Children's questions about terrorism can be penetrating and hard to answer. Why do they hate us? How does someone become a terrorist? Will they plant bombs in our city? many teachers (and parents) will be caught unawares by such questions, uncertain themselves about terrorist motivation and goals and torn between the natural instinct to reassure and the awareness that Britain is on continuous terrorist alert. Since the attacks in Tunisia, Paris and Brussels, and with regular news headlines about teenagers leaving Britain to join ISIS, children as young as 7 are aware of terrorism. They have questions to which they expect answers, and teachers need resources to help them respond. The Prevent strategy urges schools to create 'safe spaces' for the discussion of controversial issues. With Ofsted inspections evaluating their efforts in this regard, primary schools are being placed under increasing pressure to teach about terrorism. Alison Jamieson and Jane Flint are following up their highly successful 'Radicalisation and Terrorism: A Teacher's Handbook for Addressing Extremism' with a brand new resource book for teachers of 7-11 year olds. Structured in a question and answer format, 'Talking About Terrorism: Responding to Children's Questions' will help teachers to face the most difficult questions children ask. Parents will also find it invaluable. Aimed at meeting the needs of lower and upper KS2, the book includes a full range of classroom activities including brain storming, group discussions, role play, hot seating, responding to visual stimuli and evaluation, together with a guidance section for teachers.

The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act (February 2015) makes it compulsory for schools to implement anti-radicalisation measures to help prevent young people from being drawn into terrorism. As the increasingly frequent press stories of school children being radicalised show, teachers urgently need a resource that enables them to recognise, debate and disrupt extremist narratives within the context of the classroom. This practical handbook provides a reliable and objective resource to enable lower secondary school teachers to tackle the complex subjects of terrorism and radicalisation with confidence. It sets political violence within a broad context of perceived injustice, using familiar emotions of anger and disappointment to introduce the notion of grievance, a precursor of all forms of terrorism. The text covers issues of citizenship, human rights and respect, civil and political engagement, the nature of identity and how we identify with others. It examines different forms of violence from bullying to the most recent examples of 21st century terrorism. Historical precedent is used to illustrate a variety of contexts in which political violence has occurred, from Assassins through Suffragettes to militancy in South Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Oceania. The handbook considers the causes and consequences of terrorism and helps teachers to explain to children what terrorists do and why they do it; how to differentiate between the reasons, goals and methods of terrorists; why the media and terrorism are inextricably linked; what makes terrorism start and, crucially, what factors bring a cycle of terrorism to an end. Pupils are invited to reflect on the destructiveness of terrorism for both victims and aggressors and, taking Northern Ireland and South Africa as examples, to consider the process of reconciliation. The handbook tackles the problem of defining 'terrorism', a term which is value-laden and subjective, and which has eluded international consensus. Pupils are encouraged to explore the reasons for this, and to debate fact and bias through an examination of the role of the media in reporting terrorism. The role of social media within the process of radicalisation is also studied. Fictional storylines and classroom activities are provided to stimulate creative thinking and interactive participation.