Schools fail to check out Tory scheme to boost chess

A government scheme aimed at encouraging chess in the most deprived schools missed its target by a fifth and underspent by almost 40 per cent.

The Conservative government announced in 2023 that it would hand out grants of up to £2,000 to primary schools in disadvantaged areas to boost their chess provision.

It set aside £200,000 for the scheme, part of a wider £1 million investment in the game.

The funding, which could be spent on chess sets, training and teaching materials, aimed to “to encourage more primary school children, particularly girls, to learn to play”.

Schools had to have pupil premium rates of more than 57.5 per cent to be eligible.

The grants were meant to be given to “at least 100 schools, subject to interest”.

But a response to a freedom of information request by Schools Week shows just 78 took part.

It also showed £122,332.82 was spent on the programme, just over 60 per cent of its budget.

It comes after the government put out a tender for a provider to run a new £900,000, three-year programme “building equal access to chess in schools”.

Malcolm Pein, the director of international chess at the English Chess Federation and chief executive of the charity Chess in Schools and Communities, said he was pleased with the take-up of the 2023 programme.

“If you take a subject such as chess, or anything that you might consider as enrichment, without someone who knows a little bit about it or has some enthusiasm for it on the school staff, it’s going to be harder to implement.

“It would require someone to volunteer their time to do it. So I was quite pleased with the number of schools that came through. I think the purpose of this grant was to see to see what might be the best way of delivering chess.”

 

But Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Any chess programme will rely on staff to run and that likely explains the low take-up.”

Schools bought chess sets ‘for the first time’

Ark Bentworth Primary Academy in west London and Ark Kings Academy in Birmingham claimed £1960.25 and £424.90 respectively.

A spokesperson for Ark said the grants allowed them “to purchase chess sets for pupils for the first time”, with Ark Bentworth organising a cluster competition attended by six local schools.

“As a result, pupils developed a new and engaging skill, with many choosing to play independently during lunchtimes.”

They added that several schools within the trust were talking with Chess for Schools about establishing chess clubs.

Figures show that of the schools participating, only 26 took the full £2,000, with one school taking just £196.95.

New scheme ‘completely different’

The government’s new chess programme aims to increase participation among girls, pupils with SEND and those eligible for free school meals.

Pein said it would be “completely different” as it would be put out to tender for a supplier to deliver, rather than left to schools to do it “from a standing start”, potentially without expertise.

The initiative comes after the government last year pledged to hold schools to account against a set of enrichment benchmarks.