Education Overhaul v5.5 (29.02.2024)  

As it turns out, not many of us like to play as children and teenagers, because they are not developed in the way we would like. Take, for example, the education system - it, say, is almost not implemented in the game, but we want as much realism as possible, after all, this is a simulator. As always, mods come to the rescue. The author has worked in detail on pre-school, primary and secondary school education in general, even military schools and various training options will become available to you, as well as much, much more! Believe me, with this mod you will want to play as children and teenagers as long as possible, but let's look at it in more detail!

For YA and up, there's a new branch of the Education Career for K-12 teachers with new assignments, tasks, new career goals, rework of the education track, support for degrees and university career entitlements including custom degrees.

Toddlers have the option to go to preschool on Mondays-Fridays for about 7 hours. They will develop all toddler skills, have their needs met, and learn character values. They have a chance to  receive buffs at the end of their day.

Children and Teens are the focus of this mod. There are also a ton of new options for children and teens: in school interactions, field trips, the return of detention and military school, variable school projects, different types of homework assignments, new school options, and more.

Please read the mod description as it is very important you understand what the mod does and what it affects.

Features

Education Career

• Reworked the introductory track of the career to be broader and incorporate levels from Sims 1, 2, and 3
• New Branch in Education Career: K-12 Educator
• Added support for Discover University with required degrees. Sims needs a degree in Art History, Biology, Economics, Literature and Languages, Physics, Psychology, or Zero's custom Education Degree to advance to a branch
• Degrees requirements from any of these fields leads to career entitlements for PTO, signing bonuses, performance, etc.
• Shortened the length of time for tutoring and adjusted the pay for completion
• New Custom Daily Task (Research Teaching Methods)
• Work from Home Assignments (Answer Parent Emails, Research Teaching Techniques, Write Progress Reports, Attend Department Meetings)
• New Career Goals for starting track and Educator branch

Preschool

Towards the end of finishing the mod, I realized I needed a preschool option that occurred during the day. Toddlers can now enroll in Preschool on Monday- Fridays from about 730am and will stay there for about 7 hours. Enroll the Toddler by clicking on the Toddler you want to enroll. They can manually be sent by clicking on the toddler, if necessary. While away, their needs will be met, they will gain skills, and increase their character values. You have the option to keep them home instead by canceling the Preschool interaction.

**Note about Preschool and Daycare/Nanny: The Nanny/Daycare situation and notifications are hardcoded into the game. Therefore the notification will pop up when there's no one at home even if the toddler is already at Preschool. You must choose the Send to Daycare option. This will not actually send them to daycare, they will go and stay at Preschool but the game requires a choice. Note also that if you travel off lot with another Sim, they will come back from Preschool when you return home. Because the game code does constant toddler checks and does everything in its power to send unattended toddlers to daycare, sometimes the toddler may come home early or go to daycare. I've blocked a lot of this, but it will still happen on occasion.***

New Education Enrollment Options

There are a few new education options in the game for children and teens. There are two independent/private prep school - Wintercrest Preparatory School and SimCity Academy- and two new alternate public options: Bedlington Latin School (a specialized exam school) and Striker Alternative School (an alternative school for learning difficulties and behavioral/social-emotional difficulties). There are two experimental boarding schools - Fort Starch Military Institute and Huntington Preparatory Academy. Please note that the boarding schools are an experimental feature and are still a beta. 

All the new school options have application requirements to complete on the computer (under the School menu under Career)before your sim can join them. An application fee, a personal statement/essay, and a tour/interview/evaluation are required. After writing the personal statement and going on the tour/interview/evaluation, they will need to go back to the computer to submit their final application and pay the application fee for private/independent school. The student must complete and submit all application requirements, but if accepted, only parents can enroll their children. Similarly, only parents can withdraw their children from school. After submission, your sim should hear back from the Admissions Committee within 4 hours. You have 24 hours to enroll the student once accepted or the spot is lost. You can reapply after 5 days.

There is a chance a Sim's applications can be rejected, though this is less likely depending on grades, after which they will remain in public school. Sims who have a failing grade of F at any school have a chance of flunking out and being sent to Striker Alternative School.

Independent/private and the specialized schools works similarly to EA school although Sims are more likely to gain skills and increase character values due to their enrollment and learn skills faster due to their wider opportunities and first-rate education. Sims who attend independent/private school will wear uniforms. School hours are 7:30am-1:30pm for upper school students and 7:30am-2:30pm for lower school students. 

Boarding School

NOTE: Boarding Schools are an experimental feature! They may not always work as expected. If they don't work for you, withdraw your Sim via phone/computer and choose another school option. When EA fixes rabbithole exit conditions, I will update functionality.

Students who are at boarding school can only be withdrawn at their parent's behest or upon aging up to young adult. There's a chance that after a few days the Sim may become homesick. A parent will receive notification asking if they wish to withdraw the homesick Sim or not. While the student is away, they can still have texts sent to them and chat with family members through the relationship panel. If you wish a Sim to stop going to boarding school permanently, you must cancel the interaction and then either have an adult withdraw them using the phone/computer and they'll go to their local public school or you can apply to a different application-required school and upon acceptance they will automatically be withdrawn. 

After aging up to teen and during holidays, your boarding sim will come home for a two day break and then return to boarding school. Once aging up to a teen, a notification will pop up asking if the parents wish to pay for another year's tuition or unenroll the sim. The sim will be enrolled into Public School upon unenrollment. During Summer your boarding sim will come home for summer break and then return to boarding school. You can end their break and send them back at anytime under the phone menu. Sims at boarding school will have the chance to learn and gain most major skills. You can bring your boarding school sim home at any time, but in order to formally enroll them in another school, you must withdraw them from boarding school via the School menu. Note: If your sim's still grey in the panel after returning from boarding school, travel to a different lot and then back and they should be normal again.

Grade School and High School Changes

Homework, School Projects, and Assignments

Added the ability for your Sims to do their homework online. The option exists under the Career menu.

Added more Homework Options for Children and Teen through Homework Book which increases skills and character values while fulfilling homework task

Unlocked Homework book options for Children:

• Fill Out Activity Chart (Motor)
• Do Math Problems (Mental)
• Practice Vocabulary (Creativity)
• Review Social Studies (Social)

Homework book options created for Teens:

• Study Dramaturgy (Charisma/Acting)
• Submit Original Composition (Piano/Violin/Guitar)
• Prove Scientific Principles (Rocket Science)
• Write English Paper (Writing)
• Work on Art Critique (Painting)
• Solve Linear Equations (Logic)
• Compose Analytical Argument (Research&Debate/Logic)

New School Projects and Active Assignments

Randomly every week or two, child and teen Sims will receive the additional assignments and projects. Not completing these custom projects and assignments before the next school day will penalize their work performance. If assigned one of these custom projects and assignments, they will count as homework when assigned and Sims will not be able to use the homework book to complete their homework.

A note about EA's Parenthood School Projects: If installed, these projects will now no longer be given every Monday. They will be randomly assigned along with the custom assignments. They will also need to be completed before the next school day, will count as homework, and will no longer be for extra credit.

• Artwork Assignment - Spend time working on artwork/painting
• Coding Assignment - Beginner coding assignment (new BG interaction)
• Essay Assignment - Spend time writing an essay on computer or in homework book (new BG interaction)
• Music Assignment - Practice for Band Concert, Orchestra, or Recital
• Performance Assignment - Practice for Role by Learning Lines (new interactions, BG compatible), Singing, Puppet Theatre
• Science Assignment- Chemistry Experiment (Children); Stargazing at Observatory (Teens)

School Day Changes

Detention

Detention makes a comeback! If your sim spends most of their time in school (via one of the new away interactions below) either sleeping in class, disrupting class, goofing off, or gets caught doing homework there's a chance they could be sent to after-school detention. Detention lasts for about 2 hours. Detention is more likely the poorer a student's grades are. If a Sim gets Detention, their parents may discipline the student. If your Sim gets repeated detentions and have poor grades, they are more likely to be kicked out of school and forced to attend the alternative school.

New Away Actions for Students

Goof Around (Irresponsible) - Increases Fun. Lowers Performance, Responsibility, Emotional Control, and Manners.

Participate in Group Work - Increases Fun, Social, Skills, Responsibility, and Conflict Resolution. Slows the rate of performance gain.

Copy Homework - Increases Homework Completion. Decreases Responsibility and Manners. Chance for Detention.

Actively Participate (Study Hard)- Increases Performance, Skills, Empathy, Responsibility, and Manners. Decreases Fun.

Be Disruptive - Increases Fun. Lowers Performance, Responsibility, Emotional Control, and Manners. Chance for Detention.

Sleep During Class - Increases Energy. Decreases Manners and Responsibility. Chance for Detention.

University Prep - Teens only. Increases Performance, Skills, and Responsibility. Decreases Fun.

Attend Club Meetings - Increases Fun, Social, Responsibility, and Conflict Resolution.

Take Notes - Increases Performance, Skills, and Responsibility. Decreases Fun.

Field Trips

Students will now have a small chance at the beginning of the day to go on one of six Field Trips with classmates instead of to School. They will receive a buff at the end of their trip.

• Aquarium
• Art Museum
• Planetarium
• Professional Theatre Production
• Sim River Conservatory
• Zoo

School Hours

Hours for public high schoolers have been changed from 8am-3pm to 8am-2pm.

Snow Days

Your sims can now experience the joys of snow days. They will randomly occur, mostly during winter but a small chance they can happen during fall or spring, on days when there's snow on the ground and your sims will have a day off to lament the snow or make snow angels!

Summer Break

Sims enrolled in all schools (including the private school from the Private School mod) will now no longer be required to attend school during the summer. They will be on break for the entire summer and will automatically return to school on the next weekday of Fall. Of course, parents can elect to send their children back at any time via the School menu on the phone or computer.

School Milestones

Note: The separate mod is being phased out and should not be used with this mod.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Sims can sign up for Parent-Conferences and learn about their students' progress.

Prom and School Dances

These now occur randomly during school nights.

Graduation

Graduation now occurs automatically on a teen Sim's last day as a teen. If you having aging off, you can manually choose to have graduation for your teen, but it will not age them up. They will attend in cap and gown if from public or private school or in military dress if from military school. Depending on their grades, graduates have a chance to graduate with honors or be valedictorian. Upon graduation, they will be withdrawn from school.

School Picture Day

School picture day can now randomly have occurred during or at the end of the school day for both teens and children. Your sim will get a notification it happened and a random buff.

Academic Aptitude Test

During the last 3 days as a Teen, Teen Sims will receive a notification that they have the opportunity to go and take an Academic Aptitude Test via the phone or computer. Taking the test will give them a large boost in performance. This is especially helpful if you have a mod that takes into account a Sim's final grade level/trait for University acceptance.

adeepindigo_base_generalpiemenus_2023.01.20.package
adeepindigo_gameplaymods_EducationOverhaul_SE_SnowyEscapeAlternateUniformChoices.zip
adeepindigo_gameplaymods_EducationOverhaul_SE_ChooseSnowyEscapeUniforms.zip
adeepindigo_gameplaymods_EducationOverhaul_BG_EANoSetUniforms.zip