Sims 2 Gameplay Rules: School

This post is about how I run playable schools, you can find my general Sims 2 gameplay rules here: Gameplay Rules

School Lot

• You can start out with schools already in your neighbourhood, or they can be built and upgraded using funds accumulated in the neighbourhood treasury. I have two schools in my neighbourhood - a Primary School for children and a Secondary School for teenagers. I also have a day care center for toddlers but I will create a separate post for that.

• I recommend using a large lot to build you school as it is surprising how much space you need!

• The schools are set up as community lots and each has a business sign on it - I keep the business closed using this sign so that random Sims to not show up to the school. You can also use the visitor controller for this.

• Ideas to include in the build:

  • Standard classroom(s)

  • Music room

  • Art room

  • Drama room with stage

  • Gym with/without pool

  • Cafeteria

  • Playground

  • Library

  • Computer Room

  • Garden with/without greenhouse

School Staff

• Each school needs a Head Teacher. I usually pick a Sim that is in the education career, but you can make a new sim to fulfill the roles if you wish to.

• I will give the head teacher the funds from the neighbourhood treasury to purchase the school community lot as a business.

• Depending on the size of the school and the number of pupils I may also hire extra school staff including teachers and a janitor.

• All staff work 8am to 4pm and pupils attend school 9-3pm.

• Pay for these staff are as follows (they are paid at the start of round from the neighbourhood treasury):

  • Primary School Head Teacher: 3210 per week.

  • Primary School Teacher(s): 1605 per week.

  • Secondary School Head Teacher: 3700 per week.

  • Secondary School Teacher(s): 1820 per week.

  • Janitor: 1075 per week.

Note: I play with a reduced wages mod and so these wages align with that. You might wish to pay your staff more if you do not use such mods.

Pupils

• For each round the current playable children attend the primary school and the current playable teenagers attend the secondary school.

• I will also have any relevant townie children/teenagers attend school - e.g. if one of my playable teens is dating a townie I will have that townie attend school. Or if I am planning to pair up one of my sims with a townie in the future I will have that townie attend school so they can get to know each other.

• If there are not many children/teenagers attending school (6 or less) I will put them all in the same class. If there are lots of children/teenagers attending school I will split them into different classes and group them by age. Those the same (or close to the same) age will be in the same class.

  
  

Class Schedule

Here is a simple version of a class schedule. I have found it is not worth over-complicating it. I also allow an hour of free time in the morning to get everyone in place and have a little bit of time for them to socialise before classes start. For the primary school I'll have them play on the playground during free time and during lunch if they have time. 2hrs might not look that long for each class but I use the time-control clock to slow down time. If I have two classes running, then I will have one do Class 1 in the morning followed by Class 2 in the afternoon, and the other do Class 2 in the morning then Class 1 in the afternoon.

	9-10am	Class 1 (10-12am)	12-1pm	Class 2 (1-3pm)
Monday	Free Time	Library	Lunch	Gardening
Tuesday	Free Time	Music	Lunch	IT
Wednesday	Free Time	Drama	Lunch	PE
Thursday	Free Time	Grade Work	Lunch	Creative Writing
Friday	Free Time	Arts and Crafts	Lunch	Grade Work

Recommended Mods

• Sim Blender - for summoning additional staff to the school lot and making them playable.

• Time Control Clock - to slow down the school day (Note: this does not slow need decay).

• Simlogical's Institution Sign (Jobs) - Make sure you get the job one rather than the school one. This mod prevents the carpool coming for your head teacher if they are in the education career and prevents any warnings or loss of pay. You place it on your head teachers home lot rather than the school lot.

• Simlogical's School Mods:

  • School Bell - calls enrolled pupils to the lot and makes them selectable for the start of school. Also makes them un-selectable and clears them from the lot at the end of school.

  • Pupil Token - Allows you to select and enroll pupils and assign them to a class. You can also expel pupils.

  • Crowd Controller - Allows you to call pupils to a certain room.

  
  

Note: Alternative looking models for Simlogical's items above can be found here, and are what I use in my game.

Note: Simlogical's mods are meant to be used for a residential lot, not a community lot so you need to edit the files so they show up in the community lot catalog. Here is a guide to do this in SimPE. It is quite easy to do, but always create a back up of your neighbhourhood before using SimPE.

Useful Mods (non-essential)

• Community Lot Showers - children and teens can use community lot showers (useful for after gym).

• Autonomous Crafting - Enables autonomy on crafting objects (useful for arts and crafts class).

• Thespians Mark - Sims can practice speech/romance to build charisma (useful for drama class).

• Teens Can Do Research/Group Research - Enables these college interactions for teens (useful for library time).

• Listen to Story - Adult Sims can read to multiple children/toddlers at once.

• Macrotastics - This mod adds a new self interaction on Sims and you can set them to do certain actions e.g. clean, repair, garden (useful to set jobs for the janitor).

• Enthusiasm Overhaul - Alters how hobby enthusiasm and interests are gained (download has a read me file with further information).

• Visitor Controller - Useful to have on community lots to control any un-expected visitors.

• Monique's Hacked Computer - adds more options to the computer (useful so pupils can skill build in computer class).

• More Computer Options - adds more options to the computer including practice writing (good for creative writing class).

• Autonomous Computer Fixes - removes/reduced some autonomy related to the computers.

• Functional Cafeteria - so that the staff and pupils can have lunch whilst at school.

• Simlogical's School Mods - it is technically possible to run a school without the below so I've put them in the non-essential mods section rather than essential:

  • Class Room Controller - Allows you to call pupils to a room and the teacher. You can then choose gradework lesson (pupils will sit at their desk and do gradework) or classroom period (students will not sit at the desk and work but you can have them do other things such as practice music or do arts/crafts etc).

  • Class Place - allows you to use any table as a classroom table. When gradework is selected from the class room controller (as above), a book is automatically spawned and pupils will be called to study.

How to Play

• School is played once per round (a round is one 5 day season for me) when I am playing the head teachers household. The number of days played may differ depending on the days the round covers as school is only held Monday to Fridays. e.g. if the round runs Thursday to Sunday, I'll only play active school for 2 days, if the round runs Monday to Friday I will play active school for 5 days.

• If the head teacher is on maternity leave I will not play the school for that round.

• The head teacher can be in the education career or be jobless. If they are in the carer ensure that the head teacher's home lot has the institution sign on it and toggle off the car pool. This will ensure the car pool doesn't come but also that the head-teacher won't lose job performance or get warnings for not attending work.

• On the first day of the round I will pay the head teacher their weekly wages from the neighbourhood treasury.

• On a school day I will have the head teacher go to the school community lot, arriving at 8am. I ensure the business is closed and time is slowed using the time control clock.

• I will check that the right pupils for the round are enrolled and assigned to the correct classes using the pupil tokens.

• I then summon any staff member required to the lot using the Sim Blender and make them selectable.

• Just before 9am all pupils are called to the school lot via the school bell, they will automatically become selectable.

• I will then run my school until 3pm according the schedule I have set out.Once the school day is running you cannot enter build or buy mode as school will automatically end, pupils will be made un-selectable and disappear.

• Once the school day is finished at 3pm, pupils are sent home using the school bell. They will automatically become un-selectable and disappear from the lot.

• Staff will finish off their day at 4pm. I will then use the Sim Blender to clear off any additionally summoned staff member.

• My head teacher will then head home for the day.