Give Your Pupils the
Experience of Managing
a Real Economy
The Skyfall Financial Literacy Lab puts pupils inside a live economic simulation — where they earn income, pay tax, exchange currencies, take risks, and face the real consequences of their decisions. Built on Minecraft Education Edition. Delivered by a qualified teacher.
This isn't an add-on slot. It's a structured simulation programme, designed by a QTS-qualified teacher who understands the pressures of the school day, that gives pupils extended experience of financial decision-making — the kind of experience that takes significant time to set up in a classroom, but produces the kind of thinking that stays with children long after the session ends. We work alongside your school, not in place of it.
What Pupils Actually Experience
Inside the Skyfall world, learning happens through consequence — not instruction. Here is what a typical session delivers:
A Live Economy
From the first moment, pupils earn income, trade with peers, save Skyfall Credits, and navigate market forces. Financial literacy becomes a verb, not a subject.
Real Financial Decisions
Every choice carries consequence. Spend everything at the market and you cannot buy land later. That moment of realisation is the lesson — not a worksheet about opportunity cost.
Structured Reflection
A facilitated reflection round closes every session. Pupils articulate what they decided, why, what they would change, and what they learned. Emotional self-awareness alongside financial reasoning.
The Skyfall Summit
The capstone experience. Pupils present their governance decisions to the group, defend their economic policies, and understand what it means to lead with responsibility, not just authority.
One World.
Three Editions.
The same simulation world runs at three levels of complexity, calibrated to year group. Schools do not have to choose — the programme grows alongside their pupils.
Foundations Edition
Concrete, visual, and guided. Simple arithmetic in real context. Pupils make decisions with immediate, visible outcomes.
- Earn & Trade — income, labour, market exchange
- Save & Bank — saving, delayed gratification
- Property Ownership — assets vs spending
Reasoning Edition
Percentages, ratio, and multi-step decisions. Pupils are required to justify their choices in writing and explain their reasoning aloud.
- Exchange Rates — currency conversion, timing
- Risk & Investment — ROI, risk tolerance
- Supply & Demand — market forces, collective behaviour
Leadership Edition
Abstract reasoning, policy design, and ethical challenge. Pupils govern the economy, debate fiscal decisions, and analyse collective data.
- Community Finance — public spending, democracy
- Governance & Leadership — policy, Skyfall Summit
- Income & Tax — civic contribution, ethical reasoning
Nine Concepts. All Lived,
Not Just Learned.
Earn & Trade
Income, labour, market exchange, and the relationship between effort and reward.
Save & Bank
Saving behaviour, banking mechanics, and the discipline of delayed gratification.
Income & Tax
Taxation, community funds, and why civic contribution matters — understood through doing it.
Exchange Rates
Currency conversion, relative value, and the timing decisions that change outcomes.
Risk & Investment
Return on investment, expected value, and what risk tolerance actually feels like under pressure.
Community Finance
Public spending decisions, opportunity cost, and democratic allocation of shared resources.
Supply & Demand
Price dynamics, market forces, and how individual behaviour creates collective outcomes.
Governance & Leadership
Policy design, assigned roles, and the Skyfall Summit capstone — where pupils govern the economy.
Property Ownership
Assets versus spending, opportunity cost, and what it means to own something you protected.
The moment a pupil realises they have spent all their Skyfall Credits at the market — and cannot buy a plot of land while watching a classmate walk through the gate — is worth more than any worksheet on opportunity cost. It happened to them. They felt it. They will not forget it.Richard Barry — Founder, Thinkers & Leaders Education
Delivery Formats
From a single introductory session to a full academic year partnership — the programme scales with your school's ambition and timetable.
Remote Spark
Richard hosts on Zoom; pupils are in class with their teacher. A self-contained introduction to the Skyfall economy. Ideal first step with no travel required.
Half-Day
Concepts 1–3, a full reflection round, and a facilitated debrief with pupils. Covers earning, trading, saving, and the property mechanic.
Full Day
Full Level 1 delivery plus Level 2 introduction including the property market. The most complete single-day experience, including the Skyfall Summit reflection.
Recurring Programme
Progressive delivery across a half-term or full term. Pupils build genuine mastery as the economy develops week on week. Ideal for dedicated curriculum slots.
Partner School
Workshops, an in-school club, curriculum-linked sessions, and teacher CPD — built together with your school and adapted to your context.
Mapped to What
Your School Already Delivers
Every session is designed with genuine curriculum alignment — not ticked-box compliance. The programme links to frameworks across Wales and England.
- Curriculum for Wales — Mathematics & Numeracy AoLE
- Curriculum for Wales — Health & Wellbeing AoLE
- PSE Framework 7–19 (Wales)
- Citizenship KS3 — Financial Education (compulsory since 2014)
- PSHE — Economic Wellbeing: Living in the Wider World
- Four Purposes of the Welsh Curriculum
- MaPS / FinCap Wales financial education framework
- SMSC — moral reasoning, community, responsibility
Ahead of the Mandate
Financial education has been compulsory in the citizenship curriculum for 11–16 year olds since 2014. A new statutory requirement for primary schools is coming.
The Skyfall Financial Literacy Lab positions your school ahead of that requirement — with provision that already works, already maps, and already produces results.
Built and Delivered by
a Working Teacher
Richard Barry is not a tech company that discovered education. He is a QTS-qualified teacher who has worked in state schools, international schools, special education, and a PRU in Wales — and who built this programme from inside classrooms, not outside them.
He understands safeguarding, timetables, curriculum pressure, and the reality of a classroom where attention is hard-won. He has also spent a decade studying cognitive science, metacognition, and how children actually learn under pressure — and built that into every session.
When Richard is in your school, he works as a fellow educator. Your teacher stays in the room. Your school's values and culture are respected throughout.
Credentials
- QTS — BA Hons Primary Studies (2:1)
- Minecraft Education Certified Educator
- Safeguarding Children in Wales (Aug 2025)
- Enhanced DBS — VES
- ICT & STEAM Coordinator — Russia (3 years)
- Year 5/6 Teacher — International School, China
- Special school experience — PMLD, ASD, ADHD, SEBD, SEMH
- Current supply teaching — PRU, Wales
Minecraft Education CPD
for Teaching Staff
For schools who want to continue using the platform independently, or who want to integrate it into their own curriculum work.
No Surprises. Here Is
Exactly How It Works.
Richard Provides
- ✅ Minecraft Education Edition licences and login details
- ✅ Full session design and facilitation
- ✅ All in-world resources, quests, and mechanics
- ✅ An impact report after each session
- ✅ Fallback options if technical issues arise
- ✅ Optional two-day follow-up activity pack (additional cost)
- ✅ Safeguarding compliance — Enhanced DBS, certified in Wales
Your School Provides
- 📱 Devices — iPads, laptops, or Chromebooks running an updated version of Minecraft Education Edition
- 📶 Reliable internet connection in the delivery space
- 👩🏫 A teacher or teaching assistant present in the room (strongly recommended for best outcomes)
- 🗓️ A confirmed timetable slot and appropriate space
If devices are a concern, get in touch. We can discuss options.
Ready to Bring Skyfall
to Your School?
No commitment. Just a 20-minute conversation to understand what your school needs, whether the programme is the right fit, and what a session would look like in your context.
We cover all schools within 45 minutes of Merthyr Tydfil at no travel cost. We also deliver nationwide online and will travel further in person — get in touch to discuss. Primary market: Wales. Secondary and enrichment: England and beyond.