The Department Store Game goes on tour.

On Tuesday 22nd January The Department Store Game left its development home at Sarah Bonnells School and went on tour to Eastlea School. Our wonderful Year 11 co-developees: Chanelle, Timera, Mollie, Zelda, Olamide, Shannon and Rochelle (all pictured) took the game into a group of 40 Year 9 business studies students and played the full game with them for 2 hours.

Variations in the original game now included a timed decision-making system when a bell dinged every time and ‘hour’ went past (usually about 5-7 minutes) and a new and improved use of the decision and finance cards.

After the game some of the players commented on how they enjoyed it:

“I learnt how to handle decisions and situations, share jobs and work out solutions.” Rubecca

“I learnt different types of managers and how many are needed in one department store.” Glancy

“I learned how to make important decsions on the spot and how to think like a manager.” Lee

(I enjoyed) “The level of communication & teamwork it prompts.” Hazel-anne

(Is the game like real life in a department store?) “Yes a lot because the game was hectic and stressful.” Ardita

And our Game Guides from Sarah Bonnell were equally buoyant:

“I learnt that I can be a leader.” Rochelle

(I learnt) “That I can put myself out without being conscious of myself.” Mollie

“I leant that I can overcome my shyness.” Timera

“I can control a group of girls / boys, confident and I’m a good leader.” Shannon

The girls are now keen to go on to another school and we’re hoping to get them a gig at Langdon. Keep watching 🙂

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Next Term

SCEP has had a distinctly different mood about it so far this academic year.

As we are still using the funding left over from the original project we are making sure when the project finally ends that there is a meaningful and ongoing legacy left in its place.

There are several big projects, with deep roots, that I’m hoping will live long past the project’s end.

(1) The Department Store Game. This is in its second incarnation and will continue to be refined until it’s playable within classes or across whole year groups.

(2) The Lend Lease Project. Currently due to run in four schools next term, with a further three awaiting confirmation. This project is not only popular with schools and students, but is hopefully going to lead to the formation of the Lend Lease Students’ Forum which could allow young people to be further involved in Lend Lease’s developments.

(3) See Me Website. This will be ready for populating and testing next term. The concept of which is to allow everyday people to upload their stories and / or advice for anyone not sure of what to do next in their career or life. predominantly for the 15-25yrs age range and will consist of hundreds of short, self-made videos that are searchable and viewable on phones as well as a PC. Lend Lease are looking into being the first company to upload videos. If the website is popular then the project has potential to be independently funded.

(4) Newham Business for Schools (NBfS). Though this is a working title, the idea is to evolve SCEP into a long-term business / schools / Newham forum that can continue to develop projects, make links and be of benefit to all parties.

Full Steam Ahead!

The Department Store Game Roll Out!

On the 29th June the Department Store Game got its first big outing and major test.

We took it to Sarah Bonnell School and it was run with 180 Year 10 girls then 150 or so Year 9’s. The year groups were split into classrooms and each room had 3-4 groups in with two Game Co-ordinators overseeing and helping out. The Game Co-ordinators were chosen from the Year 10 girls that had seen the game before and were familiar with how it worked. It was a big ask to get these girls to help run the game as they would have to not only remember how it worked, but also take on board the changes that had been made and also be able to help the groups, who were starting from scratch.

I was looking for two things on the day: one was for the Game Co-ordinators to be able to take on the responsibility of their role and assist the groups. The other was for the game to be robustly tested and to gain lots of feedback about teething issues and changes.

Outcome one was really lovely to see. Most of the girls stuck at their task to co-prdinate the game, though they found it harder to manage their own peer group than the Year 9’s that followed. They all got a silver SCEP certificate and they were all pretty proud that they’d stuck it out!

As for outcome two? Well – I got loads of useful feedback from the co-ordinators about the difficulties they had with explaining the game and the stumbling points. The game is by no means ready to take to a wider audience yet, Sarah Bonnells very kindly offered their girls to test it on. I have got a few quite large changes I want to make to it now and we hatched a plan to run the new, improved version in another school – ably assisted by the Game Co-ordinators who were keen to continue to help develop it.

The Department Store Game

The Department Store Game was tested at Sarah Bonnell School this week with the aim of seeing if it was engaging enough for a group of students to get into.

There’s basically two aspects to the game: making management decisions and managing finances. Both aspects were well and truly tested and some lovely elements revealed themselves that I shall definitely being incorporating.

During the finance aspect of the game, the students get to roll a dice to determine either a % increase or decrease in takings. Much debate ensues as to who gets to roll the dice and how they employ the support of their various Gods / lucky charms / mystical entities to get the required number. I noticed this was a real aid to gelling the team and enabled them to get into the game quite quickly.

The other part of the game required the team to make decisions about various scenarios that might happen in a department store. The scenarios were basic outlines of a situation and the team had to decide what to do next.

What I hadn’t anticipated was that in many cases the scenarios really did require further clarity and, as a result, getting the team to establish exactly what was happening was both educational and very entertaining!

The testing also provided me with a better understanding of the playability of the whole game and so there are a number of tweaks and changes that will be made before its roll out at the end of June.