Digital Schoolhouse teams up with Nintendo UK to bring games tournaments back to UK schools

The programme sees secondary and primary schools take part in an immersive careers experience to learn about the range of jobs available in video games industry.

29 September 2022
 
Embargoed until Thursday 29th September, 10am
 
Thursday 29^th September, 10:00am – Digital Schoolhouse (DSH) have once again partnered with Nintendo UK to launch the DSH Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Team Battle and Junior Tournament for 2023.

The two contests bring video games careers to life, teaching students valuable transferrable skills by allowing them to set up and manage their own video games tournament teams and activities.

The DSH Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Team Battle is open to students aged 12-18. Now in its sixth iteration, previous years have reached up to 10,000 pupils and 1000 teams in schools and colleges across the UK. Pupils take on real-life games industry roles to whittle down hopeful players in their school to a team of three, who will then do battle with other schools in the regional and national qualifiers ahead of the Grand Final.

The Junior Tournament, the counterpart for ages 8-11, was launched in 2021 following a successful pilot. Pupils will compete with popular, age-appropriate video games on Nintendo Switch such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Race with Ryan, Crayola Scoot. This year Ubisoft's Just Dance 2022 will be added for the first time to the exciting line-up of games that pupils can choose from to compete in the tournament.

This experience is designed to bring computing education to life by demonstrating real-world applications of computer science, as well as highlight the full range of career paths available to young people in games and esports.

And research by Digital Schoolhouse shows that the programme works. In the 2021 Junior Esports Pilot Evaluation Report, 100% of teachers reported that pupils were more motivated to learn computing because of the pilot. 55% of teachers said that pupils achieved higher results in this work compared to their usual activities and no teachers said that the students performed worse than usual, showing no drawbacks to implementing the programme.

Meanwhile in 2018, the Esports: Engaging Education report into the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Team Battle tournament found that almost all participating students reported an increased interest in computing, with the number of students more interested in studying computing rising by 40%. Additionally, 75% of students involved said they felt their communication skills improved and 79% said their team building skills improved. Some teachers also reported that cohorts of pupils that were usually uninterested in extra-curricular activities were engaged and encouraged by the programme.

Shahneila Saeed, Director at Digital Schoolhouse and Head of Education at Ukie said: “Children and young people can’t aspire to jobs they don’t know about. Our tournaments are immersive careers education experiences with a twist that year on year have demonstrable impact on individual students lives. We’re thrilled to be launching the DSH Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Team Battle again and expanding the Junior Tournament, with the support of our partners we hope this year we will reach more schools and pupils than ever before.”

Kalpesh Tailor, Head of Communications at Nintendo UK said: “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Ukie’s Digital Schoolhouse as lead partner for the fourth year running. Both programmes uniquely combine fun, creativity and innovation, all of which are at the heart of Nintendo’s values. This academic year we hope to see many more smiles from each of the students taking part.”

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Notes to editor
Relevant assets will be available at https://www.digitalschoolhouse.org.uk/press ahead of launch.
If you need assets please email louisa@ukie.org.uk

About Digital Schoolhouse
The not-for-profit Digital Schoolhouse programme, together with Nintendo UK, uses play-based learning to engage the next generation of pupils and teachers with the Computing curriculum. Digital Schoolhouse is delivered by the UK games industry trade body Ukie and is backed by the video games industry and government. Sponsors include PlayStation®, SEGA, Ubisoft and Outright Games. 

Website: https://www.digitalschoolhouse.org.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DigSchoolhouse
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DigiSchoolhouse/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/DigitalSchoolhouse
 
About Ukie (The Association of UK Interactive Entertainment)
Ukie is a not-for-profit trade body that represents the UK games and interactive entertainment industry. Its mission is to make the UK into the best place to make, sell and play games in the world.

It represents over 500 businesses working across the UK, including game developers, publishers, platforms and service providers. It supports companies through business support programmes, political engagement, speaking with the media on behalf of the sector and running education initiatives to boost the industry talent pipeline.

The organisation also supports and manages key industry responsibility campaigns such as www.askaboutgames.com and the Get Smart About P.L.A.Y. parental outreach campaign.

Website: www.ukie.org.uk
Contact: press@ukie.org.uk