would have meant you were 17-18. Lower 6th. 16 – 17 years old. I was too busy doing A levels to run a club in the following year. Adult, under much of UK law. At 16 – old enough to join the army. Not old enough to vote though. Back in the early 70s, you were definitely neither considered nor treated as an adult until you reached 18. As for joining the army at 16 – yes you could, but you were regarded as a "boy soldier" until 18. |
20thmaine | 09 Mar 2015 7:01 a.m. PST |
I hadn't realised that you were harkening back quite so far. As we know – all too well – "things were different in the seventies". |
Reactionary | 09 Mar 2015 7:23 a.m. PST |
Ran one from 1990 to 2010 in my library at a "bog standard Comp" I then worked at; it's still going as far as I can see. Mostly GW stuff and a bit of historical (me) and RPG/Card Games. Never had any issue with unions, (I was a county shop steward for the T&G!)… |
MajorB | 09 Mar 2015 7:33 a.m. PST |
I hadn't realised that you were harkening back quite so far. See my first post on this thread: "Well, it wasn't "incorrect" when I ran one at my school back in the early 70s." |
Aubrey | 09 Mar 2015 8:30 a.m. PST |
Wish we'd had a school club when I first started out. You have to admire the teachers who give up their time to organise these kind of things. |
20thmaine | 09 Mar 2015 12:16 p.m. PST |
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Supercilius Maximus | 09 Mar 2015 5:08 p.m. PST |
In 1975, I seet up a club with a group of friends in the Fifth Form at school (comprehensive, but ex-grammar); we were allowed the use of a large basement at lunchtimes – where the recently defunct canoeing club had been building their fibre glass boats (the fumes from which introduced us to one of the less publicised joys of modelling/wargamng). In the Upper Sixth, we were invited to put on a game at the annual Founder's Day Fair, where we were visited by a former pupil called Pat Reid (the Colditz escapee and author) who signed copies of his book for us, and took part in the game briefly. The club seems to have been an "on and off" things for about a decade thereafter, until the arrival of one particularly left-wing headmaster, whose proudest boasts on retiring were that he had reduced both the number of Oxbridge candidates from the school and its "unhealthy obsession" with sport. |
Marshal Mark | 10 Mar 2015 2:30 p.m. PST |
Increases in workload mean a teacher has to be demented to run a club in their own time these days. Well lots of us must be demented then. I run a boardgames club at school one lunchtime per week. I'm a secondary maths teacher and I don't find the workload to be too onerous. |
Bangorstu | 15 Mar 2015 1:39 p.m. PST |
Friend of mine runs a small club at a local secondary school. But he's the computer technician, not a teacher so has plenty of time…. ) |