Angry Birds launch special tournament to support the #UpForSchool Petition

Angry Birds aren’t just angry. Now they’re really, really angry.

What has ruffled the feathers of the stars from the world’s favourite game? They are mad that 58 million children don’t go to school.

Rovio Entertainment – the makers of the Angry Birds game – have teamed up with A World at School today to launch a brand new tournament to encourage players to support the #UpForSchool Petition to ensure every child has the right to go to school and learn.

The exclusive tournament with six game levels on Angry Birds Friends features Red and the other famous characters getting mad about children who are out of school because of child marriage, child labour, conflict and discrimination.

During the new levels players are given the option to sign the #UpForSchool Petition and join more than six million people who have already demanded world leaders invest in a future where every child has the right to an education.

The Angry Birds Friends #UpForSchool tournament is playable on Facebook and mobile from June 29 to July 5, 2015.  You can play it here.

Rovio’s Mighty Eagle Peter Vesterbacka, who pledged his support for the #UpForSchool Petition at its United Nations launch in 2014, said: “Angry Birds have always been angry. Now they are furious. Why? Because 58 million children are out of school.”

Peter added: “Our games have been downloaded more than three billion times. In some countries the game has been downloaded more times than the size of the population. With a tremendous global reach like this, we want to help by giving a voice to young people demanding an education.

“Everyone at Rovio believes change is possible and together we can deliver education for all. Together we can make change happen. We are #UpForSchool.”

The exclusive partnership between A World at School and Rovio Entertainment will give a significant boost to the number of #UpForSchool Petition signatures. 

Sarah Brown with Peter Vesterbacka, left, and Sana from Rovio

The petition will be taken to the Oslo Summit on Education for Development, hosted by the Norwegian Government on July 6 and 7, where campaigners will be calling on world leaders to back a new platform to ensure delivering education to children in conflict or emergency situations is made a priority.

A World at School co-founder Sarah Brown said: “The team at Rovio has shown real commitment to the cause of global education. This new partnership provides a unique platform to reach out to a young, digitally-active audience on an issue that matters.

“Young people are already spearheading the movement to fight for the right of every child to have an education but we need more voices to ensure 2015 is the year all children secure the right to go to school.”

Play the special Angry Birds and #UpForSchool tournament here. And you can sign the #UpForSchool Petition here.

Never played Angry Birds? Don’t worry – you can pretend to be an expert with this quick guide…

What is Angry Birds? It’s a game you can play on computer, tablet and phone. Basically, bad pigs have stolen the birds’ eggs and are hiding. You use a giant catapult or slingshot to launch your wingless birds to smash down the shelters and squash the pigs. Got it?

It was created by the computer game company Rovio Entertainment in 2009 and is the top-selling paid-for app.

Since then, many other Angry Birds games have been added to the brand. Now there are books, TV shows, theme parks and toys – 10 million cuddly Angry Birds have been sold.

To celebrate the game’s fifth birthday in December, Rovio revealed that there had been 2.5 billion downloads of Angry Birds, one million years of total playing time and more than 600 billion birds flung – 85 for every person on the planet.

An Angry Birds 3-D movie is scheduled to be released in the summer of 2016.

Play Angry Birds’ special A World at School tournament here.