Inspired by the Guinness Six Nations and Women’s Six Nations ? Young people enjoying being back with team mates at rugby training? As we return to rugby pitches around Wales, we want to hear from young people to make sure our clubs fit their changing needs.
– Discover the Principality Stadium Minecraft World for some great ideas and bring gaming into the classroom.
Schools now have just over three weeks to enter the WRU Club of the Future Challenge. Enter now for a chance to be part of an online Q and A with Wales internationals and other exclusive prizes such as a Minecraft: Education Edition Goody Bag for all regional winners which includes an exclusive plush Agent and a ‘Meet the Minecraft:Education Edition Team’ Q and A for all national winning groups.
The Welsh Rugby Union last year teamed up with Minecraft: Education Edition and Hwb, the Welsh Government’s digital platform for learning and teaching to launch ‘The WRU Club of the Future Challenge’ which includes a virtual tour of Principality Stadium.
This unique competition is open to all maintained schools across Wales and is part of an exciting partnership to use rugby and the digital gaming platform – Minecraft: Education Edition to enhance learning and engagement within the classroom in line with the curriculum for Wales.
The competition gives learners across Wales the chance to design and build their own virtual club of the future within Minecraft: Education Edition. Learners get a virtual tour of the iconic home of Welsh Rugby, Principality Stadium as never seen before – within the world of Minecraft: Education Edition! Due to the difficulties caused by the pandemic, the deadline for the first round of the competition (the local round) has been extended until Wednesday 9 June so there is still time to get inspired either by your local rugby club and changes you’d like to make, or by the Principality Stadium Minecraft World, to make your mark on the future of Welsh rugby.
The competition is open to learners from 5 to 16 with local and regional rounds before the final in July.
Entering the world of Minecraft: Education Edition, learners can explore key areas and spaces within a virtual Principality Stadium, meeting NPCs (Non Player Characters) along the way who will reveal information about that particular area of the building. It’s at this point, that learners and teachers have the opportunity to download further information, including facts, figures and visual materials such as behind the scenes imagery and videos on various aspects of Welsh rugby.
Information gathered from the stadium tour and the subsequent tasks delivered in the classroom are geared up to challenge what each learner’s ‘Club of the Future’ might contain. The areas covered may include inclusion and diversity, team training regimes and player nutritional requirements to the fan experience.
Learners are encouraged to consider their local community, research and explore the needs in their local areas to then start to develop a plan for a ‘rugby club of the future’. Rugby clubs are often the heart of local communities, so learners will find out about the values of rugby and how this can be used to provide everyone with a positive experience and contribute to the long-term health and wellbeing of society in Wales. From the plan, learners will then begin to bring their own vision for a club of the future to life within Minecraft: Education Edition.
This project has been developed by Hwb to ensure that a wide range of curriculum links to Areas of Learning and Experience are met: Expressive Arts, Health & Wellbeing, Humanities, Language & Literacy Communication, Numeracy and Science & Technology.
The overall challenge has six stages: Explore and Investigate (via the Principality Stadium Minecraft world), Research, Planning, Building, Information Sharing and finally the creation of a video walkthrough of the learners build.
Through the ‘Explore and Investigate’ stage teachers have the option to focus their learners in on a wide range of activities, such as the investigation of nutrition and healthy eating from both the perspective of a rugby player and a non-sports person. Learners will be encouraged to design a nutritious menu for a day’s meals, consider the various social occasions when food plays an important role. All linking to the Health and Well Being, Humanities Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLE).
Learners can consider how newspapers have had a big influence on rugby becoming a vital ingredient in the life blood of the Welsh nation. Learners could turn their hand to writing a newspaper article or even role play a video interview.
At the launch of the competition, Wales and Dragons back row Aaron Wainwright said, “Having something interactive like Minecraft is a great way of learning. You can build stuff, you can speak to your friends on your consoles and the rugby link is good too.
“The Minecraft: Education Edition project will be massive for Welsh Rugby, especially grassroots. It will encourage pupils to go to their club, get involved and start playing the game too.”
Wales Women captain Siwan Lillicrap said, “I grew up at Waunarlwydd Rugby Club and if I was designing a rugby club today I’d make sure the on-field facilities were top quality and cater for all weathers but I’d also make sure the off-field facilities lend themselves to socialising and making friends for life, for example with a games area.
“I would definitely encourage more girls to join a club. I’ve made best friends for life through rugby. It teaches you to overcome challenges, team work is extremely important, as well as looking out for each other.”
How do you enter?
The competition is open to all maintained schools across Wales however, they must register via the dedicated Microsoft competition Team, click here for more info and to register.
The competition structure has been designed for three age related entry levels – Foundation Phase, Key Stage Two and Key Stage Three/ Four.
The deadline for the local round of the competition is Wednesday 9 June after which there will be a regional semi-final stage and a national final on Wednesday 7 July.
