On Friday the 7th June, St.Theresa’s Catholic Primary hosted the first of 2 separate Imagination Gaming Inter-school Tournaments in a week!
As a school that uses Imagination Gaming’s team to deliver activities in the classroom every single week, they were keen to show the schools in their local communities what it was all about. What better way than inviting them for a bit of co-operative and competitive fun with a games tournament!
Who came?
Todays event welcomed schools from Locality C in Sheffield, with teams from Phillimore, Oasis Don Valley, High Hazels Academy, Gleadless and of course St Theresa’s. There were a couple of unavoidable last minute no-shows, but that didn’t spoil anything, and there’s always next time… but look at what they missed…
“Very good games all using different skills. Interesting to see the children engaging, using strategies and being competitive with teamwork. Some games surprised the children when they thought they weren’t good at them.”
Mrs Bond, Phillimore Primary School
The Morning
As we waited for the teams to arrive and get settled, we played a few different games from this years Imagination Gaming Family and Education Game Awards, a great way to get comfortable in new surroundings.
Games such as the new cooperative memory game Farm Rescue from Brain Games, and the fast moving Cobra Paw (pictured above) all about quick thinking, observation and coordination were just 2 of the many popular pre-tournament tasters.
Get Ready
Once everyone was settled it was time to learn some games that they may face in the afternoons tournament. (Of course we chose some new games, we didn’t want the experienced game players from St Theresa’s to have any advantage!!!)
We spend the morning learning a few games as a group first, then taking those games back to our teams to practice together. It’s at this point the teams can perfect their strategies and help each other be confident with the task ahead and share their ideas.
Again more new games when it came to the tournament! Along with the serious, we put in plenty of the silly too, including the brilliant Who Did It? from Asmodee UK (pictured above) ! Here competitors battle to pass the blame for their pets misdemeanours, but it takes a very good memory to make sure you don’t end up with your foot in it, so to speak!
Q-Bitz from Green Board Games, above, is a fabulous puzzler, where players have to race to be the first to recreate a pattern using cubes, with challenges ranging from simple to downright devious!
Fletter, (and Fletter Fuse) from Red Knight Toy Group above, is another simple letter game which can easily be adapted … so we used that too!
So What Happened?
Well some excellent gamesmanship happened, thats what! In the afternoon all the children were separated from their teams (and comfort zones) and put on a table with children from different schools for a carousel of competitive gaming.
It’s fantastic to see just how they work together in this environment. A perfect mix of social integration as everyone battled to do their best, but still supported each other to succeed, even in combat!
We managed to get through 5 different games in the afternoon’s competition… Mosquito, Fletter, Q-Bitz, Savvy and Who Did It. By the end the children had learnt and played games all day and their focus was truly remarkable… that’s games done right for you!…
“What a brilliant day!!! I think the games are absolutely fantastic. The kids loved playing them and so did I!”
Jayne, Gleadless Primary School
But who won?!
Well, without further ado, here are your competitors and winners!
Firstly, massive congratulations to Evie for achieving the most individual points of any of todays players, a whopping 21 out of 25… amazing! Here she is on the left, with the rest of the team from Gleadless, and as you can see she was gob-smacked…!
Here’s the host team from St. Theresa’s…
The team from High Hazel’s Academy…
The team from Oasis Don Valley…
and last… but certainly not least because they were the eventual…
TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS!!!
Phillimore Primary
Congratulations indeed to all the schools that attended, both children and teachers for their enthusiasm, and extra thanks for all the wonderful comments we received… we’ll leave you with this one.
“I think it was good because we all met new people as well as being very competitive against other people. It was also a bit confusing in a good way because it made my brain jog or even sprint sometimes!”
Evie (before she knew she had won!), Gleadless Primary School
