Instructor course takes place

The National Course for Referee Instructors 2009 was held at the Staverton Park Conference Centre in Daventry last month, with 30 instructors in attendance.

The course, now only for Instructors who have been nominated by their County FAs to become Licensed Referee Instructors/FA Tutors, was a great success too.

Instructors had to deliver a practical (on the field of play) and two ‘classroom’ teaching sessions as part of their assessment process.

The course incorporates the Generic Tutor Training principles and, following a successful appraisal at an in-service training course delivered within their County FA, these instructors will achieve FA Licensed Referee Tutor status.

The Course Staff were:- 
Ian Blanchard -  Head of National Referee Development 
Ray Olivier - National Referee Manager – Workforce Development

Group Instructors
Craig Cox - Senior Licensed Referee Tutor
Janie Frampton - National Referee Manager – Education & Training
Vince Hannon - Licensed Referee Tutor
Peter Roberts - Referee Development Officer – Manchester FA
Roger Vaughan - National Referee Manager – Recruitment & Retention
Adam Watts -  Referee Development Officer – Worcestershire FA

Guest Speaker
Steve Stewart - Senior Licensed Referee Tutor

Course Administration
Jordana North - Referees Department

This year, the course programme was modified to cover the majority of the training input at the beginning of the programme rather than timed throughout the week. These changes allowed the instructors to be given the ‘tools and techniques’ early in their development and this in turn gave them quality preparation time to fully prepare and develop their teaching sessions.  The instructors delivered their teaching sessions towards the end of the week with appraisals and feedback being given by the Group Instructors after each teaching session.

On the first day of the course we invited Steve Stewart, a Senior Licensed Referee Instructor from Liverpool, to be our guest speaker. Steve has worked on the National Instructors Course for eight years and this was a change for Steve too, as he has normally delivered his motivational session on the last day of the course. Steve’s session certainly lived up to expectations and set the tone for the rest of the week.

The Course was visited by the following VIPs:-

Ron Barston - FA Referees Committee
Maurice Armstrong - Vice Chairman – FA Referees Committee
David Payne - Chief Executive – Northamptonshire FA
Peter Nicholson -  RDO – Northamptonshire FA

At the final presentation evening dinner on Thursday 23 July, David Payne and Peter Nicholson were our invited guests and Maurice Armstrong, Vice Chairman of The FA Referees’ Committee, officially closed the course and presented attendance certificates/group photos to all the course participants.