Case Study: Enrichment programme with business simulations games at St Andrews Catholic School

If your school runs enrichment programme in business, you may want to know the story of Peter Segal’s, the Business Studies teacher at St Andrews Catholic School, afternoon course. He decided to show students real business with business simulations. No more paper exercises and only imagining what it is like to be an entrepreneur. This time, they had to prove themselves as business owners on a competitive market. Don’t worry, the market was virtual but the competition was real.

Background

St Andrews Catholic School, located in Leatherhead, England, is a government-run secondary school. It is known for its outstanding exam results. But the school does not focus on the exams only. It strives to provide students with various skills training through its enrichment programmes. They are directed at sixth form students (16-18 years old). One of them is the business enrichment programme, run by Peter Segal, the Business Studies teacher. Although he has never used business games before, he decided to give it a try. “I proposed that we run a business simulation to give students an insight into how businesses operate. After researching various options, I felt Revas provided the best selection of business games.” Peter explains.

Business simulation enrichment programme organization

The sessions take place every Wednesday afternoon. The school ensures to have a large IT classroom available for the players. Each half term (approximately 8 weeks) they run a simulation with up to 9 students and plan to engage 50 students in total. Students work individually and each runs a virtual School café over 12 different sessions. At the end of each session the simulation highlights the rankings of the businesses. Moreover, they see how they have performed against different criteria e.g. profitability.

What do students say?

Peter reports that “students have really enjoyed the experience. The feedback has been extremely positive from the students who have found the simulation a good way of exploring business challenges as well as competing against their fellow 6^th formers.” Here are some of the participants’ comments:

“I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m annoyed I came 2nd but I feel I could now talk about aspects of business with a lot more confidence.”

“I do not study Business, however, the system is really simple to use and well explained so it wasn’t a problem for me.”

“It’s a fun way to learn about business!”

Teacher’s perspective

Every teacher that decides to use Revas simulations go through an instructor training. Firstly, they get familiar with the game and available materials. Secondly, they learn how to use it in class and meet the Revas support team.

“From the teacher’s perspective, it has been easy to implement. The team at Revas have been extremely supportive and the game is very easy to understand. I have made good use of the videos to help explain each stage and the all the resources are clear and self-explanatory. Once the students are up and running, they do not need a lot of guidance so the game virtually runs itself.” Peter concluded.

Plans for next enrichment programme

In conclusion, the success of the first edition of the business simulations enrichment programme has prompted plans for further simulations in the next school year. “This year we had to cap the number of students at 50 but would love to increase the group size to 100 students. Especially, given how positive it was to engage a variety of students. One of the key objectives we had was to provide business skills and knowledge to students who might just study science or art-based subjects. They have all got involved and found the simulation both interesting and on enjoyable.” Peter concluded.

FIND OUT HOW TO IMPLEMENT SIMULATIONS IN YOUR SCHOOL

Data publikacji

14/02/2024

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