One aspect of teaching we will all need to tackle at some point will be an angry or annoyed parent or guardian. By being open, inviting and personable your students’ parents will be impressed with you and the way you manage your classroom. A miscalculated response can backfire, fan the flames of an upset parent and burn the bridges between home and school. This in turn can cause a lot of damage whether there was a basis for the anger or not. So this encounter needs to be turned into an opportunity for everyone – parents, student and teacher. Although much of this is common sense I have pulled together this ten page booklet with some suggestions for successfully defusing such a meeting before, during and after it arises.

This booklet goes through the basics of what The New Bloom's Taxonomy is, key terms and words which can help with questioning, quick tips and a quiz for understanding

This activity is a fun way to finish off the term but to keep it topical. Suggested use: in groups, half have to argue the case for an artificial tree and the other half have to argue the case for a real tree. The additional information (about Hazel etc) should help them to understand some of the reasons people make choices (i.e. not always for environmental reasons)

This document highlights how to write or verbally debate in an argument by denoting the five main stages to make the argument balanced