House of Lords visit

History was made last week when 16 pupils from Pembury School, Tunbridge Wells, visited the Houses of Parliament to play a game of Minibridge with peers from the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Development of Bridge. The children were treated to orange squash and chocolate biscuits by the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords, Baroness Hayman and then to a grand tour of the Houses of Parliament conducted by Lord Skelmersdale.

This was followed by a Minibridge match in the River Room which the Lord Speaker had graciously made available for the event. The players representing the All Party Parliamentary Group were Lord Baker of Dorking, Lord Brougham and Vaux, Baroness Gardner of Parkes, Lord Hamilton of Epsom, Lord Harrison of Chester, Baroness Howe of Idlicote, Lord Skelmersdale, Baroness Henig of Lancaster and her husband Jack. After 8 boards of Minibridge had been played, it was announced by the Tournament Director John Pain, that the pupils had won the day.

The EBU extend their heartfelt thanks to Baroness Henig, Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for organising this event. We would also like to thank the teachers, Cindy Cole, Hilary White and Head Teacher Jane Gardner and all the pupils from Pembury School for demonstrating how Minibridge is a great way of learning maths and logic whilst having fun.

• Photos from the visit
• About Minibridge

Minibridge initiative

As the Christmas Term starts, the EBU are looking for more primary schools who would like to be involved in our Minibridge initiative: Minibridge 5 to 9. Minibridge has been proven to help children in their Maths, English and much more.

Minibridge 5 to 9 is aimed at children in years 5 to 9 and sometimes below (i.e. those aged from 9 to 13 years, but also age 7-8). The beauty of the game is that it can be taught by teachers who are non-bridge experts (and in many instances are new to the game themselves) following some in-service training and by using the easy-to-use instructional CD provided.

The EBU has a funded scheme (at no cost to the schools) to teach Primary School teachers the game.

Further information:

See introduction

Funding arrangements

Educational implications

If you would be interested in hosting an event at your primary school, please contact Matt Betts here.

Minibridge in Norwich

The EBU Minibridge initiative has started very well in the North West of England (particularly in Manchester), and it was now time to work on other areas in England. After some initial contact in East Anglia, Mr Tony O’Rourke, Deputy Head Teacher of Tuckswood Community Primary School in Norwich was very interested in the Minibridge initiative and asked if the EBU could come along and introduce the game to his teachers. He also opened up the day to any other primary school teachers in the area.

We started the day with an interview on Radio Norfolk (not Radio Norwich, which was Alan Partidge’s old stomping ground). Two of Tuckswood’s children: Katelin and Lewis joined Tony O’Rourke and myself in the interview, and were brilliant – true naturals.

Tuckswood Community Primary School planned the whole day around various card games, which meant that the pupils were psyched up to the new game that we were introducing. We had allotted two hour long sessions for the teachers to learn about the game and the interactive CD from David Adelman. At first the teachers were a little confused about the it all, but they soon picked up the details. After the lunch break, the teachers tried out some Minibridge and enjoyed it thoroughly.

From 2pm we invited twenty pupils from the school to try their hand at the game with a teacher on each table, and David overseeing. The teachers really enjoyed this part of the day, because they were able to utilise what they had learnt previously. The importance of this work was to give the teachers a chance to interact and learn the game with their pupils.

It was a really great day and one that will see the beginning of Minibridge at local Norwich primary schools.

Matt Betts

Awareness days

I have spoken to many non bridge players about my role to promote the game. Many of them view the game as dusty, complicated and too much like hard work! Although teaching bridge at schools and universities has proven to be an excellent method of introducing the game to people, we inevitably miss those who have not been given this opportunity. As such, it was became obvious that one of the best ways in promoting the game to the general public was to give them the chance to "have a go" at a bridge awareness event.

Over the past few years, the English Chess Federation has held events in and around York for local Yorkshire schools to take part and learn the game of Chess. Last year the York Chess Chairman, Peter Cloudsdale, decided that he would like to make this bigger and invited the English Bridge Union to help celebrate the two games at the National Railway Museum, York on 13 April 2008. The museum was an ideal venue to show people the game of bridge, as it is the largest railway museum in the world, responsible for the conservation of the British national collection of historically significant railway vehicles and other artefacts. Each weekend they welcome hundreds of visitors and our exhibition was a great opportunity for visitors to learn something new, whilst having a look at the trains!

It was a very successful day with over a hundred visitors coming to learn the game of MiniBridge We also taught four NRM staff members and a few members of York Chess Club, some bridge! Two additional highlights to the day was the York Bridge Club versus the Junior England International team match and England junior bridge international player, Jennie Marvin teaching England chess international Sabrina Chevannes some bridge!

Many thanks to John Pain, Mike Amos and Phil Godfrey for their help on the day. The EBU and the ECF plan to hold more awareness days across the country, so please contact me if you have any ideas for venues.