For the Teacher

he should have available a note pad (or cube) whose sheets will be used by the pupils to transmit their "bids". It will be sufficient to prepare in advance (print or photocopy) on a model like this:

Download Bidding Slips for printing

It is also important for the teacher to have plenty of posters and other materials to put on the walls. If you look in the Extras section of the site, you will find links to items that you can use for this purpose.

For the Pupils

Here, the ideal seems to be to ask them to buy a small note-book for keeping the definitions and specific bridge terms in a easily and rapidly useable form. This note-book should be brought to each lesson to be consulted freely whenever necessary.

This idea of a note-book seems to us better than an exercise book which might be misinterpreted by the majority of children ("another exercise book!"), on the contrary it would be wise to say to those who wish to be "zealous" by asking to buy a book that the photocopies or printouts which will be distributed at the end of every lesson will be quite sufficient for this first year of bridge.

It would also be sensible for them to have a ring binder in which to keep the various hand-outs that you will be giving them during the course.

To those who object to buying these items for anything other than financial reasons ("do we have to write to play cards?") you should explain gently and patiently that they freely wanted to learn bridge and that, even if they have an excellent memory, it is much more efficacious to write down a few words of a definition at home when there is no pressure.