Let’s School is a school management simulator released by developers Pathea following their success with their relaxing post-apocalyptic game, My Time At Portia. Virtual Headmasters have the opportunity to design and customize their school to their own personal design, a feature that was not a missed opportunity in other high school games like The Sims 4. In Let's School, players can choose three Victory Goals during gameplay, but constructing the perfect school will be most important to players pursuing the ‘Facility Victory Goal,’ which relies upon gaining Building Points that denote the school's appearance and its ability to cater to students’ needs.

Related: Best Build Challenges In The Sims 4

Qualities like hygiene, safety, entertainment, and stress relief will play a huge role in how players need to architect their schools; every school has basic requirements for bathrooms, playgrounds, and cafeterias, but it can be overwhelming to decide which facilities are the most important to research and build straight away!

9 Classrooms

Players will be directed to build a classroom before anything else in Let’s School, and while it may be tempting to skip or scrimp on furniture and supplies, students will thrive in classrooms equipped with everything they need to pass exams and make headmasters proud. Players will need to create learning environments that are safe, clean, educational, and designed to last by including cleaning supplies, bins, decorations to boost student satisfaction, windows, roofs, and ideally steel walls to protect against earthquakes. Meeting these standards early will immediately boost student satisfaction and performance and enable faster positive results.

Another tip: build multiple classrooms as soon as funds are available. Every week, current students will finish a ‘Semester’ and eventually graduate after their third Semester but will occupy only one classroom during these three weeks. Each new intake of students will need a new classroom to be assigned to; they cannot join a pre-existing classroom. This means players will need two to three classrooms to accommodate both pre-existing students and newly enrolled pupils until the original class graduates.

8 Food Sources

The first food source available to new headmasters is an outdoor ‘Food Tent,’ and players must conduct research to unlock better resources, including a ‘Cafeteria,’ ‘Tea Room,’ or ‘Water Coolers’ (for student hydration). Providing the tastiest-looking video game food for students not only satisfies their basic needs but serves as a source of income for players to continue building school facilities.

Over time, upgrading food sources will unlock healthier food options that improve student lifestyles or more expensive food like the ‘Dessert Shop’ (which charges $500 for ice cream). Be warned: facilities where food is cooked and served have high hygiene requirements and are a fire risk, so cleaning supplies, fire alarms, and safety equipment are recommended to reap the benefits. Eventually, players should build multiple food sources throughout the premises to allow students time to arrive at a Cafeteria and purchase and consume food during breaks before being called back to class; otherwise, student satisfaction and funds will suffer.

7 Bathrooms

When players begin restoring their school in the tutorial, it is tempting to ‘bulldoze’ everything in sight to harvest money. Avoid deleting the ‘Outhouse’ or outdoor water sources in early gameplay, as these provide students with a way to relieve their needs while the school is still being constructed (and also earn an achievement later on).

Related: Architect Games That Let You Build Houses

Building bathrooms will be a priority for every headmaster; continue adding bathrooms in different locations as the school grows in size to reduce unfortunate accidents that decrease student satisfaction (because the school's only bathroom is on the third floor). Players should also spend time on the ‘Hygiene’ research path in tandem with building bathrooms for a cleaner, healthier school environment.

6 Entertainment and Satisfaction

Passing exams and good grades is a priority for most virtual headmasters, but students will suffer without appropriate methods of stress relief. The Population Victory Goal requires a high number of students and high student satisfaction levels, so high grades won’t hold weight if students are miserable, dropping out, or transferring to rival schools. The simplest method of achieving student happiness is to build a playground. Research can unlock more effective forms of entertainment that have additional rewards, like ‘Educational Entertainment' that allows children to learn and be educated while playing games that boost happiness.

By upgrading further to access the ‘Campus Arcade,’ students can play video games on campus without being ‘disciplined’ while also financially benefiting the school. Even placing benches around campus gives pupils a place to build satisfying friendships. While students are usually the focus of a school, teachers need to maintain their happiness and stress relief if they are expected to meet the exhausting demands of quality research, management, and teaching. Gifting teachers a Staff Break Room will help reduce stress and prevent teachers from quitting due to being overworked.

5 School Supplies Store and Specialist Classrooms

The School Store is a great tool to have on any school campus for students to boost happiness and learning by selling supplies that benefit the school three-fold by funding renovations, improving grades, and fulfilling student needs. The School Store can be upgraded through research to a ‘Campus Supermarket’ that has ‘everything’ a student can want to buy.

Related: Simulation Games That Have Great World-Building

Specialist classrooms such as a Projection Room, Art Studio, Sports Facilities, and Biology Labs are expensive investments, inadvisable to attempt early in gameplay. These specialist classrooms can only be used once teachers are at a high enough level to use the equipment. Once open for use, these rooms propel students forward in the aspiration of their choice and enhance their studies significantly.

4 Campus Security, Discipline, and Student Health

Unruly, aggressive, or disruptive students without consequences lowers student satisfaction and the school's reputation, meaning other well-behaved students will be less likely to attend or enroll. Early into gameplay, players can unlock and build a designated space for Campus Security and assign staff to manage discipline and confiscate contraband in order to ensure students are performing well.

Additionally, building sports facilities where students can exercise also has a positive effect on discipline and energy. Health-based facilities should also be a priority, as players can provide students with Infirmaries to treat injuries, Guidance Counselors to address mental health, and Accessible Facilities for students of different abilities.

3 Headmaster’s Office

Players may breathe a sigh of relief upon seeing the school in the tutorial comes already equipped with a shabby, semi-furnished Headmaster’s Office; don’t assume this means the Headmaster’s Office doesn't need TLC. Renovating the Headmaster’s Office and upgrading directly improves the management level of the school.

At the beginning of gameplay, this will be the first and often only source of Management for the school, so strengthening the Headmaster’s Office will be crucial until other Management Offices are built to distribute the weight of responsibility. Headmasters require training just like any other member of staff: after sufficient training, players can achieve a ‘Headmaster’s Certificate,’ which increases Management Proficiency by 20 points. Overall, an efficiently managed school under the headmaster’s care leads to significantly less stress for its teachers and students.

2 Management Departments

Without effective management in Let's School, teachers and students become overwhelmed with stress, resulting in suffering grades and the need for time off to recuperate. Training staff to manage different facilities is essential for classrooms, cafeterias, and bathrooms to encounter fewer issues. Additionally, teachers studying in Research Rooms need a manager to delegate workload to avoid undue stress.

Related: The Most Iconic Schools In Video Games

To create a balanced, stable management hierarchy, it is advisable to create two or more Management Departments to tackle multiple areas of responsibility within the school. Players might choose to divide Bathrooms, Classrooms, Cafeterias, and Research Rooms between these Management Departments equally. Completing modules and assigning them to one Management Department will help equip them to handle unique responsibilities; for example, a Management Department with the ‘Knowledge is King’ module will be excellent for managing Research Rooms and speeding up progress. Ironically, players need to unlock Management Departments after completing research first, so developing an efficient Management System will ultimately be a long-term goal.

1 Research Room

Research is the heart of successful education in Let’s School. Research is crucial for gaining new courses that prepare students to pass exams. Players can earn Contribution Points (which reap financial rewards) from teaching students subjects they aspire to learn about, so it is important to research classes that both improve grades and fulfill the interests of students.

It is necessary to build a Research room immediately that fits requirements, but ideally, players should build multiple Research Rooms or upgrade them over time to allow multiple teachers to conduct research at once, as fast as possible. Remember to assign managers for each Research Room to avoid teachers becoming stressed with their workloads! Almost any facility on the school grounds will need to be unlocked and upgraded using Research Rooms, so any virtual headmaster worth their salt will value the importance of proper research facilities to construct the best campus possible in Let's School.

Let's School is available now on PC.

MORE:Most Iconic Anime Headmasters