A question that has always fascinated me in my career has been how best to build a successful relationship with a student. When I posed this question from an NQT yesterday, many of the responses were along the lines of “well, build a relationship with the student”. To some, there is an implication that “building a relationship” with a student equals appealing, cajoling, chatting with and even entertaining the student with whom the relationship needs to be built. It’s very rar