Belfast Special School Pioneers Esports Classroom for Student Development

A special school located in Belfast has become the first institution in Northern Ireland to establish a specialized esports classroom for its students. Esports, also known as competitive gaming, has seen an increase in popularity and is scheduled to feature in its own Olympic Games event in 2025. This classroom, situated at Cedar Lodge school in north Belfast, bears the name Nucleus and serves as the base for the Cedar Squad Esports team. Furthermore, students have the opportunity to pursue a BTEC qualification in esports, a program that is available at only a limited number of other schools across the United Kingdom. Kyle Faulkner, a 22-year-old who previously attended Cedar Lodge, is currently pursuing an esports degree at Belfast Met. He has also returned to the school to assist in the establishment of its esports class. “When I was about 13 I started watching professional FIFA and Call of Duty,” he informed BBC News NI. However, his engagement has progressed beyond mere participation or observation, as he now aims to build a career within the esports industry. Kyle stated, “I want to be a content creator, make videos, TikTok, livestream.” He added, “I love editing videos and stuff, it’s enjoyable.” He further commented, “It’s a growing industry, in five years’ time it’s going to be one of the biggest industries in the world.” The 2024 Esports World Cup, which generated controversy due to its location in Saudi Arabia, featured a prize fund of $60m (£47.1m). Esports is an abbreviation for electronic sports. Similar to how football players compete in football, esports participants engage in computer games against one another. Nevertheless, these competitions are no longer confined to living rooms among friends and family. Significant esports tournaments are now held globally in large arenas, attracting substantial audiences. In major tournaments featuring prominent players, enthusiasts from across the globe often watch the events online, and participants can even receive payment for their involvement. It is also common for them to compete as part of teams, instead of individually. Peter Wilmont, the vice-principal of Cedar Lodge, emphasized that the abilities students acquire through esports are what truly matter. He stated, “We became very excited about what the opportunities were with esports, both at a competitive level and also at a curricular level.” Mr. Wilmont further mentioned that he has been “pleasantly surprised” by the proficiency demonstrated by the school’s students. He elaborated, “Their technical knowledge, their ability to problem solve…we have young people who are organising events.” He continued, “They understand how to budget, how to advertise, to promote, to market and also to bring people in.” He noted that observing the students’ development through the sport has also “been a learning curve” for the staff. He confessed, “I have to admit, I’m not a gamer.” The school financed the classroom and its equipment using its internal budget, in addition to securing assistance from local businesses. Mr. Wilmont commented, “Budget and expenditure within a school can be difficult at times.” He explained, “We’ve invested within our own funding channels, we have spoken to local companies who are working with us on furniture manufacturing, so we have been creative.” Michael Smyth, who serves as the course director in Esports at Belfast Met and manager of the Ireland Esports team, also contributed to assisting the school in establishing the lessons. He remarked, “The facilities here are fantastic.” He added, “Not so long ago we were having a discussion about bringing the esports qualification and the championships here and the room has just developed so quickly.” He described it as “It’s a fantastic opportunity, especially to get into the curriculum because it’s not in the traditional curriculum subjects.” He indicated that this provided a “pathway” for students to obtain qualifications in esports and subsequently pursue a degree. Kyle Faulkner explained that this career pathway facilitated convincing his parents that studying esports involved more than just playing games. He commented, “For me it wasn’t necessarily a hard conversation, it was more me just explaining the outcomes of it.” He continued, “Once we got over that initial talk they were fine, they were happy days with it.” He also noted, “But I do understand that with a lot of younger kids if they tell their parents they’re going to do esports, they’ll think ‘you just going to sit and play games all day,’ which it actually isn’t.” He further stated, “It’s a lot of work. There’s a lot of kids that love playing video games.” He posed the question, “If they love sitting playing video games say six hours, seven hours a day, why not have them do education on it?”