“We don’t stop playing because we grow old;
We grow old because we stop playing”.
George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950

Games4Life is run by Debbie and Anna.

We ran an after-school club from 2017 to 2020 at St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School in Carisbrooke. We taught children board games from around the worlsd, how to crack secret codes, and how to build three-dimensional mathematical objects using different materials.

Since March 2026 we have run our Curious Minds Club at Lord Louis Library in Newport.

Debbie’s favourite games are Space Faces and Rubik’s Race, followed closely by Ghost Blitz, Set and Genius Square: all games requiring visual perception at speed, which she has written a blog post about. Debbie is the author of ‘Starting a School Boards Games Club: How to Win at Having Fun and Learning Through Play’, available on Amazon’s Kindle Store.

Debbie has a MSc in Information Science. She has a wide range of interests, including: sport, family history, baking, growing cacti, crosswords (quick not cryptic) and logic puzzles (her current favourite is a Futoshiki). Debbie was born and raised on the Isle of Wight.

 

Anna’s favourite games include Mastermind, King’s Court and Mancala. Anna has a PhD in Mathematical Modelling following on from her MMath. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching. Anna has worked in education and research since 2001, primarily at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine but also at the University of Southampton, as well as teaching GCSE and Functional Skills maths at the Isle of Wight College. She has recently been involved in public engagement and volunteer work in primary and secondary schools, and with a home educated child, including running activities on algebra and applying maths to public health questions in the spread of infectious diseases.

We are DBS checked.

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