Wednesday 27th September – One winning school will be selected at random to dance live on TV for charity thanks to a new collaboration from Ukie’s Digital Schoolhouse (DSH), BBC Children In Need and Ubisoft’s Just Dance team.
In BBC Children in Need’s Just Dance for Pudsey, schools are invited to run internal Just Dance Now tournaments to whittle down hopeful players to a single team. These teams can then be entered into a ballot that will pick one school at random to dance live on the ‘Game to Give (working title)’ TV show, taking place on Friday 10th November live from Confetti X in Nottingham.
This special broadcast will raise money for charities all over the UK including some which are using video games to support children, as well as raising awareness about the benefits of video games and their power to unite people through play.
As part of this campaign, BBC Children In Need are working with Ukie’s Digital Schoolhouse.
A groundbreaking education initiative helping teachers to build the digital skills of schoolchildren, it has a nine-year history of organising innovative and educational esports tournaments in schools across the country.
Its Junior Tournament capitalises on the popularity of video games to help teachers take a creative, playful approach to teaching subjects across the curriculum. Resources for the Tournament are closely aligned with statutory requirements and built into handy lesson plans for use in day-to-day teaching.
Whilst at a first glance video games in the classroom might sound like a recipe for chaos, the DSH Junior Tournament has made a solid case for the effect of play-based learning on pupil motivation and the development of soft skills, especially communication and teamwork.
Just Dance Now is a popular title in the Tournament, and its use for the ‘Game to Give’ campaign will have the added benefit of combining Computing with Physical Education, as well as highlighting the awesome power of video games as fundraising tools.
Shahneila Saeed, Director of DSH said:
“We see daily the profoundly positive impact that video games can have on children, on everything from academic achievement to mental health and wellbeing as well as supporting the development of social skills. So, we are thrilled to be supporting BBC Children in Need this year by bringing our ever-popular tournament to an even wider cohort of schools in aid of a fantastic cause.”
Schools and families hoping to get involved can download a resource pack on how to host a tournament - all you need to take part is a smartphone, an internet-connected screen and a Wifi connection.
The ballot opens on Wednesday 27th September and closes on Monday 9th October at 2pm, after which the winning team will be selected by a random generator and contacted by email that day.