Kids in the classroom.

For the past five years, the BT Education Programme has been providing schools around the country with a range of free resources to help pupils develop their skills in spoken communication. They include DVDs, online activities, workshops, lesson plans, teacher guides, drama workshops and a national classroom volunteering scheme.

One resource encourages pupils to devise their own classroom charters – a list of rules to guide the communication behaviour of both students and teachers.

The following list is a compilation of some of the most popular rules that have emerged from this exercise. How well would they work in your world?

• We should pay other people the same attention and consideration we expect for ourselves.
• We should share our views openly
• We should listen carefully to others
• We should talk one at a time and not interrupt.
• We should think before we speak.
• We should back up our ideas with the reasoning behind them.
• We should find out the facts rather than make assumptions.
• We should check to make sure our understanding is correct.
• We should keep an open mind
• We should ask questions if we don't understand
• We should try to make all our conversations useful and enjoyable
• We should keep our emotions under control