Sticky Questions
Have you done your homework?
...can be a thorny question. However, learning at home really matters, especially when it comes to speaking and listening.
That's why we've introduced Sticky Questions - our unique approach to homework where children take home a juicy philosophical puzzler stuck to their jumper, chat at home and bring their thoughts back to school.
What’s the story?
Homework in primary schools is often dreaded by children, parents and teachers in equal measure. So Julie Mahon, a teacher at Latton Green Primary Academy, had an idea: to send questions on stickers for the children to wear home every Thursday.
Inspired by Julie's approach, Jason and Tom spent weeks creating thousands of questions we knew children would love to argue about with their parents and peers.
We painstakingly whittled down to the very juiciest ones, and sorted them by age group so every question would be appropriate for the child discussing it. We worked with a professional designer, Carla Keen, to add inclusive graphics representative of all of society.
Carla's wonderful way with design means each set of Sticky Questions also includes 6 larger stickers with illustrations or riddles.
"At the beginning you could see the quality of their answers was quite limited. But by using the different Sticky Questions strategies you could see how they're critically thinking and able to articulate their reasoning and developing their answers - to the point that my assistant and I would look at each other and say 'wow that was really good!’ You can see the progression really clearly especially in the lower years."
Becca Paul, Head of Lower School, Sarum Hall School
What do I get?
One day each week, all the children go home with a sticker on their jumper. Instead of having a conversation about, “Have you done your homework”, the homework IS the conversation. Then the following day, the discussion can carry on at school, drawing on ideas from home.
Over the course of 7 years from Reception to Year 6, children will get the chance to think about nearly 300 different questions – a memorable mix of the philosophical and some more free-wheeling creative stuff.
All packs will include ideas on how to carry on the discussion back in school, and how to support children who get less support from home, how to involve grandparents and so on.
“It’s made a huge difference to my pupils. As well as taking the questions home, I get them to go around the school and ask other children and they absolutely love it. There are a lot of issues with language and focus and concentration. A visiting psychotherapist said she never saw a class like it. Talk in class is organic, and they tell me they want to do philosophy everyday. And I never feel burnt out by doing it!”
Aaron, Teacher, London
Buy your Sticky Questions
Our year-round, whole school programme. Children take home a juicy philosophical puzzler stuck to their jumper, chat at home and share back at school.
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