Minecraft is of course one of the most popular video games ever and its sandboxed world, where players can explore and create almost anything, makes it ideally suited to learning. Minecraft Education Edition is a version of Minecraft that better supports learning and teaching by adding some additional features that teachers and learners can use, and by limiting access to other features that are not appropriate for use in the context of school.
In Edinburgh, all our students have access to Minecraft Education Edition via our Empowered Learning iPads or on desktop or laptop.
Why teach with Minecraft?
At the 2022 National Build Challenge, Edinburgh teachers Gail and Liz shared their thoughts on using Minecraft.
Getting started
If you’re an Edinburgh teacher then we recommend you join our Minecraft Team where you can connect with other teachers and get involved in our city-wide Edinburgh projects.
Join the Edinburgh Minecraft Team.
Edinburgh Minecraft Build League
Our Build League is a series of build challenges running throughout the 22/23 school year that all Edinburgh schools can take part in. You can read more about it on our dedicated build league page. It’s also connected to the Scottish National Build Challenge which first took place in 2022 and will happen again in 2023.
Other Resources
For staff wanting to learn more about Minecraft in Education then we recommend these resources and activities:
The Microsoft Minecraft Education site is the best starting point to learn more about the benefits of Minecraft in learning. The site has training, lesson ideas and guides for parents. There is also the Minecraft community where you can ask questions and find answers to common problems.
The Minecraft Teacher Academy is part of Microsoft Learn and is an online course covering Minecraft in detail.
Blog Posts
Teaching and Learning with Minecraft Education – Recording of Online CLPL
What happens when you mix one of the world’s most popular games with the serious business of teaching and learning? You get a training session that’s as fun as it is forward‑thinking. Our recent Teaching and Learning with Minecraft Education CLPL virtually brought together colleagues from across the City of Edinburgh Council to explore how…
Minecraft Education Build League Finals Day
The most wonderful day of the year has arrived, no not the first day of the summer holidays… The Minecraft Education Build League Finals Day! Monday 16th of June 2025 saw twenty-eight young people from seven CEC schools descend on the National Museum of Scotland for an in-person Minecraft challenge like no other. The day…
Using the Book & Quill for Writing tasks in Minecraft Education
In this Digitip, you will learn how to use the Book & Quill for Writing tasks in Minecraft Education. This creates an immersive writing opportunity for learners to explore a Minecraft Education world or task, which can then be exported to a PDF to save in Files or Class Notebook. Recorded on iOS 18.4.1 Watch…
Minecraft Christmas Build Challenge 2023
Now that’ve we ran a Christmas Minecraft Build Challenge two years in a row, it might just become an Edinburgh schools tradition. Our build challenges aim to develop learners’ critical thinking, research, teamwork, problem solving, planning, literacy and numeracy skills. Recent challenges have included building moon bases to support human life beyond Earth, designing sustainable…
Minecraft Christmas Challenge Winners
Well done to all Edinburgh schools that took part in our Minecraft Christmas Challenge. We were so impressed with all the fantastic entries. It was a tough job trying to choose the winners but we got there in the end! Well done to our winning schools and their creative Minecraft snow people.
Minecraft League Challenge 1 Winners
Our first Edinburgh Build League challenge has finished and we’re able to announce our winners. For those that don’t know, the build league is open to all schools in Edinburgh and consists of five build challenges, concluding in May 23. Our first challenge asked learners to consider what it might be like to live on…
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