Built for a casual teacher walking into a class cold
One game. Every subject.
Nothing to prepare.
Kids who have stopped doing schoolwork will still play for points. STAKES turns any subject into a betting game their crew can win, so the lesson runs on competition instead of compliance. You read the card. They do the thinking.
You get handed a class you do not know, in a subject that may not be yours, with work left that half of them will not touch, and no real consequence available if they refuse. Yelling works for about four minutes. The only thing you can take off a Year 8 student is a turn. The whole system runs on turns: they are in a crew, the crew is on a ladder, and the ladder carries over to the next time you walk in.
Two ways to run it
Run a lesson
Pick a subject, pick how many crews, go. It puts the topic up, holds the answers back until you ask for them, times the round and keeps the score. Nothing to print, nothing to install, and it remembers each class between lessons.
Use this one if the room has a working screen.
ON PAPERPrint the whole pack
One page you hand to the front office, or email them. One address, one green button, and the whole pack comes out in order. Hand the address to the school office and there is nothing for them to work out.
Use this one for the rooms where the screen never works.
How it works, in one minute
- Split the room into crews of four or five. They stay in those crews every time you take that class. Write the crew names on the board with a tally beside each.
- Read the topic, not the question. "Topic is fractions of an amount. Stake now."
- Every crew holds up 1, 3 or 5 fingers. That is what they are betting. They commit before they hear the question, so it is a real decision.
- They only get the question at the level they chose. Two or three minutes to huddle. One nominated speaker answers.
- Right answer wins their stake. Wrong answer costs one point, never the whole stake. That is deliberate. A cheap loss keeps them gambling, and gambling is what keeps them in the lesson.
- Any crew that got theirs right can steal a wrong crew's question for a bonus point. This keeps the fast finishers quiet, and it gets the right answer said out loud by a student rather than by you.
- Last round of the lesson, they can bet everything. The crew that has been last all lesson can still win at the bell, so nobody checks out at minute thirty.
The shell never changes but the game does. Six modes run on the same crews, the same ladder and the same cards, so you never re-teach the rules. Full detail on the six modes.
What is in here
Run a lesson
The whole game on the classroom screen. Answers stay hidden until you ask, the timer runs itself, and the score saves against the class.
02Print the whole pack
The address you hand to the school office. One button prints the field card, the crew cards, the ladder, the script and all 144 round cards, in order.
03The first five minutes
Word for word, what you say from the moment you walk in to the first stake. Read it off the page the first time.
04The game, in full
Crews, the three roles, scoring, the steal, the last call, and how the season carries across the term.
05Six modes
Stakes, The Grid, Last One Standing, Blind Stake, The Chain and The Build. Same crews, same cards, different game.
06Control without backup
The behaviour system that works when there is no consequence available, including what to do with the kid who will not play.
07The round cards
Maths, English, Science, History and Geography, PDHPE, and a deck for the day you are handed nothing at all. Every card has the answers on it.
08Projector scoreboard
Big numbers, a round timer, saves itself. Runs on your laptop with no internet and no student devices.
09The print pack
The field card for your pocket, the crew role cards for the desks, and the term ladder sheet. Print once at home.
10The note you leave behind
What to write for the regular teacher, and the one sentence to say if a head teacher walks in.
The four things that make it work
They choose their own difficulty
A student two years behind can win a round on a 1-pointer. A student who is bored can chase a 5. Nobody gets labelled, nobody gets handed the easy sheet in front of the room, and the differentiation happens on its own.
The crew polices the crew
Points are shared. Calling out costs his own crew a point, so the correction comes from the four people beside him instead of from you. That correction works and yours does not, because they have to sit with each other tomorrow.
Nobody needs a pen
Only one person per crew writes anything, and only in some rounds. One pencil covers five students. The student who turns up with nothing is still in the game and does not have to announce it.
The score follows them
The ladder carries over to the next time you take that class. That is what turns you from the casual into the bloke who runs the game, and it is why they ask for it before you have put your bag down.
Before your first lesson
The shortest honest version: open Run a lesson, pick They left me nothing, and go. That works today with no preparation at all.
If you want the paper set as well, hand this address to the front office. They open it, press one green button, and the whole pack prints in order. The first four pages alone run a full lesson.
And read the first five minutes once before you walk in. It is what to say, word for word, from the door to the first bet, and you can read it straight off the page.