I know that having the school means some children are born with skills but i noticed a drum next to it and when beaten all the children come to the school but they don't go in or learn anything, is there something i need to do or can they not go in at all?

I wish I knew too. I got the school early but no teacher or what they do with it.

does anyone know how to convert the school....? is it even apart of a puzzle?...plz creaters help me with some answers...! ty in advance

i use the school to get the buggers out of ppl hair

From my experience, as soon as you take the step that results in the drum's appearance to the right of the school, the task is complete. You can beat the drum at any time and all the children gather (although those coming from the inland side of the island sometimes have a hard time getting around the building).

I experimented with the drum a bit to see if it has any effect on the extent of skills that the nursing babies have once their mothers drop them (as in, the more times you summon the children to school, the more skilled the babies are when they become independent), but there seems to be no effect. I'm trying to figure out why some children are more highly skilled at 2 than others. Perhaps it has to do with how skilled their parents are?

Speaking of school....
I had a rather strange happening...
I sometimes use the school as a staging station when looking for mushrooms. It makes it easier to find those rascal kids when it comes time to pick the mushroom....
On this occassion, I beat the drum, all the kiddies gathered at the school, and one of my builders had "teaching" as an action and she paced in front of all of the children for several minutes!
Unfortunately, none of the children's knowledge of buiilding had increased, but I thought it was a bit strange, as no one had ever shown up to "teach" before.

how do you beat the drum?? does it take a certain villager?

nevermind; found it

Regarding "teaching" -- I've had various villagers teach from time to time. It's been at the school only once. Usually, it's at a random location, just like arguing, chatting, telling a joke.

You bang the drum by clicking on it. Just found that out from reading this and adds an other bit of fun. Feel a bit like the pied piper, although it is a bit spooky and weird how they all just turn and start heading towards the school when the drum is banged. Wish it worked in real life!!!

Yeah, Just be careful Not to hit the drum while they are picking mushrooms...
I did that by accident! What a mistake!

For me it comes in handy to put the kids in a pile there and do a nose count! Also to check ages, potential skills, likes/dislikes, so I can plot and plan!

OMG!!!! I must be doing something wrong! None of my villagers say anything, not joking around no nothing!!! How long have you been playing? I dinscovered the game 5 or 6 days ago and had to start over a couple times but until now things were going well with the new game. How do you know when your people are joking around, chatting, arguing or teaching?

The only time you will see that a villager is engaged in arguing, telling a joke, teaching, exercising, etc. is to have that villager selected (with the white ellipse around their feet). The action field will display what they're doing.

After the school is there, how does one "open" it? It keeps saying that everyone thinks the building can be converted, and I got the puzzle school, but is there more? I've got the full research level and have continually dropped ALL of my Master Scientists onto it, but nothing is happening, except they are all wanting to push the rock after I drag them away from the table and drop them repeatedly on the school. The message about "thinks this building could be converted" is still there, so I thought my Master Scientists had to do something again, but nothing works. For that matter, neither will dropping the Master Builder on it.

Help? Do I need any? -- Thanks -- Ella

You need to upgrade to v 1.01 which fixes that perpetual message even after the school is converted. Download the trial version of the game from the SAME source where you bought it, and install to the same directory.

I got v 1.01 and I still get that message when someone go's over my school house.

Odd. when you hit menu, does it say v 1.01 in thee bottom left corner?

I started w/version 1.01 and it still says after I've dropped master scientist on it that, everyone thinks the building could be converted, so I think it is a bug that will need to be fixed later on in the game.

But hey, it may just be my $.02 worth. Just so you know though, that's exactly what happens to me and I never had anything but version 1.01.

I have tried and can't get my school converted. Could someone please share? I have Level 3 on everything, my Golden Child is running around making parties, but I can't convert my school!

Drop a Master Scientist on the building behind the research table.

Make sure you have a Master Scientist working on it. Just get a Master Scientist and drop him/her on the school. While you're holding onto them, it'll say "They think this can be converted" and while it says that, drop them. They'll convert it. It should be relatively easy. It's one of the first puzzles.

the best thing i found out about the school is , if you don't have puzzle#15 you can use the school drum to distract the GC & other children so they don't get in the way.