Teacher wins gold reward sticker Children vote on their reward chart Children provide feedback using sticky notes

We don't just love stickers, we truly believe in the power of reward stickers in the classroom. So we decided to run our own fun, social experiment to prove it. The objective of the experiment was to see if the teacher felt motivated by the opportunity to earn a sticker and to see if they experienced the sense of pride children enjoy when receiving praise using a reward sticker. 

The experiment turned the tables on the teacher by empowering the children to decide on what level of reward sticker – gold, silver or bronze - the teacher has earned. 

Miss Duncan, a Year 5 class teacher at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Worthing kindly offered her services and the experiment was set. The children judged a range of four class activities set by the teacher, over two days and at the each activity they voted using a reward chart and sticker system, to express their enjoyment of the task.

As well as the judge and jury for the experiment, the children collated the votes, wrote feedback for the teacher on the various tasks and presented the winning sticker to Miss Duncan which we are pleased to say was the top award - Gold, ‘SuperStar’ !

Miss Duncan commented: “Wanting to win the gold sticker definitely inspired a sense of competitiveness in me. I think anything that makes you question what you are doing and how you do it is a necessity in this profession to help you develop. Achieving ‘Gold’ was fantastic - I felt extremely proud of myself and of the whole class who had embraced the tasks with enthusiasm and enjoyed the tasks enough to give a 'gold' rating.  Wearing the sticker did make friends and colleagues curious and it was a pleasure explaining how I got it. I have attached it to my school badge and intend to keep it safe!” 

Daryl Power, Deputy Head of St Mary’s Catholic Primary School quoted: “It was a great opportunity not only for the children, but also for Miss Duncan to receive some constructive feedback in terms of which lessons the children enjoyed the most and identifying why these lessons were most appealing. As effective practitioners, we are always looking for ways to improve and there’s no more powerful voice than that of our pupils. Miss Duncan is a highly reflective Teacher and was able to embrace the ‘experiment’ with enthusiasm and good humour!” 

Joanne Chandler, Managing Director of Classroom Capers commented: “We are extremely grateful to Miss Duncan and the class for taking part in this experiment. Intended as a fun task based research project, I believe we proved how such a small, low value, tangible reward given as proof of a job well done, instills a sense of pride and accomplishment, which is further reinforced when others (especially parents) ask about how it was earned. We hope this message motivates others in charge of children to recognise the power of a sticker and it will encourage them to introduce a simple reward based system into their behaviour management strategies. Well done to Miss Duncan for winning Gold!”