Can your class turn ‘dislikes’ to ‘likes’ with their powers of persuasion? Here we serve up some simple ideas to help children test just how persuasive they can be.

Trying a new food can sometimes be daunting for children. There is comfort in familiarity and taking a light approach to new experiences with tasting food is often the best way. Often there’s no rhyme or reason for our fads and fancies. My eldest would never eat lasagne so I stopped cooking lasagne and made Postman Pat Pie instead. The sheets of lasagne played the envelopes, which were duly cut up and ate (posted) without any protest. Whether that was trickery or persuasion is debatable but one thing’s for sure: lasagne is her firm favourite now.