Younger Sims really got left behind when it comes to engaging, interactive weekdays. Make things a lot more interesting with the Go To School Mod!
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Let’s face it: older sims have more interesting day-to-day experiences. Get To Work lets us follow our adult sims to work and High School Years give us power over our Teens’ daily lives. Even Discover University, while not as involved, gives us a lot more control over how our sims spend their time while getting an education.
What if you could make your younger Sims’ days more interesting? Well, it can happen with the Go To School Mod by Zerbu! This mod has been around since 2015 and brought us an active school experience well before HSY came out, and it’s evolved quite a bit over time as the game has changed.
The Go To School Mod For You!
The Go To School Mod comes in several versions, and we’re going to go over the 2 most recent releases. These versions have different requirements and work in different ways, so you can choose which one will work best for you.
Go To School Mod Pack V4
Packs Needed: Get To Work
Optional Packs For More Content: Get Together, City Living
This version of the mod has a special Elementary School venue as well as its own High School venue which will need to be placed in your world for the mod to function. Classrooms will populate with an NPC Teacher (or occasionally a Guest Speaker from one of the Get To Work jobs), and multiple other NPCs will appear at the school to help your sims’ educational journey such as a Principal, Counsellor, Janitor, and Caterer.
There are 5 different subjects taught in school with a different one being focused on each day. The subjects are Personal Development, Problem Solving, Creative Arts, Health and Fitness, & Science and Technology, and each subject has its own tasks you will need to complete throughout the school day. Some examples: Problem Solving might have your sim practice their Chess skill and Creative Arts might have you study a musical instrument online. Sims can declare their favorite and least favorite subjects which will result in relevant buffs on the days those subjects are taught.
For Elementary School students, they get the added fun of every Wednesday being Costume Day so you can send your kiddos into school dressed as their favorite superhero, mythical creature, animal, etc. Elementary students also have a special interaction with the Principal which gives your Child sim temporary unlockable Aspirations. When completing these Aspirations, your sim will be awarded Emblems that can be traded in for skill boosts to help them as they grow. Sims can also interact with a school Counsellor and receive mood boosts to assist them through their day.
For older sims, there are also a few extra features. Reaching level 5 (for minor skills) or 6 (for major skill) in any subject will allow your older sims to pass on knowledge of the subject to others with a new social interaction. If they are at level 8 or above, they can teach entire classes on the subject!
If you don’t want to wait to reach level 8 for the option to teach a class, the new Renowned Teacher Aspiration will let you do it at level 4 and if you complete the Aspiration, it drops to level 2. There’s also the Knowledge Pixie Aspiration which makes teaching possible at level 4, and completing the Aspiration makes tutoring others much more effective.
Known Issues
Fortunately, this mod has very few known issues, mostly surrounding the school venue itself. If the venue isn’t properly labeled or it’s missing required items it won’t work correctly, much like any vanilla community lot that has requirements.
This version of the mod has the Elementary and High School venues separated so you can still use the Elementary School if you have High School Years. If you do have HSY, delete the file labeled “DELETE IF YOU HAVE HIGH SCHOOL YEARS INSTALLED.package” to not cause problems.
This mod will conflict with any other mod that affects schools.
More on SNOOTYSIMS: Wouldn’t it be cool if the youngest Sims could go to preschool, and private and boarding schools were an option? Luckily, the mod Education Overhaul can bring us exactly that!
Go To School Mod Pack V5
Packs Needed: High School Years
Optional Packs For More Content: Growing Together
This version of the mod is much more streamlined and designed to behave like the High School Years school system, so its features are more limited but they blend in with vanilla gameplay much better.
To travel to school with younger sims you will need to have an Elementary School lot placed somewhere in your worlds. There are 5 different subjects taught in school with a different one being focused on each day. The subjects are Problem-Solving on Mondays, Health and Fitness on Tuesdays, Creative Arts on Wednesdays (also Costume Day), Environment and Culture on Thursdays, and Performing Arts on Fridays. Each of the subjects is available to choose as one of your sim’s Likes or Dislikes and they will get a Happy or Bored buff on the days Liked or Disliked subjects are taught.
The school day is broken into 2 halves like it is in High School. Mornings are when the subject of the day is taught and afternoons are spent meeting daily goals related to the subject. Similar to the V4 version of the mod there’s always a chance that a Guest Speaker will spawn in to teach on a subject, although in this version of the mod, they will be someone at level 10 of their career and not necessarily be someone from the GTW job tracks. School Counsellors can be interacted with to give your sim a mood boost which is extra helpful on the days their Disliked subjects are being taught, to counteract that pesky Bored moodlet.
When a sim reaches level 5 (for minor skills) or 6 (for major skill) in any subject, they’ll gain the the ability to pass on knowledge of the subject to others. Sims can also ask others to share their knowledge.
Some new features that come with V5 include Field Trips, Milestones, and studying skills on a computer. Going on a Field Trip will send your sim to a random lot where they will receive daily goals dependent on the objects found on the lot. If you’ve got Growing Together your sims will receive Milestones related to their first time attending a school subject along with all Field Trips and Guest Speakers they experience. Any subject can be studied on a computer by sims of any age, though the skill grows much more slowly and isn’t meant to replace other skill-building methods.
You can now also control how many students are in your play through a new “Go to School Settings” mailbox option. This is very handy if your computer can’t handle too many students at once, or if you have a beast of a PC and find the schools to be a bit sparse.
Known Issues
As this version of the mod is still considered in alpha there aren’t any conflicts currently reported, but that doesn’t mean the mod is free from bugs. Obviously, you will need High School Years to use this mod, you will need one of each venue you’re trying to play with placed somewhere in the world, and it’s safe to assume that the mod will conflict with other mods that affect schools. If you end up finding a conflict you can let Zerbu know on his dedicated discord channel.
Other Mods You May Find Useful
Both versions of the Go To School Mod require the Venue Changes mod to work. You need this mod to properly differentiate High School and Elementary School lots, but it’s also useful as a standalone mod that you might enjoy using even if you don’t use the Go To School Mod with it. It has a lot of other features and works with other CC venue types so you might even have it already if you use other venue mods.
Ending The School Day This Article
Using the Go To School Mod by Zerbu, Elementary School students can finally get more out of their weekdays than an unexciting rabbi-thole trip and if you don’t have High School Years you can still give your Teens an Active school day experience. Depending on the version of the mod you will have new NPCs, new interactions, and even new Aspirations to explore all while making the school day more enjoyable for your kiddos. Version 4 gives you a totally new experience while Version 5 builds on & improves what’s already there so you can cater your sims’ school experience to your preferred version of play. Will you use this mod? Which version do you prefer? Let us know below!