Making Games Champions in Wigan

In partnership with Extended Services, Imagination Gaming has been providing holiday activity days in many areas of Wigan in recent years. From a subsequent request to provide Breakfast and Afterschool Clubs with a difference, we were able to discuss the how our School Games Days could target each of the schools involved individual aims. Here you can see exactly what happened at Lamberhead Green Primary School, Wigan!

The request…

Imagination Gaming was initially contacted by Wigan Extended Services to provide Breakfast and After-School Clubs for a number of primary schools in the Orrell-Lamberhead cluster. The idea was to provide several schools, each with different needs, with a series of extended hour’s clubs that would engage and excite targeted pupils before and after school.

Let’s do the full day?!

We thought yep, no problem… but what about the time in-between?!  Why just do an hour at the beginning and end of each day? While we were there we may as well offer our services for the day. They loved the idea and of course the 6 or so extra hours we were going to do in school went down a treat!

What would you like to achieve?

Talking to the Head teachers of the different schools involved, as with most areas, it became clear that although the schools were very close together and fed to the same secondary school, each school had their own individual issues to deal with. The ideas were great…

·         An activity that can capture the imagination

·         Something that can support the children’s learning

·         Interaction – social etiquette and values

·         A way that all the school, young and old, teachers, parents and the community could be involved.

·         Appreciation of the differences between people and a bridge across barriers that exist such as age, religion, ability and language.

Guess what – Games can do all of the above and a lot more as well… so what should we do at…

Lamberhead Green Primary School!

Games?!... Board Games?!!!... Aaaah!

Meeting the deputy head teacher, there was an instant energy and enthusiasm when we introduced the idea of using board and card games. Reactions can be quite different and that I feel is a sign of the times – but that is for another day! Mrs Gaskill, was intrigued by the Imagination Gaming concept and once she had seen the range of games we could use and talked about how the mechanics of so many of these games reinforce so many basic social and educational skills I knew that the school would really benefit from the project ahead.

One day a week for 6 weeks then…

For the out-of hours clubs we would focus on children who needed something to both engage them and get them working together in a group activity that encouraged individual participation and thought, as well as the realisation that listening gets you a long way too! We had up to 12 children in these sessions with at least one member of staff to get involved … and this is what she had to say…

“The impact of Imagination Gaming on the children has been quite amazing. Chris started with a memory game which straight away caught their attention and a willingness to want to see more. The games have been challenging and addictive. The children have been coming into school an hour earlier in the morning and / or stayed an hour later in the evening to play the games.

The games have helped the targeted children with their listening and memory skills and these have improved through games like Catch the Match. Logical thinking has also been demonstrated, with Jemma hooked on the shape puzzle Katamino, which she is determined to solve!

The children have gained confidence in a fun way. There has been a real willingness to share, have patience and take turns.”

Margaret Delee, Higher Learning Teacher

Kind words! But what was fantastic was to see how much it genuinely worked. Miss Delee was using the games as a bridge to involve and connect with children in the school that were not always easy to interact with in a more traditional environment.

What about during the day then?!

There were lots of ways we could have approached the day’s events between 9am and 3.20pm, working with different year groups or specific focus groups, but at Lamberhead Green we decided on a different goal. We concentrated on establishing a group of children with a fantastic knowledge base of the games so that when the project was over, the children themselves could run games clubs and teach all the other children in school the games. (Teachers have got enough to remember!)

We realised that we could, in focused groups of 6 or 7 at a time, have a games session with every pupil in yr.5, every Monday. This meant that each child could learn at least one new game each week, but different to the other groups that day, which immediately fostered the idea of the children getting together to teach each other the cool game they had learned, and it grew from there.

The yr.5 teachers were particularly supportive of not just the mathematical and language based learning of what we were doing, but also the logical and strategic elements of the games. It is not always easy to find resources that effectively apply the curriculum in such a direct way and also promote the effective use of that knowledge in decision making and reasoning. That is trying to work out the effect of your opponents moves, devise your own teams strategy and implement effectively… or…  just doing your best not to lose!

Anything Else?

Absolutely! I was asked if, during lunchtime, I could work with a yr.6 boy who for various reasons found it difficult to concentrate and often became very disruptive. To be honest these sessions were fantastic. As I have seen over and over, this child was enthralled by the games and playing became the centre of his week. We were immediately able to introduce other similar students to our games and effect was simple… complete engagement, fun and learning… and an appreciation of all three.

“Chris has worked with a 12 year old boy with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties on Monday lunchtimes and this had been a valuable resource.

This child has been engrossed in all the games and given his full attention. Chris has created a very safe relationship with this child who is very comfortable in that group. The child is a very bright boy and the games have challenged his academic skills in a positive way.

Chris has done an amazing job with this child and has a nurturing and calming approach. This has also meant respite for the staff who work with the child as he is so demanding at this time. The child has definitely enjoyed the games and Chris’s enthusiastic approach. We will carry on with the games when Chris has gone.”

Mrs. Dawn Harrison, Pastoral & Ethos Manager

Again – great feedback, but this is not unusual. All schools have children from all the ends of the spectrum and are expected to achieve similar results with them all. It is rare that anyone approach appeals to all, but what I can say is that these type of games, introduced in the right way, can appeal to children (and adults) across the board. All the teachers who got involved with the games loved them as well - an extra string to the bow for both the classroom and the activity menu, and something that will continue for years to come.

The key to all this success being the engagement factor – no matter why the teachers wanted to use them, for educational, social or fun, the key was that the idea of playing a game… the right kind of game, made the real goal that much easier to achieve.

Chris Standley

Imagination Gaming