Interested in working as a primary school chess instructor?
CheckMates organises after-school chess lessons in primary schools. These classes are a mix of learning and playing, where an instructor comes in to teach a group of children for 1–2 hours after school. This is fun and flexible work, enjoyed primarily by retirees and students who now have the freedom to commit to longer hours.
What does the work primarily involve?
Lessons are typically one or two hour blocks — in the latter case, usually you teach two different groups consecutively. The lessons are a mix of learning and playing, with at least 20 minutes of each hour assigned to teaching and the remainder of the lesson to the children playing a weekly league (or another format of playing). Lessons usually start between 14:00 and 15:00 (1 to 2 if double session).
In most of our partner schools, we have access to interactive whiteboards from which we can access our own learning resources easily. These resources are our own annotated lessons and games with extensive guidance.
Do I need to have previous experience in education?
We generally look to take on instructors who have got at least some experience in education or care — be it actual school teaching, working in aftercare, private tutoring or anything that involves teaching children.
However, if we like your application and you can demonstrate that you would be a good instructor on our introduction call, then you may be considered for this work regardless.
What is really important for this work is that you are someone who will be able to be an effective supervisor of groups of children at a sociable age. If you would work enjoy doing, then you might be the best fit, if you do enjoy this work, then the children will enjoy working with you!
Is there a requirement for chess playing ability?
Naturally, we will not take on a beginner chess player. You need to have a strong understanding of the game and should ideally have some experience playing chess competitively (online or otherwise) so that you can demonstrate to us.
However, you do not have to be an exceptionally good competitive player to teach — our students are mostly a beginner–intermediate standard, and if you have a strong enough understanding to play at a higher level than this (knowledge of endgames, opening theory, concepts such as zugzwang) and you would be a good teacher, you should be a good fit for the work.
You will be given resources which would let your own knowledge and make it much easier to teach without ever having to prepare a lesson in advance.
I am not available every day from Monday to Friday. Is this work suitable for people with changing or inconsistent schedules?
This work is ideal for people looking to work part-time who cannot necessarily commit to working all 5 days of the week. It is not uncommon that we have instructors who teach only 1–2 days a week and are unavailable on the remaining days.
Having said this, we do ask instructors to make commitments of 2–3 months to individual schools they they are assigned, and we will not offer work to instructors who are only interested in teaching a few weeks at a time or who constantly need to take leaves off. It is important that instructors make a commitment to their schools because children take time to bond to their teachers and would naturally prefer to have a single person teaching them rather than this constantly changing.
At the start of the term, we will let you know what schools are available and you can tell us whether that suits your availability. There is no pressure to accept specific terms, but we expect that you follow through on the lessons you have committed to in advance, once you have made the commitment.
How far do I have to travel to get to the schools?
The distance to travel to schools varies — sometimes they are within walking distance of where you live, and others might have a longer commute to reach. In general, one of the reasons the hourly rate for this work is high is because it's typical that instructors have to do a commute to get to the school.
As mentioned before, we will offer you schools depending on your availability. If, for example, you are available on Tuesdays, we will offer you schools on Tuesdays. If a school is available but far from you then we may decline that one (for one hour sessions only) if the instructor has to travel very far.
Is this employment? How do I get paid?
This is not employment. You will be legally classed as an independent contractor and CheckMates is not responsible for any tax filing obligations that could result as a part of your work with us.
When you are registered on our platform, you will be asked for your bank details. At the end of each working month, you will be automatically paid for the cumulative sum which you have done that month, and the platform will automatically issue an invoice from you to us on your behalf.
How do I get started? Is there an onboarding process?
There are some legal processes and training which you must complete before starting work as a CheckMates chess instructor, as well as submitting some documents formalising your relationship with CheckMates. You must read and complete:
- Your Garda vetting process with our organisation.
- Child safeguarding training.
- First aid information training.
- Our instructor's rules, guidelines and communications documents.
- Our Instructor's contract.
For instructors with less experience, you may be asked to join in some lessons of another active instructor, to shadow the lesson and familiarise yourself with how lessons work.
You will also be sent a pack of supplies (boards and pieces) which you will have to bring to lessons — these are small and easy to carry.
What are my obligations as an instructor?
Your main obligations as an instructor outside of teaching the class are:
- Making sure that all activities in chess club are exclusively chess-oriented (children are not allowed to do anything else during chess club).
- Taking the call at the start of class, recording absences and extra students who have not been registered through our platform.
- In most schools, we are not responsible for collection — children must be brought outside to their parents, and can only be allowed to leave once their guardians have arrived unless given permission to leave on their own.
- Naturally, you must report issues which occur in class, depending on the nature of the issue you will be able to contact parents through our platform or report to us directly if the issue is more serious.
More information on reporting procedures, etc. are given in your Instructor Rules & Guidelines.
What support will be given to me for teaching lessons?
We have our own bespoke learning resources on our platform which will become available to you when you start teaching. You will be assigned lessons through our platform, which you can accept through the platform, at which point you will be given access to your enrolment for your lessons, as well as other information such as how children are being collected, etc.
These learning resources are usable via interactive whiteboards which we have access to in most of the classrooms we use in our schools.
Parents are also encouraged to give feedback about the lessons during the term, and you will be able to adjust your lesson according to their feedback.
In general, you will always be able to contact us for advice.
