Lunchtime Computer Games

For the last week at Musselburgh Grammar School we have being using computer games at lunchtime to raise money for a cancer charity. 

The event has been a huge success and every lunchtime has seen between 50 – 60 students battle it out on a variety of different games consoles and computer games. The S6 organised the event and have done a great job of setting up and managing the project. They have also provided much of the equipment. The consoles that we had available were an Xbox 360, PS2 (with Guitar Hero), Nintendo Wii (with lots of controllers) and a PS3.

A number of members of staff popped in to try out some of the games and everyone commented on the really positive atmosphere.

In fact the event has got me thinking. I am a real fan of games based learning but I also think that we should be using computer games to help socially engage our children. Sometimes at lunchtime some of our pupils get into difficulties in the town of Musselburgh. I believe that one of the reasons for this is that they get bored. We have lots of things on at lunchtime and lots of different types of lunch club, but all of these activities don’t come close to engaging with a large proportion of our children.

Perhaps the investment in a couple of consoles might help engage with another group of pupils? Help them keep safe at lunchtime? Help them eat healthily (they would need to eat from the school canteen) and help them make sure they were not late for their afternoon classes?

Hmmmm….something to ponder over half term.