PUPILS in a classroom at Bellahouston Academy have recently been riveted to a screen, absorbed to a degree which I rarely experienced at school.

They were playing a computer game, "Winning", developed for fighter pilots, but also used by sportsmen. It teaches correct decision-making under pressure.

Sir Clive Woodward adopted it and its Israeli designer, Yehuda Shinar, to help England win the rugby World Cup. Woodward said he was exhausted after 10 minutes on the simulator. The jury is still out on the Scottish Rugby Union's use of Shinar's methods, but other Scottish sportsmen and women, including the successful national swimming team, have subsequently adopted it.

The innovative Glasgow School of Sport, at Bellahouston in Glasgow, is part of a trial programme which has been replicated at secondary schools in Edinburgh, Dundee, and Blairgowrie, across a wide range of academic abilities during the past month.

Soon, the game, Ten Steps To Winning, could be part of the curriculum at every secondary in Scotland. Indeed, its supporters believe it can change Scottish culture.

The game aims to assess and train winning skills, but is not designed solely for sport. It has applications in making business and life choices. The Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation, a charity bankrolled by Cairn Energy chief Bill Gammell, has supported Shinar's involvement. The Royal Bank of Scotland also consults the Israeli in management training.

"The game is a brilliant way of teaching children the thinking process of a winner," says Graham Watson, Gammell's confidant and the foundation's executive director.

"Every piece of evidence suggests kids learn better through watching and doing, than by being taught. Scotland is a world leader in digital animation and digital games technology and it's a growth industry worldwide. So we have partnered with Team Play Learning Dynamics, a Dundee company, and Yehuda Shinar.

"Feedback is tremendous, and the kids love it. TPLD have excellent relationships with the Scottish Qualifications Authority and people in curriculum development in Scottish education. We are trying to get the game on to the curriculum."

Shinar's involvement with sport in Scotland, courtesy of the foundation, has been well documented. "But the Holy Grail of our relationship has been the educational potential of the game," says Watson.

"First we have had to satisfy ourselves that it works in the Scottish context, and that it's applicable. Can we get the game into the schools system? I'm sure we can.

"Our vision with Yehuda from the word go, when I flew out to Israel to meet him in early 2005, was the potential for the simulation game he developed.

"Now we have a product that's very appealing to young people and adds value to the curriculum - teaching people to think like winners.

"The problems it poses children are very different from those it poses adults. Every time you do something it creates a whole different range of scenarios for you. Teachers get feedback all the time, and are taught how to interpret the performance, and become a coach.

"If you teach children to think correctly under pressure, it doesn't matter whether they are playing football or rugby, or trying to buy their first house.

"It applies to everything. The long-term aim is to use sport as a catalyst to change our society and our culture."

John Fyffe, the rector at Blairgowrie High School who have been involved in the pilot with support for learning pupils, suggests they have already succeeded.

"We plan to introduce the game as part of the core curriculum for S1 pupils next year," he said. "People who have used it here are very impressed. It has helped improve self-esteem, teamwork, and develop leadership capabilities. Pupils who are introverted have come out of their shell."

Helen Routledge, research manager with Dundee-based TPLD, who supply education software, has directed the pilot in the four schools and with a YMCA group of neets (people not in education employment or training). She is excited by its potential.

"We've also tried it with very high-achieving pupils, average kids, and gifted young sports people," she said. "It's been of benefit across all ranges of educational abilities.

"It is also currently being reviewed in the USA by Ben Sawyer, who is Mr Serious Games."

Sawyer, president of a consultancy he helped found in 1997, is co-director of the Serious Games Initiative, based at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. They are looking far beyond America's sports fields. Their aim is to develop educational tools for current and future generations of US government and corporate leaders.

Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health and public policy. Routledge's formal report to the SIS Foundation on the game's potential will be complete by the end of this month.

At Bellahouston, Angela Porter is director of the School of Sport, which has 132 gifted pupils in athletics, badminton, gymnastics, hockey, and swimming. They come from 14 local authorities. She is very enthused by what she has seen. So, clearly, are pupils and staff.

Susan Ahrens (formerly Gilmour) who won 170 hockey caps for Scotland, has been testing the game on talented hockey players whom she coaches at Bellahouston. "We are very impressed and the national senior squad is also using it at the Scottish Institute of Sport," she said.

Two of her pupils, members of the Scotland under-16 boys' hockey team, Craig Morton and Seoras Gaughan, were captivated by the game. "It's good. It makes you think fast," said Craig.

Amy Liu and Jay Cheyne,, already outstanding players, believe it will help them improve their game. And they are all intrigued by the possibility that they could be pioneers.