Programmes
Three programmes, because a five year old and an eleven year old are not doing the same thing
Each one is a full term of work with its own session shape, its own group size and its own idea of what a good week looks like. A school can run one, two or all three, one group after another on the same afternoon.
Programme 1 of 3 · Junior & Senior Infants
First Moves
A first, happy meeting with the chessboard. Movement, stories and short games, not sitting still for forty-five minutes.
- Session
- 45 minutes
- Group
- 8 to 16
- Ages
- typically 4 to 6
What children are asked to do
- Recognising each piece by sight and by name
- Learning how one piece moves before meeting the next
- Taking turns and waiting for a turn
- Making a choice and saying why
- Finishing a short game without losing interest
The shape of a session
- Story. A short story sets up the piece of the day.
- Move. Children move on a large floor board with their own bodies.
- Discover. A guided question with one right answer to find.
- Mini-game. A two to four piece game that finishes inside five minutes.
- Celebrate. Each child shows one thing they worked out today.
What pupils work towards. Across a term, pupils work towards naming every piece, moving it correctly, and finishing a short game with a partner.
Programme 2 of 3 · 1st & 2nd Class
Playing the Game
The whole game, properly. Rules, captures, keeping pieces safe, and full games played from the first week.
- Session
- 50 minutes
- Group
- 8 to 16
- Ages
- typically 6 to 8
What children are asked to do
- All six pieces, castling, check and checkmate
- Noticing when a piece is attacked, and doing something about it
- Counting a trade before making it
- Playing a complete game start to finish
- Losing a game and starting the next one
The shape of a session
- Warm-up. A one-move puzzle on the demonstration board.
- Teach. One idea only, shown and then named.
- Guided practice. Set positions where the idea is the answer.
- Play. A full game with the instructor moving between boards.
- Review. One position from the room, looked at together.
What pupils work towards. Across a term, pupils work towards playing a full legal game, spotting a piece under attack, and finishing with a basic checkmate.
Programme 3 of 3 · 3rd to 6th Class
Thinking Ahead
Real chess thinking. Tactics, plans, calculating a few moves ahead, and analysing your own game afterwards.
- Session
- 60 minutes
- Group
- 10 to 18
- Ages
- typically 8 to 12
What children are asked to do
- Tactical patterns: forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks
- Making a plan instead of moving piece by piece
- Calculating two or three moves ahead before committing
- Opening principles, without memorising long lines
- Looking back at your own game and finding the moment it turned
The shape of a session
- Puzzle start. Children arrive to a position already on the board.
- Concept. A named idea, shown in two or three examples.
- Applied play. Games with a specific instruction to try.
- Analysis. A real game from the room, replayed by the players.
- Challenge. A ladder game, a team match or a timed puzzle round.
What pupils work towards. Across a term, pupils work towards recognising common tactics, explaining a plan in their own words, and talking through their own game.
Week by week
What a six week block actually contains
“Six weeks of chess” means very little to somebody deciding whether to pay for it. Six specific weeks, each one ending in something a child can do at home that evening, means rather more.
Week 1
The board, and one piece
The board comes out, the pieces get named, and everybody meets the rook. One piece only, because six at once is six things to forget.
At home: They can point at a rook and tell you what it is called.
Week 2
A second piece to argue with
The bishop arrives and immediately behaves differently. Children move on a large floor board with their own bodies before they move anything on a table.
At home: They will tell you one goes straight and one goes corner-ways.
Week 3
Taking something
The first capture, and the first tiny game: two pieces each, finished inside five minutes, with somebody winning.
At home: They will want to play you, and they will want to win.
Week 4
The rest of the family
Knight, queen and king. The knight takes the longest and is worth it, because it is the piece children remember.
At home: Expect the knight jump to be demonstrated at the dinner table.
Week 5
Choosing, and saying why
Two moves are put on the board and the group picks one. Being able to say why is the whole task; being right is a bonus.
At home: They start explaining their moves without being asked.
Week 6
A whole small game
A short game with a partner, played to a finish, with everybody showing one thing they worked out during the block.
At home: They can set up a board and play you a short game, start to end.
This is a normal block, not a promise about a particular child. A group that is flying gets further, and a group that needs week three twice gets week three twice, which is the reason a teacher plans it rather than a timetable.
On paper
Everything above, as a document you can print
The catalogue is this page typeset for A4: the three programmes, what a session looks like at each stage, and who does what. It is built from the same content as the website, so it cannot quietly disagree with what you have just read.
- Programme cataloguePDF, six pages, A4The three programmes, what a session looks like at each stage, who does what, and how a block is put together. Built to be read by somebody who has never seen this website.
- A sheet for familiesPDF, A4, one pageFor the noticeboard, the newsletter or the schoolbags. The day, time, dates and cost are dotted lines, because they are different for every school and a wrong price on a flyer is worse than a blank.
- Child Safeguarding StatementPDF, five pages, A4Prepared under section 11 of the Children First Act 2015: the written risk assessment, and the seven procedures the Act requires, each marked with the subsection it answers. This is the document a Board or a Designated Liaison Person asks for.
- Board of Management briefingPDF, three pages, A4Written for a Board of Management meeting: what is being proposed, what the Board is being asked to approve, and the honest limitations.
Prefer to read it on screen? The same overview as a web page.
How a block is booked
Programmes are parent-funded as standard, so they do not come out of the school budget. The current Dublin range is around 10 to 12 euro per child per session, booked as a term block, and the exact figure depends on session length and how many weeks your term runs to. A school-funded option exists for curricular blocks, whole-class workshops and one-off events.
You get one written quotation with the real numbers for your school, not a price list that assumes every school is the same.
Ask for a quotation