At Ledbury we began to use Concept Cartoons as starting points to stimulate discussion and investigation.  We gathered children’s ideas and encouraged them to think about how they could investigate to find a solution. This evolved as teachers began to use them in different ways:

• As a ‘cold’ task to find out what children already know about a topic
• As an assessment tool to find out what children have learnt
• By making their own to fit to a specific topic
• To generate questions about a topic

For example, in Year 5 children used Snowman’s coat concept cartoon help them think about the best insulating materials.  In Year 2 the children used a similar cartoon to help them solve the problem of how to stop the ‘dinosaur eggs’ from melting.

Ledbury Primary School, Herefordshire