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Educational
Content | How
to Play | What's
On the Disc | |
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| What
is so special about Skills for Success? |
Skills
For Success is the most unique educational PC football
game available for primary school children today. It brings
together Football and Education like never before. It involves
the Scottish FA, the Scottish Schools FA, Skills For Success
and most importantly, Scottish primary school children.
The aim of Skills For Success is to encourage children of primary
school age to enjoy learning, increasing both their learning
ability and the amount of fun they have doing school homework
and revision.
Many children of this age turn their attention away from school
– focusing on sport, games and other such activities instead
–this software helps to provide a fun and interactive
football environment that boys and girls will respond to.
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| At
Skills For Success we have spent the last two years working
with teachers, parents and children to create our innovative
format. Whilst compiling our research there has been an overwhelming
demand from teachers looking for a product that engages pupils
to a point where they have so much fun that they forget that
they are learning, and many children wanted software that will
help them make homework and revision more enjoyable and easier.
As a result, we have created and structured a product in such
a way that it is IMPOSSIBLE not to learn while playing thus
improving the children’s learning ability; and, as important
as all of the above, it will be priced so it will be affordable
for every child in the country which was a strong point requested
by parents. |
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| Educational
Content |
| The
educational content has been created by teachers and boasts
over 400 Curriculum compatible questions per subject and over
2500 questions per site license. These questions were written
and tested by teachers who were familiar with the original concept,
quickly recognised the benefits of using Skills For Success
in the classroom, and wanted to contribute their knowledge and
experience. These questions needed to be written by teachers
who had experience of teaching the current Curriculum to its
respective ages. The questions were tested in schools, by teachers
in different areas, to ensure that they were suitable nationwide.
The software wasn’t created and then
put out into the market place for testing. At Skills For Success,
we are so committed to providing a solid and substantial teaching
aid, that the development was advanced in stages: and, only
once we were sure that a particular area was complete, did
we ask teachers, pupils and parents to test it and confirm
that we had a full and rounded product. The ‘League
Table’ records the children’s progress and allows
them to challenge each other to try and stay at the top. Just
as in a real football table!
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| The
‘Training Ground’ has help screens relating to the
topics covered in each subject. These provide detailed
explanations of each topic, helping children revise
and consequently enabling them to answer the questions correctly
and play the game better. |
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| Playing
Skills For Success |
When
the children select a game to play, they must answer multiple-choice
questions by playing each football game in its respective way.
The 6 games have their own ‘how to play’ sections,
which take them through step by step tutorials. The
games develop on a progressive level, with the main thread running
throughout the software being INVOLVEMENT, ENCOURAGEMENT and
EXCITEMENT.
Answering a question correctly shows the player celebrating
with one of several backward flips or dives along the grass...
exactly what a real player would do if they scored a goal for
Scotland. The fans start to shout and scream as they would in
a real game. This gives a feeling of excitement to the
child and will only enhance the desire to get more questions
correct. |
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| If
an incorrect answer is selected then the ball will miss the
goal, leaving all incorrect answers shaded out and only the
correct answer highlighted. This allows the child to finish
with the correct answer, using reinforcement, before moving
on: the child cannot move to the next question unless he selects
the highlighted answer and scores a goal. The lack of
the player celebrating a goal and the muted sound from the fans
will instil a desire to get the next question correct.
We took the conscious decision to remove any ‘life’
systems from the game as we felt that penalising a child for
failing to get a question correct would be demoralising. Instead,
we need to encourage children to answer correctly: by doing
this, they score points; answering incorrectly they don’t
receive any points, thus limiting their movement up the league
table. If a child has opted to answer 10 questions on fractions,
and the first 3 are answered incorrectly, the child would
be removed from the learning experience using a typical life
system and would have to start again. Using our system, the
child could answer 3 questions incorrectly, be given the correct
answers before being allowed to move on (positive reinforcement),
and then be allowed to continue to answer the following 7
questions. At the end of this fun experience they
are then presented with a certificate that both records their
score and encourages them in future attempts at a higher score.
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| A
unique aspect of Skills for Success |
| Skills
For Success has been designed to be fun and engaging for every
child regardless of ability. Not only does it encourage learning
across the key subjects but it has also been proven to increase
comprehension as the only way to score is to read and answer
questions correctly. The questions are not timed out, permitting
children to read through the questions and answers carefully,
or even discussing them with friends or sourcing answers elsewhere,
before attempting to score. Questions can be answered in as
much time as is needed, reducing the chance of an incorrect
answer being chosen due to a child feeling unnecessarily pressured.
The overall feel is one of a game that gives confidence and
encourages concentration, but is also extremely fun and exciting.
A unique aspect of Skills For Success is its
way of collating children’s results; the printable high
score table represents a football league table, this adds
to the overall excitement of playing with the Scottish Football
Association and encourages each child to strive for the top.
The bonus feature for teachers is that all of the scores for
each pupil are held on the database, showing the total number
of questions answered, the amount scored correct, the number
of incorrect answers and the overall score. By clicking on
an individual pupils name the league table opens up further
by showing a list of the 10 topics available in each subject
and gives a breakdown of the question answered for each topic.
This will allow for on going
assessments, as the league table is printable and is able
to highlight areas of strength and areas of weakness. This
is a key feature for parents as by printing the league table
after every session it can show the detailed development and
improvement of their child throughout a term.
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| The
Software |
| Many
teachers were looking for software that didn’t have the
typical "educational software” program feel and wanted
a unique and more involving theme. So, with this in mind, when
you turn on Scotland Skills for Success you start at the entrance
to Hampden Park, giving boys and girls the feeling of being
involved immediately with the Scottish national team. The game
is structured in such a way that it gives children a feeling
of excitement, involvement and wanting to answer more questions
as they progress through the game. To reiterate, the
games develop on a progressive level with the main threads running
throughout the software being INVOLVEMENT, ENCOURAGEMENT and
EXCITEMENT. The
initial reaction to Skills for Success from both teachers
and pupils, both at the BETT Show in London and the Education
Show in Birmingham, has been spectacular!
Is Curriculum Online registered and has eLC
eligibility
Contains over 2500 curriculum questions (Full
School Site Licence Version)
Can be used on any school network system
Can be used on an interactive whiteboard,
using a mouse and voting system
Allows for ongoing pupil assessment
Uses a comprehensive results table
Has 6 interactive games
Develops hand to eye co-ordination, colour recognition
and an understanding of angles
Awards printable certificates that reward
and demonstrate improvement
Includes a number of educational mini games
as a reward for steady revision
Can hold as many as 50 pupil names
Is proven to improve learning ability |
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