Shoot ’em up gamers teach school prefects how to lead

PRIVATE school prefects are being taught leadership skills by elite video gamers, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Pupils at the Harrodian School in Barnes, south-west London, are receiving help in how to become more authoritative in their roles after striking up a relationship with The Freelancers Union of gaming, a global group of enthusiasts with 2,500 members.

The purpose of the arrangement is to help Year 11 students become more confident in helping them organise activities and liaise with teachers.

The collaboration was established after Ozan Sanon, a 17-year-old student, began speaking to Andreas Åman, who founded the union, while playing PlanetSide 2, a multiplayer game featuring an interplanetary war.

Impressed by Mr Åman’s command of dozens of players, Ozan invited him to the school to pass on his leadership instructions normally reserved for online gamers. Mr Åman told The Telegraph: “Gaming is a perfect medium for safely exploring and practising leadership. Our organisation seeks to network, explore ideas, enable visions and develop skills.”

The school launched a trial in which Year 11 prefects created gaming-style message boards to communicate among themselves. The forums were used to organise school events and introduce “progression ranks”, which lead to pupils being given extra responsibilities. The school said the initiative had proved beneficial and has been rolled out to prefects across the school.