Hi all,
After a brief chat with Leon over email he has suggested I post on the forum here to see if anyone is able to help out.
I've copied and pasted the text of my original email to Leon below and added a bit more info below. If anyone is able to support our pupils that would be amazing but no worries if not!
(Start of email) I'm messaging today on behalf of the school where I work. I thought it was worth dropping you a line after ordering some Napoleonics for school from you in the last month and being really impressed with what I've received.
We provide education and support for pupils and families who have been let down by the mainstream education system. Pupils who can show great difficulties in behaviour and in socialisation who come from some of the most deprived areas in our community.
Although we provide the key subjects (Maths, English, ICT) as part of our curriculum we are limited by the needs of the children in how we can get them to access wider subject areas.
One of the ways in we have found is through engaging a number of our pupils in tabletop wargaming. We have been able to link this to areas of the curriculum based around AQA unit awards in history as well as the maths and literacy skills needed to play and the important social aspects of wargaming. as a result we have found we can ensure our students will be leaving us with certification in a variety of fields of history including Napoleonics, WW1 and 2, dark ages, ECW, ancients and medieval Europe.
Through using wargames we have been able to give our pupils hands on experience with representations of the peoples of the time and then built in educational presentation and involvement as we play through the games.
Unfortunately at the moment the number of pupils we can involve in the sessions at any one time is limited by my own collection, so I struggle to get more than two pupils involved at any one time which then has an impact on the engagement as we are limited to one session a week.
Because nothing ever happens unless you take the chance and ask, I thought I'd approach the community on behalf on of the school and our pupils as I've found the gaming community will often rally around projects like this, especially when it comes to working with children who we support.
I know its cheeky, but for our pupils, is there anything you can spare to provide the opportunity for us to continue to build on this aspect of our support and education?
We are seeing measurable improvement in the academic and social skills and behaviours of our pupils as a result of the gaming they've been able to take part in, with improved relationships between their peers and a reduction in any negative incidents in free time as the children focus their attention on the game and stay later after school reducing the incidence of concerns in the community. The pupils have really bought into wargaming and history as a project and my goal this term through to Christmas is to provide each of the pupils with a handful of British or French Napoleonics with the goal to build up to a big multiplayer battle in the run up to the Christmas break as we work on Napoleon and the wars in Europe as a topic.
I have included links to our website so you can verify that I am who I'm saying I am:
http://www.pivot-group.uk/the-pivot-academy/
http://www.pivot-group.uk/team/paul-sutcliffe/
...and for those who've supported us so far: http://www.pivot-group.uk/blog/adventures-through-history/
I appreciate you having taken the time to read over this post and fully understand if this is not something you can support, at the very least hopefully it's a positive story for how wargames and our hobby, and your miniatures that I've bought for the pupils myself, is making a difference with our young people. (End of email)
So, at the moment we're looking at building up some Napoleonic British and French armies for the pupils in 10mm. I've got the British army pack so far and Leon has kindly donated the equivalent in French. Our goal is to do a refight of Salamanca around Christmas time and the pupils are busily researching the orders of battle, banners etc. If anyone has anything spare on the lead mountains at home and can help out we'd really appreciate it, but I totally understand if not.
Thanks,
Paul
Paul,
What you are doing sounds tremendous, and I hope it bears fruit. Sadly, I have no 10mm Napoleonics which I could contribute to your current project. However, I do have some hundreds of painted American Civil War 10mm figures, and some hundreds more unpainted, which I would be happy to offer to you if they would be of use. Good luck!
Andrew
Paul
Send me your postal details and I'll find something for you.
Jim
jimduncan779@btinternet.com
Good project; good luck.
Congratulations on a great project that sounds to be making a really positive impact
Well done Leon for supporting this
Thanks everyone for your replies so far. Jim, I’ll drop you an email.
Thanks!
Quote from: mollinary on 24 September 2019, 09:28:52 PM
Paul,
What you are doing sounds tremendous, and I hope it bears fruit. Sadly, I have no 10mm Napoleonics which I could contribute to your current project. However, I do have some hundreds of painted American Civil War 10mm figures, and some hundreds more unpainted, which I would be happy to offer to you if they would be of use. Good luck!
Andrew
Couldn't work out how to reply direct to your comment Andrew, dropped you a direct message. Thanks!
Nothing spare in 10mm ATM, but could help with research, and if you were local I could also help with tutoring.
IanS
PS - Excellent idea !
Sadly nothing Napoleonic. I'll see if I have any terrain etc that might be of use. Sounds like a great project and wish you all the best :).
Quote from: Steve J on 25 September 2019, 08:16:01 AM
Sadly nothing Napoleonic. I'll see if I have any terrain etc that might be of use. Sounds like a great project and wish you all the best :).
That would be brilliant if you have Steve. All our scenery is 15mm at the moment.
Have you considered board games as an alternative to figures?
These (often) higher level games might be useful for understanding how France fell so quickly in 1940 etc... Clearly not as visually gripping as figure games but perhaps useful?
Quote from: Dr Dave on 25 September 2019, 11:41:12 AM
Have you considered board games as an alternative to figures?
These (often) higher level games might be useful for understanding how France fell so quickly in 1940 etc... Clearly not as visually gripping as figure games but perhaps useful?
We have a bit yes with mixed results. A couple of pupils are quite on board with them but the definite preference is for minis. I think boardgames can be a bit abstract whereas get some chaps and scenery on a table and it makes a bit more sense for them.
Regrettably nothing in 10mm but I have numbers of 15mm Napoleonics, some unpainted, 20 to 30 years old but still useable nevertheless. Let me know if you are interested.
Quote from: John Cook on 25 September 2019, 01:35:04 PM
Regrettably nothing in 10mm but I have numbers of 15mm Napoleonics, some unpainted, 20 to 30 years old but still useable nevertheless. Let me know if you are interested.
Hi John, they'd be fantastic please yep. We are honestly open to anything in any scale (15mm is my general gaming scale). I'll drop you a DM now.
Hi Paul,
Sounds like a good project you are involved in. I have no Napoleonic figures to offer you as its not one of may areas of interest.
I suggest you look at the Junior General webpage. Especially the top down views, as this allows you to simply stick them onto card and cut them out. Giving you armies for little cost and saving vast amounts of time on painting. They also have terrain you can print out as well.
https://juniorgeneral.org/
I know one of our forum members used these successfully in schools for many years.
This sounds like a fantastic scheme, alas I have nothing to contribute except morale support - good luck!
Great idea.
I don't have any Naps to offer.
But, how is your photocopying budget? There are now a range of books by Peter Dennis with paper figures in them (or the templates to copy to make paper figures). They look good, might be a bit fiddly to make, but perhaps that covers the art part of the curriculum? And cover a fair range of periods now.
Quote from: Orcs on 25 September 2019, 03:43:12 PM
Hi Paul,
Sounds like a good project you are involved in. I have no Napoleonic figures to offer you as its not one of may areas of interest.
I suggest you look at the Junior General webpage. Especially the top down views, as this allows you to simply stick them onto card and cut them out. Giving you armies for little cost and saving vast amounts of time on painting. They also have terrain you can print out as well.
https://juniorgeneral.org/
I know one of our forum members used these successfully in schools for many years.
That was me.
I found the top down figures from JG worked really well, especially as stand-ins while the students are getting metal armies painted. rather than trawl through the whole site look here.
https://juniorgeneral.org/index.php/figure/figureList/topdowns#87
Thanks everyone who've responded so far for the kind offers, advice and support! If I had a way to 'like' peoples posts then I would!
Quote from: psutcliffe on 27 September 2019, 10:33:14 AM
Thanks everyone who've responded so far for the kind offers, advice and support! If I had a way to 'like' peoples posts then I would!
Paul
Here are a couple of tutorials aimed at those who think their ageing eyesight precludes them from painting 10 mm figures. They equally apply to those young 'uns who haven't learned to paint yet.
http://jim-duncan.blogspot.com/2019/02/just-for-you-bob.html
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-obN8Dq3O-ns/XG8k2FI_iCI/AAAAAAAAIog/NrlAkYiGkEANIJYwy0yk-ijFNthRrTGLQCEwYBhgL/s1600/P1000952.JPG)
http://jim-duncan.blogspot.com/2019/03/just-for-you-bob-and-few-others.html
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wXlLaAvPqJQ/XILqauyrxEI/AAAAAAAAIqs/16nZg03JwtEkvMNg-awTrVTxHTth3KmSACLcBGAs/s1600/P1000989.JPG)
Jim
Thanks Jim. I particularly like those later Brits there.