What’s a teacher’s most valuable resource? Stephen Petty, head of humanities at Lord Williams’s School in Thame, Oxfordshire, says it’s not your whiteboard, your pen collection, or even your teacher voice.

No, it’s your humble, hardworking lanyard. And in what he describes as “a golden age” for the lanyard, he has four tips for anyone who wants to make the most of their ID badge and cord.

1. Make it know who’s boss

Make the lanyard work for you, not you for the lanyard. Attach all your daily needs to that lanyard - keys, a bag of spare pens, a few glue sticks, a whistle for emergencies, maybe a small bottle of rum for real emergencies.

2. End behaviour management problems

Make the lanyard and badge spin at dazzling speed around your neck, hula-hoop style.

Use this as a clear visual indicator to classes of your displeasure at something or someone, the degree of disapproval revealed by the rate at which the ID card is orbiting your neck.

3. Teamroom quoits

Spend a therapeutic lunch-break with your friends, seeing who can first toss their lanyard over a chosen item - maybe a plant, pile of marking, or willing senior leader.

4. Lanyard signalling

To avoid unwanted interruptions when we are working in the teamroom, say, “Why don’t we send clear and proactive messages to each other by simply reversing the lanyard and hanging the ID card down our back when we don’t want to be disturbed?” All social awkwardness solved.