FROM THE MIDDLE SCHOOL

World Peace Game

Welcome to the end of Week Six of a very busy and packed Term Two with Year 7V completing our first round of the World Peace Game for 2023.

However, this was a very special round as we welcomed a guest facilitator, Daniel Sheinwald, from the World Peace Game Foundation, who ran this game whilst also training six future facilitators in the “how-to” as well as the theory behind the World Peace Game. Daniel joined us from the United Kingdom, via Thailand, where he had been working with adults from Myanmar for the past three months.

Five staff from Scotch Oakburn College have now been added to our trained facilitator list, joining me and Mrs Sarah Lillywhite. This will secure the future and longevity of this experience within Year 7 and Scotch Oakburn College. We also had a guest educator join us from a school in New South Wales, Mrs Elisabetta Romano, to complete the facilitator training.

The World Peace Game, whilst being a geo-political simulation that gives students the opportunity to explore the connectedness of the global community through economic, social, and environmental crises and the imminent threat of war, also allows them the time and space to delve deeply into this integrated real-world experience. It also allows students to learn without realising they are. Some of these hidden values or attributes only become apparent when students return to their regular academic classes and can now, for example, confidently stand up and ask questions to clarify their understanding, working collaboratively with their whole class rather than simply their close friends in the class, and more importantly, having the ability to be empathetic to others in their class and in our wider community.

As facilitators, we often say that the World Peace Game is a “Trojan Horse”, and to observers, it appears to be a game for teaching students, but the opposite is true, it is a complex learning experience where the game itself is simply the tip of the iceberg.

I wish Daniel and Elisabetta safe return journeys to the United Kingdom and New South Wales, and I wish all the newly appointed facilitators all the very best in their new journey with the World Peace Game and know that with new ideas and enthusiasm, the Game at Scotch Oakburn College will go from strength to strength.

Simon Dray
World Peace Game Facilitator