During last week I had the pleasure of entertaining my colleague from the Digital Futures Group (DFG) Gemma Gwilliam along with Nick Morley and Emma Watson to Millfield to talk about esports in schools.    I am very positive about the potential for esports in schools so I enjoyed yet another opportunity to share the Millfield journey and to encourage other schools to consider how they might implement esports.

Now as a teacher, back in the early 2000’s I started up a computer gaming club using Xbox devices, before moving to getting games installed on the computers in one IT Lab, then in my next school I had a PlayStation 2 in my desk drawer attached to the classroom projector, before again progressing to installing games on the PCs.   This was all before esports was really a thing.   At that point I saw how gaming engaged students and the advantages in relation to behaviour and attitude to school.    Looking at esports now however I see that there were also many other advantages which I hadn’t seen back then such as how students developed communication skills especially in collaborative games, the development of leadership skills, problem solving and strategy, resilience and many other soft skills.   Looking at esports, yes becoming an esports professional can be lucrative however very few students will ever achieve this, but the skills they can develop along the way have applications across different careers and across life.    Its very much the same as students playing rugby or football;  few will ever achieve international level playing, however for all involved, including those that don’t, the act of involvement will develop many beneficial and useful life skills.    It is also worth noting that many students are already really engaged in computer games, and therefore through esports we can hopefully harness their excitement and engagement while delivering positive learning experiences which can help the students to develop;  Its about teaching them where they are.

During the visit I shared Millfield’s journey, acknowledging that things have progressed slower than I would have liked, however it is important to note that progress has definitely been made and we have some exciting plans for the year ahead.  The Millfield journey began back in 2018/19 when we first looked at esports and looked at upgrading two of our IT labs, at a time when the labs needed upgrading anyway.    Feedback from students was very positive about our idea of introducing esports, with 88% of students replying to a survey indicating they were positive about the school introducing esports.   As such when the end of the academic year arrived we replaced the PCs in the IT labs as planned, however increased the specification slightly to support esports, but also to support other applications which would benefit from the additional RAM and a more powerful graphic card.  At the time we choose to have the uprated hardware housed in normal PC chassis such that they looked no different to PCs across the school or in the IT labs we didn’t upgrade.   This was to avoid any issues with students preferring to be taught in the two upgraded classrooms rather than those which hadn’t, as the rooms all looked no different to each other;   You don’t need to buy gaming machines with neon lights and see through cases if you don’t want to or if it doesn’t suit your schools needs.    2019/20 saw our first involvement in the British Esports Federation, or Association as it was then, school Champs tournament with our senior school students before we piloted an independent schools competition the following year.    After this we added esports to our activities programme, we then introduced a girls only group to try and encourage more of our girls to get involved, then introducing esports as an activity at our prep school.   During the course of this year we have added F1 Sim racing to the roster of games, which previously had largely focussing on Rocket League given its age rating and ease of play, and Overwatch for the senior school students.  So steadily over the years we have been refining and developing our offering.

I also shared some advice with our visitors while they were at Millfield, based on our experiences.   I stressed the importance of differentiating between gaming and competitive esports;  this is important for students, staff and parents to understand that esports is competitive, it is about teamwork based games, communication, etc, rather than the solitary gaming which parents in particular might be concerned about.    I also included the need to factor the costs of headsets and controllers in as these are largely consumable items, plus the need to be aware of game updates as these can get quite large and once multiplied across a number of machines can have an impact on the schools bandwidth, or may take some time to get installed, which is the last thing you want when you have a group of students waiting to get playing.    I also acknowledged the importance of using students own experience in any esports provision as the students are often more aware of the controls, settings, etc, of games than staff and therefore we should seek to harness this knowledge and experience.     My final points related to the fact that you can start small, and don’t need labs full of neon gaming computers and fancy gaming keyboard, mice and chairs;   A few average i5 PCs with 8Gb of Ram would be sufficient to run Rocket League just to get you started and from there you can progress.    Also, its about having some fun, both staff and students.

Looking to the future and Millfield, I am definitely eager to continue building on our esports provision and also supporting and encouraging other schools to get involved.    So, within the school we will hopefully look towards becoming more competitive in the Champs tournament, plus possibly trying to arrange a smaller inter schools competition with other school.   Having missed the qualifiers for the Williams F1 sim racing competition this year, hopefully next year we will be able to put some players forward and get involved.     It would also be nice to harness some of the opportunities around esports such as getting students shout casting on matches, developing marketing materials, organising events, etc, where this might link well with teaching departments such as English, media, business, etc.    We would also like to look to deliver an esports camp possibly during the summer using the BTec qualifications as a blueprint, albeit any camp would only be a taster given the short duration of any such camp.

In a world where technology is moving at great pace, it will be the human capabilities, which AI for example cannot deliver, which we will need to focus on.   Leadership, communication, collaboration, resilience, self motivation, continual improvement, emotional intelligence and more.   All of these can be developed and encouraged through esports, plus its something many students are already interested and engaged in so.   To me that seems like a win, win!

I recently had the pleasure of presenting on esports at The Lowry Academy, alongside Kalam Neale from the British Esports Federation.    I have long been a believer in the potential for esports to be a positive vehicle for supporting student engagement but also the development of a lot of the soft skills that are important in life beyond school, including leadership, resilience, and teamwork to name but a few.   It was therefore great to be able to share but also even better to hear what the staff and students at The Lowry Academy, alongside 3 other United Learning Salford schools are all doing in relation to esports.

In terms of my presentation I would like to just share some of my thoughts and 5 pieces of advice in relation to esports, based on my experiences at Millfield, and as shared at the event.

It is not all neon lights

When you think of esports and when you look at professional events it’s all neon lights and high-powered PCs, expensive gaming keyboards, mice and headsets.   From the point of view of schools, this is difficult to square away especially where funding is often limited.    Although creating such environments may have its advantages it isn’t a requirement.  When we launched esports at Millfield we had a couple of IT labs which needed to be updated, plus we were moving to standard desktops rather than the overpriced all-in-ones we had previously.   We knew that the labs needed to be appropriate for Computing teaching and we didn’t want to distinguish these rooms from our other IT labs which weren’t up for replacement.   As such, in looking to prepare to deliver some esports provision we basically increased the spec of the PCs in terms of the graphics card, processor and memory, but opted to keep it in the same PC chassis we normally used.    So, we had two labs with PCs capable of running Overwatch 2, League of Legends and other esports games but the labs themselves didn’t look any different to other IT labs.  I note the higher-spec machines had other potential benefits beyond esports in terms of software they could run to support Computing, Art and other subjects.  That said, later when we started looking at esports and Rocket League in particular at our prep school we simply used the i5, 8Gb PCs we already had, and this worked fine.

Small is good

Now our upgrade work involved two labs as these labs were up for refresh anyway and therefore all we were doing was increasing the cost a little in line with higher spec machines however there is no need to go full lab.  If looking at Rocket League for example it might be ok to have only 3 machines to run a team playing against other schools, or maybe have 6 machines to allow two internal teams to play off against each other.   You can scale the equipment based on your available financial resources combined with your anticipated interest in your planned esports provision.

Beware updates

One thing that has snagged me a few times, usually after a holiday period has been game updates.   Myself and the students have rocked up ready for a bit of Overwatch 2 for example, following the easter break to find each machine needs a 6 or 7Gb update.   Queue a wait before you can get a match started and queue my network team asking what the hell is eating up all of our internet bandwidth suddenly.   As such it is well worth planning to check and update games towards the end of holiday periods to reduce the risk.   The game vendors might still release an update but hopefully by keeping on top of things it will be a smaller rather than cumulative update, and therefore a lesser delay.

Consumables

We haven’t provided any fancy keyboards or mice, which may make us a little less competitive, but it means where there is wear and tear we can quickly replace it.   That said I haven’t seen significant issues with keyboards and mice, however where we have used controllers, these seem to suffer wear and tear and therefore factoring this in to allow for occasional replacement is well advised.   In terms of headsets, the key is to avoid going too cheap, ideally spending a bit more on good headsets, which therefore, with careful treatment by students, are likely to last longer.   I learned this lesson in relation to headsets as an IT teacher years ago, that spending a bit more makes sense and that savings in the short term, on cheaper headsets, often ends up more expensive in the longer term.

Work across year groups

Initially, when I looked at esports I focused very much on getting students in teams with their peers, in the same age group and year group.   This, in hindsight, is I believe a mistake.  I had some issues with low-level behaviour and with the engagement of some students.   As soon as I put students together across year groups it worked much better and I also think it required students to develop their communication and collaboration skills more, given they were having to work with students who may be younger and older, but towards a common aim of winning their match.  I would therefore recommend any esports provision allows students to work across year groups, although within reason.

Conclusion

The FE colleges are doing some amazing things in relation to esports, often spurred on by offering esports BTecs as a programme of study.   Schools lag behind but the potential benefits are the same and the cost of getting involved is minor.   You don’t have to have a room painted black, with neon strip lights, expensive gaming chairs and £2000+ PCs.     All you need is a couple of PCs with the appropriate specification and you can get started.   It was great to hear from Lowry Academy and some of the other United Learning schools in relation to their recent pilot of esports and their Rocket League competition across 4 schools. The student enthusiasm was obvious for all to see. I can only hope that following this event more schools get involved. I look forward to continuing to support the growth of esports in schools and seeing more schools pick up on the potential which esports has to offer.

Some 20 years ago I started a gaming club in the college I worked in using a couple of games consoles.  It quickly grew and changed from a leisure activity to something a little more competitive with matches set up to find the best gamer.   Fast forward 20 years and esports is now a significant business but in my opinion it hasn’t yet developed the foothold in schools and colleges that it deserves.

I suspect a big part of this is that many in schools still look at esports as “gaming”, as a leisure activity involving simply playing computer games and having fun.    I don’t think this does esports justice as it doesn’t take into consideration some of the key skills which esports has the potential to develop in students.

Strategy

Most of the esports games involve students working in teams and therefore, like in conventional sports like football, there is a need for strategy.   Will the team go all out attack, or sit back in defence?   How will each player help the team to succeed?     The development of match strategy and also the refining and adjustment of this strategy in game is key to a successful esports team.

Communication

Linked to the above is the importance of communication.   Esports competitions can be rather frenetic with a need for team members to share situational and strategic information efficiently at speed.   A team which effectively communicates both prior to and during matches is much more likely to succeed.

Teamwork

As a team sport the importance of team work is key in esports.   An effective team is likely to be more successful than the sum of its individual players.    Each player needs to be able to work with the others in the team, appreciating their needs and their situation within the game before working towards the success of the team as a whole.

Competition and Sportsmanship

Again, as in traditional sports, esports competitions allow students to develop the skills needed to manage challenges and difficulties as presented by a competitive environment.    They can help students develop resilience plus the all important sportsmanship skills in dealing graciously with both victory but also defeat.

For me esports is an important addition to schools or colleges activity programme and even to their academic provision through the likes of the recently launched esports BTec qualifications.  

One closing note though, I do continue to see esports competitions and involvement being dominated by male students;   It would be nice if we could encourage more girls to get involved.

We are already seeing massive investment in esports.    Prize money in relation to esports is seeing continued increase.    It is also worth considering the industries which are linked with esports including the IT industry, news and media, computer games design and development as well as the advertising and marketing industries.    esports is therefore a growing sector, an industry in which an increasing number of jobs are being created which the students we currently teach will need to fill.    But only if we appropriately prepare them.

On the negative side, my view is simply one of balance.    Students who continuously study and worry about their academic ability can take this to an extreme where it results in health issues including stress.   Students wishing to be the top of a given sport may also take this to extremes, training to the point of physically breaking.    esport training equally can be taken to extremes however like sport and academic studying, esports can be part of a balanced lifestyle.     Only by talking with our students and engaging them in relation to esports can we seek to help them achieve an appropriate balance.     One look around a school or a quick listen to playground chatter will tell you that gaming and involvement in basic esports activities is already happening.    In schools we can either choose to ignore this or we can seek to get involved and in doing so can help to provide students guidance and a steer in the right direction.

I am looking forward to exploring how esports might become part of a schools offering, how students might be encouraged to take ownership of it and be provided opportunities to develop leadership skills.   I look forward to seeing how students work together as a team, how they communicate, problem solve, develop critical thinking skills and develop as esports players.   I look forward to developing a community around esports.

Let the games begin……