How can Parents Empower Girls to Resolve their Friendship Issues for Themselves?

She's upset, the story involves five names and a matching bag, and you can't work out who did what. Should you ring the school? Or the other girl's mum? Ask girls what their parents say at moments like this, and the replies that hurt most are usually the ones trying hardest to fix it.

You'll learn what helps instead: why having one reliable friend matters so much to a girl, why the story she tells rarely matches what happened, and how to listen for the feeling underneath rather than the facts.

There's a long list of well-meant replies girls say make things worse (count how many you've used), and simple phrases that work better, like "That sounds really tough. How did it make you feel?" The ideas come from a former headteacher who founded the Girls on Board approach and has two daughters of his own.