Island Saver is a free-to-play game from NatWest. It is designed to develop children and young people’s understanding of finance, including saving and tax. It can be played on consoles or iPad. Find out more about the game here: Island Saver Wiki
Category: Games
Digital Schoolhouse: Festival of Play 2025 by Blackness Primary, Dundee City
We were lucky that a parent of a child in our class works with Digital School House and they let us know about the event. There were spaces available and the children were really enthusiastic and keen to go. It would be great to let more schools know about the event – I am sure they would find it very worthwhile.
This event was especially engaging as the children worked in their co-operative learning groups, designing games and presentations for Ninja Kiwi (a local games developer). They created their own amazing and unique games that they then pitched Ninja Kiwi staff like in Dragon’s Den. This allowed them to pull together an array of skills and during this time we looked into Dundee and its gaming history.
On the day, children and young people were excited to arrive at the University where they received tote bags on arrivals with some ‘merch’. They really enjoyed the session with Olive, about her game Private Joke, and enjoyed how much creativity and fun it involved. Lunches were a big hit as well, and the gaming exhibit at the end where they got to play games and try things out. They were big fans of the design a character, with Ninja Kiwi, and after this I heard two boys discussing coming to Abertay to study and design a game together.
“The monkey bit was really fun and creative as you could do anything; the exhibit at the games were really fun. I liked the whole day as it was really interactive and wasn’t just sitting around for like 25 minutes.” Hamish M, 10 years old.
“I really liked it because I liked the workshops and the VR headset. My The part I really liked was playing on the Nintendo Switch; the commentating workshop was very interesting because I liked the instructor because he told us all sorts of information.” Akshara, 10 years old.
As a teacher, I really liked the range of speakers and activities for the children to engage with. I thought the sessions were a good length and covered a lot of different aspects of learning. The games were a good opportunity to play. My favourite was the Private Joke session as it was the most transferable and the games commentary workshop was also really engaging.
We had a great time and loved being a part of the day, especially it being the first in Scotland. The children felt really inspired afterwards and comments about not knowing how many skills were needed in gaming, some children who are really creative and love drawing realising there were career opportunities, children who love playing games, children who love maths and numbers and then the ones who love reading, they all came away talking about how what they liked learning about and how there were pathways in gaming and computing industries.
Find out more about our school: Welcome to Blackness Primary School Website
Scottish Schools and Colleges Esports Competitions – Expression of Interest
Scottish Esports are the national body for gaming and esports in Scotland and are conducting a survey to assess the viability of a national esports competitions for Scotland’s schools and colleges.
This initiative aims to provide a structured competitive framework that supports Curriculum for Excellence, develops learners’ meta-skills, enhances digital skills, and aligns with national qualifications including the NPA Esports and HNC Esports.
Provide your feedback using this link: Scottish Esports Schools and Colleges Competition survey
For more information or queries, contact: info@scotesports.org
Island Saver from NatWest
Minecraft Build Battle in North Lanarkshire Council
The Digital School Team at North Lanarkshire Council have shared this summary of their recent work using Minecraft with primary school learners. To find out more get in touch with Alan Cooper Curriculum Manager CooperAl@northlan.gov.uk and Lauren McIntyre Digital Education Support Officer McIntyreLa@northlan.gov.uk at North Lanarkshire Council
All resources and support are available on our Padlet below
North Lanarkshire Minecraft Build Battles
Roadmap of Journey
NL Minecraft Build Battle Summary
In Session 2024/25 North Lanarkshire’s Minecraft Build Battle was launched! Inspired by the rapid rise of esports across Scottish education, the final was the culmination of months of competitive gaming.
From February 2025, over 1000 pupils took part in live online lessons and in-class challenges led by North Lanarkshire’s Digital School Team. Pupils from 36 schools worked together in teams of four within their class to develop their collaboration and Minecraft skills. They completed builds each week based on prompts with increasing difficulty and relevant success criteria. Following an in-class build battle, teachers chose a winning team to represent their school in one of the live online semi-finals against five other teams. The top-performing six teams were then invited to showcase their creativity and skills at the inaugural in-person live build battle final!
The 24 pupils from six teams were challenged to create a fantastic castle for the famous Minecraft character, Steve, within 45 minutes.
After lengthy discussion and deliberation, judges from North Lanarkshire Council and the eSports and Gaming industries decided the winners – ‘The Glowstone Gals’ from Thornlie Primary, Wishaw.
Build Battles by Number
- 37 schools (35 Primary & 2 ASN Primary)
- 995 Pupils
- 30 live lessons
- 36 in class build battles
- 6 live semi-final build battles (144 pupils)
- 1 live grand final (6 schools & 23 Pupils)
- Clusters (20 clusters involved)
Feedback by pupils and teachers include:
North Lanarkshire Council: Minecraft Battle Builds Live Final Video Long
Teacher
‘It was incredibly well organised and launched effectively, the CPD sessions were great for someone with zero experience of Minecraft. the build prompts were really good and I found FULL class engagement. I have a child in my class (P7) working at early level in all curricular areas and this is one thing they could join in with peers – very inclusive.’
Pupils
‘Our class really enjoyed it because we helped each other and our friendships grew’.
‘I really enjoyed Minecraft Education. It really helped to develop teamwork skills and creativity. It was mega fun and I really hope our teacher does this with the next P7s’.
‘The prompts were very creative because each week they were different but gave us a chance to add our own touches. I hadn’t played Minecraft in a while but not I’m constantly playing Minecraft Education with my friends!’
Plans are already underway for a Minecraft MAYhem event in this session. A focus on eSports in Primary and Secondary schools will also be a target for the NL Digital School.
Game Maker
GameMaker is a development tool for making 2D games, used by indie developers, professional studios, and educators worldwide. Users can create games for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5, Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
Remember to check with your local authority data security team/officer before registering any learners as users.
Explore tutorials using this link – Learn How To Develop Games
Find out more about the Game Maker Education license with this link – Teaching Using Game Design
Microsoft MakeCode Arcade
Microsoft MakeCode Arcade is a free online learn-to-code platform where anyone can build games.
Remember to check with your local authority data security team/officer before registering any learners as users.
Find out more about MakeCode Educator guides using this link – MakeCode Arcade Educator Page
Restore by Glitchers – a game about land use
Restore by GLITCHERS
Restore is part of an academic research project called RestoreID (HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-17). This research project investigates the relationship between nature restoration, biodiversity, and disease prevention. The restore game is led by Dr Brad Duthie and Prof Nils Bunnefeld at the University of Stirling.
The game will take between 5-20 minutes to play, depending on the level that you select. Only your in-game decisions will be recorded for research purposes, and no personal identifiable data will be recorded.
No download or signup required — Restore is compatible with modern browsers like Chrome, Safari and can be played on desktop or mobile. Just visit the itch page to start playing.
Playing games
We were lucky that a parent of a child in our class works with Digital School House and they let us know about the event. There were spaces available and the children were really enthusiastic and keen to go. It would be great to let more schools know about the… Read more
Scottish Esports are the national body for gaming and esports in Scotland and are conducting a survey to assess the viability of a national esports competitions for Scotland’s schools and colleges. This initiative aims to provide a structured competitive framework that supports Curriculum for Excellence, develops learners’ meta-skills, enhances digital… Read more
Island Saver is a free-to-play game from NatWest. It is designed to develop children and young people’s understanding of finance, including saving and tax. It can be played on consoles or iPad. Find out more about the game here: Island Saver Wiki Read more
The Digital School Team at North Lanarkshire Council have shared this summary of their recent work using Minecraft with primary school learners. To find out more get in touch with Alan Cooper Curriculum Manager CooperAl@northlan.gov.uk and Lauren McIntyre Digital Education Support Officer McIntyreLa@northlan.gov.uk at North Lanarkshire Council All resources and… Read more
Restore by GLITCHERS Restore is part of an academic research project called RestoreID (HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-17). This research project investigates the relationship between nature restoration, biodiversity, and disease prevention. The restore game is led by Dr Brad Duthie and Prof Nils Bunnefeld at the University of Stirling. The game will take… Read more
Tinderbox is a collective of young people, musicians, artists and youth workers in Scotland. Their work uses music and the arts to bring people together and strengthen communities, providing exciting opportunities that support young people to build their confidence, skills, self-esteem, and professional experience. Find out more about Tinderbox here… Read more
Tinderbox Games Collective
Tinderbox is a collective of young people, musicians, artists and youth workers in Scotland. Their work uses music and the arts to bring people together and strengthen communities, providing exciting opportunities that support young people to build their confidence, skills, self-esteem, and professional experience.
Find out more about Tinderbox here – tinderboxcollective.org
Tinderbox Games Clubs currently run in Edinburgh for young people aged 10-18.
At the Games Clubs people get together to play, research and make games, as well as design their own artwork, audio & code needed for them. Tinderbox use different forms of technology to make them, but they also use traditional methods such as hand-drawn art, board game making, clay-sculpting, crafting with recycled objects, and more.
Find out more using this link – Tinderbox Games Clubs
These are some games to try to get started:
You can play all the games published by Tinderbox using this link – Tinderbox Lab
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