School bell and chairs - version 4

Basic function
The school bell, which has timed auto or manual options, brings the appropriate neighbourhood children to a lot and works furiously in the background to try and keep all the children there. As "visitors" they would normally just go home as soon as they got bored, but the bell keeps changing them back to the status of a resident. At the end of the day it releases them to normal visitor status again, so they are free to go home. Intended for residential lot, but try it in other locations if you like. Or you could just use it to throw a big children's party.

The school bell also stops the school bus coming to the lot where it is, which has the side effect of stopping the advance notice of the adult car pool too, but the car pool should still come. The bell also makes the child's grade go down only one point a day instead of the usual three, and protects it from going down so far that the child goes to military school. These new features mean that it is suitable for use in a normal home where you want the children to either be educated at home, or only at the new neighbourhood school.


Type of school
Under the "School type" menu option, you can choose co-ed, boys only, girls only, or boarders (residents) only. What's the point of boarders-only instead of simply not starting school at all? Well it means the chairs will know they are meant to be active and you can use them to teach the children.

Also under School type, is the option to use or not use uniforms.  Children will simply wear their military school uniforms unless you know how to edit work.iff to assign a different set of skins.

The bell forces the children change straight into uniforms (which are the children's equivalent of work outfits) at the start of the school day. The bell also has a menu option that strongly encourages an individual to change back into uniform if they're put on normal clothes after swimming or showering, if school is in progress. The option for an individual to change out of uniform is available on the bell after school has ended. Children may remain in their uniforms until they go home though.

Starting and ending school
This can be done automatically, by setting School starts... and School ends... times, or whenever you like (in normal daytime hours) with Start school now and End school now.

When school starts, the children appear beneath the bell, and when it ends they are free to go home, but will often stay and play until you choose "Remove stragglers", which makes them vanish. If any children leave school before school ends, you can click "Round up truants" to re-materialise them.

Lessons
To teach the children, you need a chair for each of them.  Having placed the chairs, and got the children into school, "Allocate chairs" on the bell will tell you if you have too few, and give each child their own chair. Then you can click on the chair to find out who it belongs to and move them around so you have the children sitting where you want them. You don't actually need to allocate chairs, because when you start a lesson the chairs will be allocated if you haven't already done it, which is useful if you have new children starting.

Start lesson... gives different options.   General elementary subjects increases their grades. Or there is "Just sit" which doesn't teach them anything, and "Fellowship" which increases how friendly they feel towards other Sims who are on the lot at the time. This is useful for careers, as it contributes towards family friendships.

While a lesson is in progress, "End lesson" is enabled in the menu, which lets the children stand up again. At any time, an individual child can be excused from a lesson through their chair's menu, if for example you notice the toilet balloon over their head. Also during the school day, you can use the chair's menu to give a child an individual lesson.