Westborough High school

Started with breakfast club and went on to after school club, dinner time club and interacting with pupils in lessons. First came via UFA.

Lessons started interacting with COPE and EMA and went on to include Maths and French.

Went on to work with their feeder schools and the organising of trips out of school, such as this years Expo.

A journey through a changing perspective.

Westborough High School is a specialist school for Business and Enterprise. We began our work here towards the end of 2008 after a meeting we were invited to attend of the UFA. The University of the First Age is an organization that, in their own words, creates enjoyable learning challenges that enrich lives; increasing aspiration and achievement for young people aged 5 - 25.

From this meeting I bumped into an inspirational lady called Gayna Goalby. She was a UFA organiser that worked at Westborough as their extended learning co-coordinator. She approached us with the aim of setting up a games club at their school. They had a small range of games but felt they were not made the most of.

We began by coming in on a Tuesday morning and running a games club, getting the children enthusiastic about playing new board and card games together, and using this as a platform to look at social skills etc. We put in a pack of games that, after our initial sessions, we knew worked well with the children and had a high level of participation. This club proved to be extremely popular and attendance and participation within the breakfast club increased significantly.

From here we suggested trying a classroom based exercise to show how games can be used in a much more focused way; providing a highly challenging activity that made it more likely that disenfranchised young people would engage in more enthusiastically. After speaking with the head of inclusion, the green light was given for the work to go ahead. This first group was indeed pupils that found school a real challenge and were a combination of those that struggled to focus in lessons, had less developed social skills or was at a learning age lower than was required.

When the group was assembled and told they would be playing games their initial reaction was not a good one. ‘I hate games’, ‘Games suck’ and ‘Are you a geek?’ were all comments thrown at me. In turn I laughed off each of them, agreed with the geek label but didn’t rise to any of comments or taking them too seriously. This was all part of our strategy.

The Best And Worst Experiences Of Games.

Don't know about others but I have had some great times playing games. Whether that is playing within a school environment, at a local youth club or just with my family and friends. I love the fact that I get to teach a great number of people challenging, clever games that they ultimately fall in love with and want to play again and again.

I have a terrific group of friends that make the playing of games a fantasitc experience. The social interaction, the banter and ribbing is a joy to behold and listen to at times. How much stick one person can take in a night is often beyond belief! ( Sorry Lee, that means you! )

I would love to hear from others about the times they have had when playing traditional board and card games. Both the good and the bad. When a game worked and when it certainly did not. Some funny anecdotes and your great times and those awful moments that live in the memory. Get in touch and let me know :)

What Value In Playing Traditional Style Games?

In a world dominated by digital games people in the UK are largely unaware of the rich and diverse selection of traditional style (played around a table) games available from around the world.

These games take many forms but can all be played around a table by people of every age and ability. By their design they are well suited to being used as a tool to support a wider variety of tasks, whether in schools, libraries, universities, community groups etc.

The game designs:

1. Puts Fun at the heart of any encounter with them.
2. Typically are not based around the throw of the dice. So to a great degree you make your own luck by the decisions you make within the game. 
3. They are not general knowledge based, so each person comes to the game as an equal, with nobody needing to feel intimidated by other people’s greater knowledge. 
4. Offer a highly interactive social experience; it is not a matter of waiting for 10 minutes whilst John has his go, players are interacting with each other constantly. 
5. Typically avoid confrontation and can encourage collaboration; so they can help build bridges between individuals and groups where there is friction or misunderstanding. 
6. Offer simple rules that are quick to explain and belie a depth and complexity of strategy that ensure an enjoyable and challenging experience appropriate to every age and ability. 

Modern games entice people with interesting artwork and components, and humour in a way that few other tools can.

When used with young people they allow the children to test and apply their formal learning in a way that engages and energises. As a tool in the community they bring people together to sit around a table and get to know each other whilst at the older end of the spectrum they not only get people talking but they also help to keep the grey matter active.