Oh Jos, I remember those! Every week, as you describe, there was a set lesson about a Bible story, and at the end we received a coloured stamp depicting it to stick in our books. I loved those. Our Sunday School had these for years. I wonder why yours stopped so quickly?

After Christmas, I used to cut out small pictures from old Christmas cards and keep them in a tin. If a child had produced some good work they got to choose a picture and I glued it on the front of their exercise book. The smug faces of the pupils with a picture was a sight to see, and spurred the others on to get one too.

Each child had about eight books (one for each subject) and the aim was for every book to have a picture. Pathetic really, but it worked like magic. (Wouldn't nowadays though!)

I've always found carrots to be infinitely more effective than sticks!