Raising and lowering in peal

The Training SubCommittee's Raising and Lowering in Peal Day took place on 23 October 2004, when 31 students, 31 helpers (coincidence, that) and eight tutors piloted eight groups through the intricacies of getting bells up and down in peal. They visited 18 towers and seven pubs (for lunch, you understand) during the day. We don't have any statistics on the number of pints downed, but some of the comments on the event are listed below. [H] or [S] signifies helper/tutor or student.

[H] [Tutor] I leant quite heavily on my helpers for their input which was very valuable.

[H] He [tutor] had obviously thought through in advance the points he wanted to make, and the format he used meant he got everything in a logical order and was prompted to mention relevant things as he worked through it.

[H] Everyone seemed to be actively engaged and encouraged to offer comments.

[S] All we need to do now is to practise, practise, practise.

[H] The partnering of helpers and learners was flexible throughout each session, whereas I have sometimes experienced fixed partnering. The advantages of the flexible approach are fairly obvious. Everyone has a different way of explaining things, and that means that there are different ways for the penny to drop!

[H] It was good to get everyone together at lunchtime.

[S] It was very well organised and appreciated by all, thank you.

[H] I feel it went pretty well, certainly there was an improvement by the end of the day, and the students felt that too.

[H] The day seemed to go well and I think we all enjoyed ourselves. Even the tutors learned a thing or two off each other - no one knows everything and we all have different ideas/approaches so it's good to see alternative options rather than staying with one's own set point of view.

[H] PS Pub was excellent - Shepherd Neame's "Late Red" highly recommended. [Now there's a discerning chap - Ed]

[S] Thank you for arranging the day course for last Saturday. I enjoyed it a lot and it helped to clarify many points. There was a good balance of talk, doing and watching. Being able to start at the beginning again with little points that get overlooked helps. The tutors are always unfailingly patient over things that must be glaringly simple. It makes it all good fun. I'd like to thank them all.

[H] I think there was a real benefit in having a number of learners from the same band in the same training group. I also think that there is also a strong case for learning something new on your own bells, as yesterday. Learners sometimes struggle with handling different bells, and that just gets in the way of the point of the day - unless it's a bell handling training day of course!

[H] All three students made great improvements. Very worthwhile.

[S] Thank you so much for organising the training day so efficiently. I gained greatly from it and even found myself leading down quite acceptably at one stage, much to my surprise. My raising in peal still leaves quite a bit to be desired but the brilliant helpers were so encouraging. A "Thank You" to all of them.

[H] Thanks for the sticking plasters - you obviously knew from experience that they were required. The first one was used after the first ring! We were able to get additional supplies from the pub at lunch time! [All group tutors were supplied with plasters for their patients students - just in case. One wag was heard to remark that he'd been aware of ringers getting plastered, but had never really understood the term before.]

[S] A quick e-mail to tell you how much [our] group enjoyed last Saturday's course. I think we all got a lot out of the instruction though whether we will be able to put it into practice is another matter! All our helpers were delightful and very patient.

So there we are. Another training event mission completed, and we've listed a number of comments, mainly from the tutors and helpers, which are quite encouraging in a way. What is a little worrying, however, are the comments on the little points which should be absolutely normal to any training day of this sort, and not really warrant a remark. One of the points of such an exercise is to get more helpers up to speed, so reliance by a tutor on the helpers is vital, learning from one another is vital, encouraging all helpers to put in their two penn'orth is vital, going through in advance and working out what is going to be covered is vital, moving helpers around pupils ("partnering") is vital. Everyone meeting up for lunch is a good idea (obviously a bit problematical on a County event, but worth a try in some areas). Mixing up tutors with helpers they don't already know is a good thing, since this helps to spread ideas. And so on.

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