First and foremost chess should be fun! This is the ethos of Ojays, the Oxfordshire Junior Squad Chess Club. We meet weekly on Thursdays between 6.15pm and 8pm, either in person or online, to develop young chess players in preparation for county tournaments and individual competitions.

Safeguarding

Our Safeguarding and Management Policies

Oxfordshire Junior Chess Squad takes safeguarding seriously and Ojays has robust measures in place to ensure the safety and well-being of participating children. We acknowledge the duty of care to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and are committed to ensuring safeguarding practice reflects statutory responsibilities, government guidance and English Chess Federation recommendations.

We seek to create an opportunity for children to develop their chess skills through playing chess games with each other, and with other adults present, and to receive expert coaching.

We recognise the vulnerability of children when with unknown adults and other children.   We acknowledge that some children, including disabled children and young people or those from ethnic minority communities, can be particularly vulnerable to abuse and we accept the responsibility to take reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure their welfare.

Safeguarding when Coaching in Person

Oxfordshire Junior Chess squad takes the following measures to ensure the safety and well-being of participating children:

  • No child will ever be alone with an adult other than their own parent or nominated carer.  Children and adults sign in upon arrival on a list which clearly states which adult is responsible for each child.
  • Children under the age of 8 must be accompanied by a parent.
  • Children over the age of 8 must be accompanied by a parent or a responsible adult nominated by the parent in agreement with the child.
  • Children aged 12 or above do not require an adult to be present, but the parental responsibility remains and it is essential that when the child signs in they provide on-the-day emergency contact details for their parent or nominated carer. 

  • Adults involved with coaching and administration on a weekly basis have DBS clearance and have up to date Safeguarding certification.  As at January 2023 this is Andrew Varney, Joe Conlon, David Zakarian and Ola Murawska.
  • We do not expect to have to deal with violent or significantly disruptive behaviour. We reserve the right to withdraw the invitation from individual children if necessary for the safety and wellbeing of all, avoidance of damage to venues and equipment and the effective management of the club.

Safeguarding when Coaching Online 

Online coaching also involves some Safeguarding responsibilities.  Please note the following measures which require parental approval and monitoring:

  • Parents are expected to supervise their children while on the internet and to ensure that they comply with Ojays Safeguarding and online safety principles at all times.
  • All children, and anyone appearing on camera, should be appropriately dressed in day clothes.
  • Invitations to Ojays online Zoom meetings will be sent out to the regular Ojays group members only and are not to be passed on to others.
  • Meetings will be arranged with the following Zoom settings to maximise Safeguarding security:
    • A unique meeting number
    • A password required for entry
    • A waiting room set up to screen attendees
    • Only the meeting organiser or delegated coaches will have sharing privileges
    • File sharing will be disabled
    • Meetings will NOT be recorded. 
  • Attendees will be kept to a maximum which allows everyone to appear on a single screen. Note, however, that breakout rooms will be used for some of the coaching, during which time it is not possible for the coach to observe all the students at once.
  • Chat features between individual participants will be disabled, but parents are expected to moderate their children's behaviour with respect to chat, annotation and other response functions.

Ojays Management Team

The Ojays / Oxfordshire Junior Chess Squad organisers are all parents of current or former Ojays players:

  • Andrew Varney, professional chess coach, and member of the Oxfordshire Junior Chess committee
  • Ola Murawska, Oxfordshire EPSCA Secretary.  Ola also manages Ojays teams in the Junior 4NCL tournament and in online inter-county fixtures on Lichess.
  • Joe Conlon, U11 team manager, Candidate Master (CM) chess player and chair of the Oxfordshire Junior Chess committee
  • David Zakarian, professional chess coach and FIDE Master (FM) chess player
  • Julie Gray, U11 Girls team manager
  • Julian Kennedy, U9 team manager and webmaster.