Board Game Review… Schooled!
Back in November 2022, I had an intriguing email drop in my inbox. It was from a teacher from a London school who wanted my help. Their four Year 6 classes were embarking on a project whereby they would be creating board games in their Design and Technology classes and then writing reviews of the creations in their English lessons. They wanted me to join them on a Zoom call to talk through my review process and ask me questions. Well I was flattered and surprised! As I am always interested in new challenges, I said yes!
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I joined all the classes via the wonders of video call and had a brilliant time talking about the structure of my reviews! This was followed by some excellent questions from the students who had clearly thought long and hard about appropriate and intelligent questions.
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My teacher’s report was glowing: “they found it really enjoyable as you were so engaging and enthusiastic! They are all now really buzzed up and keen to get started on their writing. They have all recorded ‘Nick’s Top Tips’, in their books and I am really looking forward to reading their reviews which will be infinitely better with your input.”
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A large part of the enjoyment is discovering what the game has in store for us. These twists and turns are really exciting and often make you groan as the challenge ramps up another notch! The set up of each game is equally important as we consider what characters we want to use and who will be most effective. This takes as long as the game does to play – but we are thoroughly enjoying it and it isn’t a chore!
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Recently the teacher sent me some photos which I had permission to publish. Here you can see the student’s during the creative process and their finished games which were all themed around Ancient Greece. I’m a little bit sad I can’t play some of them – one has a Card of DOOM!
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Hopefully there will be some budding board game designers and reviewers inspired by the process as we look forward to the next generation!
