Teachers must also provide emotional (psychological) security; that is, an environment where pupils can express themselves without fear of ridicule, even if the pupil’s opinion differs from cultural norms. Fassinger (1995) states that a teacher who welcomes discussion, and is approachable, creates an environment where the risk of emotional harm to children is reduced, which makes it more likely the child will participate. One way to do this in class is to challenge any incidents of dismissive behaviour. I saw this in action in the classroom when one child made a mean remark about another child’s answer. The teacher immediately discussed this incident gently with the whole class, explaining why it was inappropriate. The teacher then documented the incident in her post-lesson evaluation. Barrett (2010) states that primary teachers should intervene in a discussion as soon as interruptions, escalations in tone, intimidating comments or aggressive body language are detected. However, a psychologically safe classroom is not one where conflict is absent: making the classroom stress-free may stifle discussion. Boostrom (1998) notes, “if critical thinking, imagination, and individuality are to flourish in classrooms, teachers need to manage conflict, not prohibit it”. One way to manage conflict in discussion is to have students design their own guidelines for group discussions (Chan and Treacy 1996). This is important in diverse classrooms where pupils may have different ideas on how they will feel safe expressing themselves, due to cultural backgrounds or learning needs. In class, we had children work in small groups to create bright posters on what atmosphere the children wanted to work in. They produced simple rules on respect, such as “don’t interrupt when someone is talking”. We displayed these posters prominently in class, and whenever conflict arose or a child was shut down by one of their peers, we referred b>