To be fair - I added all the Friday's my daughter is playing, the number of which is 7. 2 of these are in the tattie holidays, the remaining 5 are all pre Christmas, some are a late afternoon or evening start. Greenacres Masters already played. So it's not quite as bad as I first thought.

I would advise against splitting the U17 junior events, we've been there before. The girls are very capable of looking after themselves. Take Lockerbie U17 slam this weekend, 24 teams in total,  Low Road Runner Up and Third place, and High Road Third Place were female teams. That's a brilliant performance when you consider the skill and power of some of the young male teams.

 Disco's are off the menu - these kids are serious athletes these days.You can't have a split level either, as the improvement at that age can be enormous in a very short period. Teams also change each year as players age out.

No, I think that we are becoming successful at attracting more youngsters (at last) to the game. Many more juniors are becoming competitive players (32 teams registered for U17's this year). I believe this is due to the Skills Awards, Curlings Cool, the structure and set up now employed by RCCC, and the interest shown by the coaches with a clear progession pathway to elite level and the aspiration to be the next Eve or Dave or Tom.

I think many competitions at U21 level in the future will need more days to complete than the standard weekend to deal with the number of entries, so it either stays as it is, and I as a parent have to decide what is best for my child, or move to Saturday, Sunday, Monday events, maybe split some events over two weekends, or perhaps  competition organisers could look at trying to have events during school/college/uni holidays, in service days and the like to minimise the academic impact.

The difficulty curling faces now, is not the 13-17 age group, it is the 20-40 age group. We need to do more to retain these youngster interest when they move away from the local town and home. We need to do more in the Colleges and Universities, and use Facebook and Twitter to keep curling in their lives.

Sorry for the long rant - just got into a flow

Two excellent posts from Yakkity and Curling  Dad.
At the end of the day each parent has to make a choice and much depends on the factors of what type of school, distance of school from the venue and also the needs and desires of parents for their children.
I remember entering Grammar School and seeing the notice above the Gym entrance - 'Mems in Corpre Sano'.   It stuck with me and I passed through school and University with this in mind. As a result whilst I was not academically brilliant i enjoyed life. This is life not a practice for another.
My two daughters did the same - with my surport. One swam until an injury curtailed her ambitions. The other swam and then curled to the highest level but both have had great experience through their sports and more importantly have a large list of friends world wide.
Thank you Curling Dad for at least giving good notice of withdrawal and discussing it with Richard. Thats the best way to work to help the team and the sport as well as the comp organisers.
I am pleased and delighted, Yakkity, that you feel that the Curling's Kool and the Skills Awards have had an effect. I was involved in the initial formation of the new skills award until we got a new unknown and ultimately useless Director of Development who dropped it. Luckily it got revived and we knew it would take time to have an effect. We felt at the time that it was the best way to encourage youngsters into curling and keep them.
The RCCC coaching and development employees are doing a great job in carrying this and other ideas forward.