UKC

Hi 

Question to anyone who may work in a school as a teacher or instructor. 

What ratios do you work under to teach climbing.

We're lucky enough to have a climbing wall at school and the school wants to introduce climbing into core pe lessons, the issue being ratios. 

What do other people on here work by and what snags have people found?

Many thanks rob

1:6

Before retiring, I looked after our relatively small school wall. It was a private school with little clue about what I was doing! I used to work on about 1 to 8 but much depends on the age of pupils and their experience. I had younger kids who did climbing as a lunchtime club and usually had about eight. I also had a sixth form games group which was bigger but after a few weeks, they were generally pretty confident and self reliant.  Both groups were usually happy to top rope rather than lead so some potential issues were limited. I didn't have to worry about a syllabus etc as it was informal and never had a whole class to supervise.

Think about what type of belay device you are going to get them to use. General group discipline and management skills ( as any teacher is used to applying) are crucial.

It's been a while but I'm pretty sure it was 1:6 when I worked for the council.  

That would be 2 groups of 3 so only 2 climbing at a time and such a way that I could grab either rope if needed, so not at any great distance.  

Depends on the needs of the kids.

Im pretty sure I'm allowed 9, but always take less than that and always have a learning assistant with me.

Also, the wall is 10 feet high and padded out with crash mats.

Usually discussed on training /assessment. ABC guidelines are ratio of no more than 1:9, most walls stick to 1:8, going down to 1:6 for younger children, 1:4 if teaching lead climbing.

Don't know of any wall that would allow anyone under 14 to register as an independent climber. Moot point anyway, as if there as part of a supervised session they would count towards your ratio anyway.

Is a bit of a gray area, but ABC suggest that an instructor should not be supervising more than two ropes at once. Have read an H&S Exec document on peer belaying that suggests it should only be one.

Like many things, these are not legally binding. (Though ABC can revoke your membership if guidelines are breached) The difficulty would be if there was an incident and you had to explain why you were not working to industry standards.

Insurance company, local authority, board of directors, parents, press, social media, that wee woman along the street that always walks her dog....... may also have something to say about it. 

General advise about ratios is that no one will commit to a definite number of what is it and what isn’t, because there are so many factors that impact on it. Your operating procedures may state a maximum ratio for certain activities based on the risk assessment of the activity. 

You provably have technical advisor (you should!) who can assist with this so they should be your first point of call. 

Comments about the ABC above are correct, however generally ABC membership focusses on commercial climbing walls (so whilst the good practice guidelines are a good framework it isn’t always relevant for a school wall set up). 

Similarly, there is useful information on the BMC website - there are a load of useful downloads for climbing wall managers that you may find informative. 

If you are looking for a technical advisor, or some formal input, look for a member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors who has experience with school wall set ups. There’s a lot of us out there!

Not my intention to be touting for business, but you’re welcome to drop us a line at

info@climbcornwall.com 

I have been teaching climbing as part of the curriculum for Y10-13 for the last decade. 

I have max 8 when teaching top roping in school, and traditionally most commercial walls have opted for this ratio. I still initially keep them on two adjacent routes. The newer bouldering centres have dropped it to 6:1 (for external instructors, but 8:1 for their own!)

At lunchtime our school wall is mostly used as a bouldering wall and we have around 20 at a time, but the wall is small which means I can easily monitor.

Small space, lots of kids is more difficult to monitor, unless you're tightly controlling the number of participants climbing at one time. 

Hi Teapot

Bigrob, I run a wall, similar to what you describe at your school.

As the other posters have said, ratios are a matter of good practice, not legal stipulation. 

What is safe will be determined by layout, students’ experience and disposition, and your competence. Do you have a national award like CWA or RCI? If not, think about getting one. You need a technical advisor for your wall- an MIA or above. What advice have they given?

Consider what ratio you can defend if something goes wrong and you end up in court. If you feel uncomfortable with that scenario and the ratios you are using, there’s the answer.

Yes strict rules need to be set and enforced about safely using any climbing wall/bouldering centre. That is a key part of teaching the students and they then take this responsible approach to commercial bouldering centres, where it is inevitably harder to watch all climbers at one time.

I often see school groups at commercial centres where the students are literally sat in lines waiting over 10 minutes for their go! This approach to micro managing means they are not at that time learning to be responsible, although it might be an appropriate strategy depending on the circumstances (need to assess for NIBAS, difficult/inexperienced/young group, lack of behaviour management skills by instructor) 

The monitoring issue is key. At our climbing club I can fortunately stand back and see the entire wall easily within my field of vision. This means I can set the bouldering rules and then stand back and ensure they are complied with.

Sitting children in lines IS a valid behaviour management strategy.  

Children waiting for their turn running around would suggest a lack of behaviour management skills.  

Obviously it's great if all the children can be more involved for the whole session but it isn't the end of the world if children learn the important life skill of waiting patiently and taking their turn.  Not to mention the poor kids are so stressed out these days with enless tests and exams that a bit of chill time is good for them.