Our customers love our games and events!

We have had weekly Imagination Gaming sessions in school since January which have been a huge success. In a short space of time we could see an improvement in the children’s concentration, turn taking and social skills when they were playing games and working with the Imagination Gaming Team.

The Imagination Gaming Team have skilfully looked at the children’s additional and individual needs, within a special primary school setting, and provided targeted games which reflect their interests; this has included them designing bespoke games and facilitating a session where parents played games with their children.

The Imagination Gaming Team have built positive relationships with the children and staff and it is a highlight of the week when they come into school.

Above all, the Imagination Gaming sessions have enabled the children to develop essential life skills whilst they are having fun and enjoying themselves playing games.

Vicky Fisher, Head of School -SENCO – East SILC -Jack Clark – October 2024

Imagination Gaming has been a fantastic addition to our young people’s enrichment schedule. Nigel quickly builds rapport with the young people, creating a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere. He is accommodating to everyone’s needs and always brings a great variety of engaging games, ensuring each session is enjoyable for all. His ability to connect with the young people is evident, and they genuinely look forward to Imagination Gaming days. The positive impact these sessions have had on the group is clear, making them a highlight in our program. I highly recommend Nigel and Imagination Gaming.

Chris Davy, Learning Coordinator, Aldine House Secure Children’s Home

From the moment we met Daniel and Nigel, we knew our children would be in for a treat! They initially supported our staff wellbeing evening; we had staff showing their competitive sides, working as teams and the laughter was what told me this was going to be a success!
We had the team in for 3 days to cover every class from Year 1-6, the children loved it. Their problem-solving and reasoning skills were put to work and the team constantly made reference to how the skills of gaming could be applied to their learning.
The after-school parent events were a huge success, the children loved teaching their parents how to play the games and to have dedicated time away from devices, to play games as a family was something many of our families commented positively on.
We still have children and staff discussing games and new ones they’ve purchased!
This was a great success and something I would definitely do again.

Joanne Shackleton – Headteacher, St Giles Primary, Derbyshire

The sessions are always very well received by the children and teachers because the games are quick and easy to engage with, yet present endless challenge and opportunities to explore deep thinking, strategy and tactics in a wide range of areas.  There are gains to be had for all children regardless of ability- this is not just one for G+T kids. The concentration, attitudes, social learning and collaborative skills are developed not to forget the positive effect on self esteem and learning to win and lose with good grace.

Nigel’s expertise is clearly demonstrated in the way he adapts the games and makes ongoing adjustments and suggestions to the children while they play.  They learn well and think hard…all with smiles and 100% engagement! Recommended without reservation.

Every child was able to join in at their own level.

The focus, attitude and improvements they made were superb to see. They were all so proud of what they had achieved and were all eager to share their independent work. Presentation, the ideas used as well as pushing themselves to use highly detailed descriptions were outstanding. This is definitely something I would use again.

Thank you again for this morning, it was an amazing session. They came back in from dinner still talking about their work!

IG has been able to engage young people in recognising transferable skills, particularly regarding team work, which have improved self confidence to make steps towards work placements.

Flexible, conscientious and consistent, IG offer an innovative approach for students to access embedded literacy, numeracy, social and communication skills.  Their sessions are very well attended, and highly regarded within the organisation, as well as by the students themselves.

In the curriculum days, all the games are well chosen and thought about to develop whatever the school is aiming to improve at that time, whether it be traditional subjects such as maths, english or science, or more rounded skills such as speaking and listening or teamwork. They have games for everything. The children have so much fun and don’t even realise how much learning that they are doing.

In my first Headship, we also took advantage of the wonderful tournament days which brought together children from a variety of schools together to play games, have fun and then have a well-organised and smoothly run tournament in the afternoon. Children loved the competitive factor and receiving the trophies and certificates.

I can’t recommend Chris (and the other members of the Imagination Gaming team who I have since got to know well) enough for their enthusiasm, knowledge and ability to work with children of all ages and abilities to learn through fun.

Chris begins the session by stating his expectations in terms of noise levels and participation in the games.  He uses his knowledge of the children to slightly adjust groupings in order to ensure gaming sessions are enjoyable for all.  He carefully selects the games they start within in order to match the nature of the group. The games are varied promoting both language and maths skills.  He allows the children to change the game when the group are ready to.

Initially I thought they would be changing all of the time however this is not the case as they are keen to play all of the games and ensure they complete a game once or twice before selecting again.   Chris often suggests games to groups to target a particular skill – for example the fairy story family times table game. He recommends adaptions to games to suit the level of the group playing. The children respect the games and ensure all pieces are put away without any prompting.

The class love playing the games and can now run the sessions themselves with minimal adult intervention. It is useful for me to play alongside them or watch their game in order to recognise their strategies, application of skills and reasoning abilities. Their teamwork skills along with their language and mathematical understanding are definitely being developed under the watchful eye of Chris.

I did learn more things about the children, especially how good some of their memories were and those that shone when faced with a competition. Emphasis put on working together, looking after the games and not just winning was excellent.

Overall an excellent experience which the children enjoyed and looked forward to every week.

We have also run family workshops at various libraries throughout the region over the years, and Chris has the knack to find exactly the right games to suit every age and ability. We always receive fantastic, positive feedback from the children, parents and teachers… I don’t think there has been anyone who hasn’t enjoyed the sessions.

It is a lovely, fun way of getting people together, doing something a bit different and exciting for a couple of hours.

They absolutely love the gaming sessions, developing logical skills alongside all the social skills that go with sharing games with others. Chris also runs a lunchtime club and an after-school club where parents are encouraged to join in. These sessions are very popular and great for our families.

Nigel, who is our games guru, is extremely calm around the students, which in turn helps them to be calm when some are quite anxious at first to try new things. He is fantastic at explaining the games while we play and understands the needs of our students very well.

I have in the past and will continue to recommend Imagination Gaming to any provision or school.

When they finished with one game she quickly introduced them to something new – quickly aware of what they found fun and what wasn’t holding their attention. Every age group was kept engaged for the whole session.

The games were of good quality. There were lovely chunky pieces for smaller children to handle and each game could be made simpler for younger children and built up as the children grow meaning that these are great games both for fun and to help develop skills in the EYFS.

We would definitely recommend Imagination Gaming to other nurseries and also to schools and holiday clubs and look forward to having future visits.

Thank you!

Di – What a wonderful night!  I am going to recommend other groups I belong to, to book Imagination Gaming.

Brenda – Really enjoyable evening with testing, interesting games.

Carole – The gaming evening was very interesting and educational.  I would recommend it to other groups or schools.

Sue (Secretary) – Imagination Gaming is on our programme every year – what a wonderful way to celebrate our birthday with Games and Cake.  Thanks to Nigel who makes the evening worthwhile.  I’m building up a nice collection of games!

(My role is to provide a link between the care staff and the education team who organises and arranges all extracurricular activities for the residents to take part in. The environment the young people reside is to provide a safe, caring yet controlled environment in which young people are enabled to address personal difficulties and so move on to make positive contributions to their family and communities. The core objective is to enable and encourage emotional, behavioural and attitudinal change. We aim to achieve this by working closely with carers and professionals in providing a range of individual educational and life experiences that equip the young person to fulfil their own potential, their community’s moral aspirations and society’s legal expectations. The promotion of positive relationships is at the heart of what we do and everyone is given an equal opportunity to express their views, opinions and emotions through open and respectful communication.)

“The children really enjoyed playing the different variety of games that were offered and working well in teams. It was interesting to see the different games for the children to help develop their vocabulary but also to develop their team game skills. It was an enjoyable and fun day.”

Sarah-Jayne Burwell, T.A.

“I found the visit extremely informative and there was a buzz around the classroom! The children were highly engaged in all of the activities and probably didn’t even realise they were learning so much. It was great to see just how educational games can be and how effectively they can be used within the classroom so seamlessly.

Thankyou for a fantastic visit!”

Sophie James, Y2 Teacher

“I really thought this was brilliant. The children got so much out of this and they were so engaged.”

Diane Heathcote, T.A.

“We had Chris come into both of our y1 classes. The games were great, well demonstrated and explained. The children were really engaged with all of the games. It helped our children to problem solve, work in teams and use their imagination. Fantastic day!”

Katie Shepherd, T.A.

Children are always asking when Chris is coming and one child commented ‘I am excited – I can’t wait to see what games Chris brings today’.

Staff feel that the sessions are worthwhile and support the children’s emotional well-being and health as well as supporting them to learn how to deal with loss.

Chris is extremely professional, enthusiastic and passionate individual who has a positive impact on the young children he works with.

Some of the work they have done for Sheffield Children’s University includes:

– The development of an educational games box at 3 key stages, including an explanatory booklet and work towards an extensive inter-school games tournament, which was very well received by our participating primary schools. Games were carefully selected to promote numeracy, literacy and social skills.

– A Games Tournament tailored to the needs of a local special school

– Regular open access games workshops in local libraries and the Winter Gardens for children and families to enjoy together.

– A dedicated gaming day pulling together various different gaming retail outlets from across the city to showcase their specialisms and allow families to try new games out.

Example comments from staff and pupils at schools participating in Games Tournament:

Teacher comment: The benefits were to build the children’s confidence and to be able to work as team working with other children from across Sheffield.

Pupil comment: “Taking part in the Games tournament made me feel part of a team, also it was nice to visit another school and make new friends”

Teacher comment: Now the students have the buzz from the day they are telling other students who then want to join the club. Also school will buy other similar games from Imagination Gaming so the students don’t get bored with the same ones all the time.

Pupil comment: “Taking part in the Games tournament made me feel…more confident in meeting students from other schools, helps me with spelling.

During our most recent project, Nigel supported 4 classes over 2 days breaking the days into literacy and numeracy sessions during the morning sessions and focusing on a extending and bringing writing to life during the afternoon. He really has the knack of hooking the child with enthusiasm and bringing it to life to achieve great things!

All our learners especially the lower level cohort excelled within these activity days and Nigel suggested further games to encourage their learning further.

Many schools don’t see the value in games as a learning tool but I suggest they give Imagination Gaming a try as the results are amazing.

Parent’s Thoughts:

The following are a selection of comments from parents at just one of our projects!

“Fantastic morning playing various number games. I have learnt how to make the games fun as well as helping my child with his numeracy at home. Thank you. One of the best lessons I have attended.”

“Thanks for the opportunity to get involved in my child’s school life. Felt worn out by the end, but in a good way!”

“Excellent workshop. Very stimulating, great way of working with numbers and to make you think.”

“Really enjoyed the games, fun & easy to play. Excellent to play with all my family. Will definitely buy the card games for use at home.”

“An excellent morning, full of fun and games, literally. Both myself and my daughter really enjoyed the morning. All of those games were excellent and a fantastic way of making math’s fun. Brilliant morning overall.”

“I didn’t know what to expect when I came and was surprised it was so much fun and it stretched my brain.”

“The games and sessions would help a lot for those that struggle with numbers.”

“I am a parent to 3 children and these activities would be appreciated in the home.”

“I had no idea what the session was about but enjoyed getting creative with the children. It got the children and me thinking outside the box. Great!”

“Really fun even if a bit stressful at first!”

“Yes, this would help with maths, listening and waiting for their turns. Interacting with each other makes learning fun. Very good!”

“I had lots of fun and I found the games more challenging than I expected but really enjoyable.”

“I have learned to think about things before going ahead and that math’s games can be fun.”

“The sessions were great fun and gave me a really valuable chance to interact with my child in her school environment.”

“I thought the session was brilliant. I think all the children really got in to it. I couldn’t believe how eager Lewis was to get his ideas on paper. He is never normally that enthusiastic about writing. He even moaned there wasn’t enough space to write in!!!”

“It was much more interactive and fun than I expected. Already make use of the Story Cubes at home, a great resource for encouraging creativity.”

“Fantastic. Most fun I’ve had in ages. The kids were really involved and so good. Well done.”

“I learned that learning is not just all about being sat at a desk.”

“I felt that it taught the children to engage and listen, also about working together and using tactics. The story writing was good too, using dice helped them to structure the story and helped with ideas for the content.”

“I have found out that if the kids find something really exciting to them, even the children with the least concentration, will focus for something they enjoy.”

“The games are a really great way to teach math’s to the children. I am sure it will be very helpful, encouraging quick thinking and logical thinking. Taking this approach to math’s is a great idea.”

“Very thought provoking. Really enjoyed each game. Lots of strategy needed but fun as well.”

“Great fun and totally different from my expectations.”

“Kept my brain thinking throughout the whole session. A full morning!”

“I enjoyed every minute of it and am pleased I took part in it.”

“Yes it’s been great fun and very rewarding seeing the presentations at the end. Would be very good adapted for adult team working days.”

“Excellent math’s morning well led by Nigel. A great idea to involve parents. All children, and parents, were on task throughout the session, 2 ½ hours. The children were very quickly developing strategies to improve on each of the games. They were discussing their learning with each other and adults and many were able to explain the games to others. Super to hear they verbalize their strategies to each other and to see their learning move forward so quickly. Thank you.”

Some of our children said “It was the best day ever!” It was also lovely to see parents and grandparents playing games with their children during the after school activity.

Imagination Gaming staff were also very inclusive for children with SEN (special educational needs) and accessible to all. I would definitely recommend Imagination Gaming. We are looking forward to using the games on a regular basis in school

The board games days have been a great success. Nigel and Chris liaised with us in advance to make sure that they had a good understanding of the needs of our students, and because of this were very well prepared and brought a great package of games for our school.

They worked tirelessly throughout the day, including attending our lunch time board games club, and working with parents after school to allow them to experience the benefits of playing game with their children. They are very enthusiastic, engaging and sensitive with our students, who are very varied in age and ability, and our staff very much appreciated their suggestions for other ways that we can use games with our students.

They also left us with a package of board games to keep at school, which has been an invaluable resource. Board games are a fun way of reinforcing academic learning, and also learning and practising communication and social skills, which is such an important part of what we do in our school.

We are very much looking forward to this year’s board games day, and thanks again for all your help so far.

The children have thoroughly enjoyed the imagination gaming sessions. As a member of staff I feel they have not only had fun learning without realising, they have learnt how to play together and in teams.

The children love working with Nigel. From our point of view he can always think on his feet to provide activities that fit with our maths and literacy objectives.

Since imagination gaming started our (most) children have been showing a more mature approach to each other when working in small groups. We find our more excitable children seem more focused when playing the games.

I have seen a remarkable change in our young children’s ability to take turns, share fairly and work as a team. It has really tested their resilience and has challenged them to communicate in different ways. Nigel has been excellent at managing any conflicts and has built an amazing relationship with the class. The children LOVE imagination gaming.

Lots of parents brought their children to the after school club too and I am very pleased to say that there was no ‘hard sell’, just lots more fun while the children shared their learning with their families. Highly recommend Imagination Gaming and would encourage schools to definitely give games days a go.

A big thank you to Nigel, who made the days go without a hitch. We will all enjoy playing the games, which we got to keep as part of the package. Fantastic!!!

Chris was fantastic in meeting the needs of all year groups and the response from our children to the lunchtime club he offered was overwhelming. We have already included and are embedding this in our school either as lunchtime clubs, intervention provisions or whole class sessions.

We will certainly continue to work with Chris and Imagination Gaming. I can highly recommend Imagination Gaming – your school will love it!

As always, the range of games and activities allowed different children to succeed and excel in a healthy competitive atmosphere and Nigel knew exactly when to move onto new games to keep everyone engaged and interested.  We can’t wait to have him back!

Nigel, Chris and Jacqui all show a great passion for board games in education, as well as an understanding of the needs of our S.E.N. pupils. They have a great rapport with the pupils and always keep them engaged and inspired. The games that they leave with us are well chosen and allow us to continue their work throughout the year. Seeing children engage in problem solving, developing social skills, and having fun working and playing together, is invaluable, and we all, staff and parents as well as children, gain a lot from our time with Imagination Gaming.

I would recommend them to any school or organisation working with young people, but they are especially skilled at working with those outside the mainstream.

Here are a few quotes from children who took part in the day:

”I liked how we got to play different types of games from different countries and the games were exciting to play”

”I enjoyed playing the maths games after school with my mum. It was lots of fun!”

”Playing the games gave us chance to mix which other children we wouldn’t normally play with. I enjoyed it.”
Year 4 children

Imagination Gaming have helped us to put together a Board Games Lending Collection at our main Central Library and recently they have organised and facilitated a Primary Inter Schools Board Games Tournament for Calderdale Libraries. The Board Games Lending Collection has been a huge success, so much so that we are now rolling out mini collections in our HUB libraries. The games are immensely popular and the collection is an amazing resource for Calderdale Library users and the wider community.

The Board Games Tournament that Imagination Gaming managed and implemented on our behalf was very special. There was a buzz of excitement throughout the day, we are sure the children who attended will remember it for years to come.

Massive thanks Imagination Gaming!