A BARNSLEY based gaming company is using gaming and playing as keys tool in children’s learning programmes.

Imagination Gaming (IG) says that used correctly within a classroom environment, board games and other games can allow children to apply the skills taught and develop abilities that will help them through both life and work ‘enhancing every part of their development’.

With more than a decade’s experience in the education sector, IG puts everything from traditional board games to innovative new ideas into brain-boosting sessions for schools, prisons and other education-based establishments.

Founder Nigel Scarfe runs IG with business partner Chris Standley and carries a stock of hundreds of traditional style games sourced from across the world.

Nigel said: “Board games are a way for children of all abilities to get involved and engage with their learning in a different way.

“Someone might be highlighted as being clever in the classroom but struggle at the front of class.

“Others might not be strong academically but are very creative thinkers and can problem solve. Our approach allows the children to play to their strengths, but it also pushes them out of their comfort zone to develop so many other important life skills.

“It means teachers can learn themselves too.

“They get to understand what works best for the kids in their class, which can influence the way they teach.”

Amy Holwell, a key stage two teacher at The Mill Academy, Worsbrough, has seen IG have a huge impact on the school in the two and a half years they have been working together.

She said: “IG helps knock down so many barriers to learning in our school. It gives children confidence, it makes them willing to learn, it inspires them, gives them creativity and it just provides a real context to learning.”