'Chess in Primary Schools' Studied

Ever since the first post on 'Chess in (the) School/Schools' (October 2013), I've been meandering through the topic with follow-up posts every two weeks (or so), making it the longest-running series on this blog. I was planning to wrap it up and move on to another topic when a pair of British news sources introduced a fresh angle in stories published on the same day.

• Playing chess doesn't make your children any smarter, study finds (telegraph.co.uk) • 'Pushy parents sending their children to chess classes are not improving their school grades, a major study has revealed.'
  
  
• Playing chess does not make children cleverer, study finds (independent.co.uk) • 'In a study of 3,000 school children, researchers were 'suprised' to find those who were given chess tuition failed to see an impact on their school grades.'

The study is introduced on a page from the Education Endowment Foundation, Chess in Primary Schools (e*e*f*.org.uk), which starts,

Chess in Primary Schools is a whole-school approach to teaching primary school children how to play chess. Children take 30 hours of chess lessons delivered by a tutor who is an experienced chess player, and the school is given the option to set up a chess club as a lunchtime or after-school activity. Chess classes are delivered during the school day and are expected to replace subjects such as music or PE.

Before I wrap-up my own CIS series, I'm going to take a closer look at the EEF study.