Great News - you reached the top of our waiting list!

1. Matching your Child

We have matched your Child with Aidan: Based on your Child's profile and interests, one of our mentors, Aidan, seems like an excellent match to us. Aidan possesses a wide range of skills, including PC builds and device configuration, coding of several languages including C# and C++, virtual reality game design, augmented reality design, 3D sculpting/modelling, 2D character design, and more. Aidan's calm and down-to-earth demeanour has proven effective with all our autistic, anxious students, and we believe he can provide the support your Child needs. Aidan is also able to work with young people that prefer to type what they want to say. You can learn more about Aidan and his background in a Game Changers video he created here. We've found that these videos can help alleviate anxiety about starting something new for our Mentees. Aidan has a valid, Enhanced DBS Check and Child Barring Service check, completed by Game Changers. He has completed safeguarding training and has completed suicide prevention and awareness training.

2. Next Steps:

Initial "Get to Know" Session: If everything looks OK and your Child likes Aidan's video and his background, we can set-up a casual "get to know" session over Google Meet as the next step. This session will allow your Child and Aidan to discuss with voice or messaging their interests, share experiences, and possibly play a game together to break the ice. The goal is for them to agree on where to start their weekly sessions, focusing on a specific area of interest that we listed in your email/message that brought you to this page. Aidan has the ideas we sent to you. Also they may come up with a new joint idea during the call. That happens sometimes. 

Setting Up Your Get to Know (please book your initial session with the link below)

To proceed with Aidan you can schedule the initial ‘get to know session’ directly in Aidan’s Game Changers calendar. You can do this at the very bottom of this page or please click here to book your 1-hour ‘Get to Know’ with Aidan in a new browser window.

After the get to know, if you and your Child would like to proceed with further sessions with Game Changers you can agree a fixed weekly recurring time with Aidan right away by clicking on this link or aranging it with him over email.

As we cannot hold mentors' availability for long after we have matched a young person with them (due to demand), we ask that you also confirm you would like to go ahead by replying to the original email within the next 5 days or using the confirmation form at the bottom of this page.

3. Funding Sessions:

Session Fees: Based on the answers you provided in our application form, the fees for your sessions were included in your mentor match confrimation email which took you to this page.

Billing: Game Changers will invoice you at the end of each month, and you can make payments through bank transfer. Please do not engage with mentors on payments and rates as Game Changers handles all billing, payments regarding cancellations etc and we handle mentor PAYE.

Schedule: While there's no long-term commitment, we encourage an informal 8-week commitment from you, to provide stability for our mentors and lower our administration. However, we understand that if your Child just doesn’t take to the sessions or are unable to cope we will only bill for the sessions you do have.

Regular session timing: If you would like to proceed with Game Changers after the Get to Know session, for consistency, it's helpful if sessions occur on the same days and times each week. We appreciate 24 hours' notice for cancellations to accommodate other students. You can reschedule sessions through the links in your session invite or by WhatsApp'ing or emailing your mentor.

Charging for Cancellations: Regarding charging for last minute cancellations please do not discuss this with the mentor. Whilst you should let your mentor know via email or WhatsApp you need to reschedule/cancel. Regarding questions about fees for the cancellation please direct to [email protected] including your Childs full name and reason for the cancellation. We will always do what we can to support you. In many cases we try and waive it. We always pay our mentors for their booked time.

Please keep in mind that Game Changers Education is a not-for-profit organisation, and our surplus revenue goes towards discounted or free mentor fees and free hardware for disadvantaged families that are supporting an autistic young person.

Local Authority Funding: EOTAS: Some families have explored adding Game Changer's fees to their Education Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS) provision with their LA, so if you're interested in this option, we'd be happy to discuss it further or talk with your LA Caseworker. Most families self-fund and try to move to this over time.

School Funding: Where children have an EHCP and are in a specialist setting. In some cases these settings fund Game Changers sessions.

4. Practical points for the get to know session & further sessions:

To ensure a smooth start, please consider the following practical points for the "get to know" session and future sessions:

Gaming prep: If there's a specific multiplayer game your Child would like to play during the session, please inform your mentor in advance of the session so that they can prepare. You can do this in the field when you book the meeting or by email or WhatsApp to the mentor.

Engines we use: Based on your Child's age, diagnosis, experience and device capabilities we will explore us game development engines that we believe will be a good fit.

Device Suitability: To ensure your Child's device is suitable; your mentor will help assess its performance and configuration during the initial, or later sessions. If it is not powerful enough, we offer access to high spec remote Game Development PCs. This allows your Child to remotely connect to the PC over the internet and it will feel like they are working on a local machine! Do not worry, we will look after all of this.

Session video/audio: We use Google Meet for sessions, and screen sharing is necessary for assistance with applications and navigation. You will have a google meet link in your session invite. You do not need to download software to get on the meeting. It can all work through your web browser.

You can also download Google Meet as an app on your computer if you prefer. If you would like to see information about this simple installation please click here to be taken to the Google info page

We are also able to use discord, just let your mentor know.

We don't use MS teams, it is too clunky!

Communication for regular sessions: We'll set up a WhatsApp group to facilitate communication about the sessions, updates on how your child is progressing, and any issues. We also encourage you to provide feedback to us on the group chat too. It is really great for our mentors to hear if things are going well and the impact their work has had on your child or family. As you can imagine sometimes our kids just can't cope due to other life situations. Our mentors can feel like they have failed. Every postive message goes a long way.

Session content: During progress though a topic, if your child decides that they want to do something else all of a sudden, that's totally fine. It happens often whilst any young person understands what they like the most. Our mentor will support, guide and follow your child's interests it is what we do.

Reducing demand: We also understand that your child may have days when they are just not in the mood for game design work. In such cases, their mentor can spend time bonding and playing multiplayer games together, providing valuable social interaction and companionship.

Working in-between sessions: As we move forward, we'll also ensure that the learning experience is comfortable and tailored to your childs pace. We don't impose completion demands on tasks between sessions and we always maintain a flexible "have a go if you like, and I'll help you with it next week" approach.