Questa Kids is a new children’s learning online platform designed to teach and engage youngsters through play, tasks and knowledge of the world, making clear the importance of the role of women to both girls and boys.
Launched this March, it is the brainchild of founder Laura Curtis, a digital learning designer who specialises in creating compelling teaching tools, advising both universities and big business.
She is joined by Dr Ruth Talbot, BA, MB, BChir, DCH, MRCPsych, an expert in child psychology and education specialist, Professor Elaine Ferneley.
It combines children’s learning work books, games and toys, is Ofsted compliant and curriculum focused using a pedagogical method that combines a mixture of approaches, including the 7Cs, which emphasise both effective learning and soft skills development, while ensuring that the child’s experience remains at its heart.
Most importantly the online learning platform is fun! Questa Kids’ philosophy is if children aren’t interested in learning, it’s not effective.
Created for curious minds
Questa Kids is a glorious romp around the world aimed at curious kids who educate themselves about alternative cultures through interactive tasks as they journey through learning to different countries. It also sets the record straight on the role of women globally and through history.
It is based on two characters, Questa and Zeke, the latter a grumpy alien iguana. They travel and collect tokens learning the cultures and values of different countries from an often-overlooked female perspective, using a map of the world as it’s basis.
Questa Kids is primarily aimed at seven to 12-year-olds and at launch will cover six countries - Iceland, Spain, Japan, Mexico, England, Morocco - as more countries and chapters will be added with a total of 195 countries on completion.
Content covers gender roles as well as research, mapping, cultural and historical activities, and does not shy away from covering contentious issues with sensitive subject matter (SSM) warnings for adults. This enables them to guide and manage children’s involvement and so they can make sense of the complex world around them.
Easy to navigate, Questa Kids can be used totally online and is priced at £59.99 for all 6 Quests.
Meet the experts
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Laura is an instructional designer who has travelled the world and blends her travel experience with educating children and using the latest digital techniques such as gamification to create tools that inspire child learning from a female perspective.
Laura has a PhD in War Studies and a diploma in Digital Education and decided to marry travel with her educational and digital skills in her first business, Deliberate Travel Kids. Those workbooks were downloaded thousands of times in the pandemic giving youngsters freedom to travel in their minds during lockdown. Laura also advises both universities and big business on teaching tools.
Questa Kids is her latest venture as part of her continued passion to create powerful learning tools and also redress the role of women in society, giving those that have been forgotten their voice back.
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Dr Ruth Mary Talbot, BA, MB, BChir, DCH, MRCPsych Education and a BA and MA in Literature, studied Medical Sciences at Cambridge and also holds a diploma in Child Health (DHC) and is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsch)
She spent three years training in adult psychiatry and four years training in child psychiatry and is a consultant Child Psychiatrist in the NHS.
Dr Ruth brings her vast experience of child psychology to Questa Kids and is equally passionate about create learning environments that not only engage and work, but create a tolerant, whole world view for participants.
A philanthropist, she has worked with refugees, helping to support those in the ‘Jungle’ in Calais and is Chair of Trustees for Medical Justice.
A proud mother of three and carer for elderly relatives, she also has the matriarch’s eye!
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Professor Elaine Ferneley was Director of Keele Business School and has 25 years’ experience of leading academic teams, developing and delivering transformative teaching, learning and research projects.
Her career also encompasses being an industrial computer scientist, entrepreneur, University lecturer, Business School activity head, Head of Research Institute, Professor to Head of all online and transnational activity at the University of Manchester and latterly to Director of Keele Business School.
She now brings her substantial educational and business expertise to Questa Kids.
Questa Kids is filled with role models for kids
94%
of Questa characters are female
55%
of Questa characters are non-white
33%
of Questa characters are over 60 years old
Why so many women?
“By the time they reach secondary school children often have entrenched views about gender norms. It is therefore important that children are educated about gender equality… in primary school”
Kids and parents want and need inclusive learning materials which show a diverse approach to history, culture and geography, avoiding stereotypes. That’s what we’re doing at Questa Kids.
We feature diverse female role models, doing a variety of awesome things throughout history.
Every time a kid encounters a women who really existed, they get a Famous Woman badge
Some facts
31% of children’s books have a lead female characters and 7% have characters from an ethnic minority background.
85% of surveyed parents believe schools aren’t doing enough to teach children about different cultures and traditions.
94% of parents want their children to learn about the achievements of women.
Research shows that girls in particular suffer from a drop in confidence between the ages 8 and 14, which doesn’t appear for boys. Research also shows how important positive role models are for both boys and girls.
