Quality Circle Time in Rio De Janeiro
Wed, Mar 2nd 2011
My name is David Williams and I am Head of Pastoral Care at the British School of Rio de Janeiro. I am writing in support of Jenny Mosley´s Quality Circle Time model and staff training which we have had the pleasure of experiencing and learning from twice in the last three years. The workshops offered have been extremely well delivered, interesting, and entertaining with the result that our staff have been refreshed, re-motivated and enlightened with what is, in effect, a simple yet effective pedagogy for teaching in general and an enormously effective model and framework for positive behaviour and development of social and emotional intelligence.
QCT gives an opportunity for students to express their feelings in an emotionally safe environment, and from my experience, there is no doubt this is a most welcome addition to their usual classroom activities. In the senior school, one lesson a week is devoted to the Pastoral curriculum which includes the teaching of PSHE, Citizenship, careers and university preparation across six year groups. Needless to say, the schools tutor teams are made up of subject specialists with varying degrees of experience in pastoral work. QCT has provided a solid and structured base for tutorials. This has allowed the teachers to facilitate discussion, on what are sometimes delicate topics, with the result - that confidence has grown and tutorials have become more popular. I am also happy to note that several members of staff have begun to use QCT within their academic lessons also.
Beyond the classroom we have adopted much of the whole school approach strategy, including the suggestions for rewards and sanctions and notable - the circles of support concept for those students `beyond.´ In our school these are not extreme cases, but the counseling opportunities provided by the circle of support have helped to improve self-esteem for these students, and ultimately have improved performance. From my experience again, if QCT is well established in the primary school, (as it now is, in our school), then the continuation of the same circle format and behavior management systems works a treat in the seniors.
In summary, the training has been received very positively in our school and three years down the road we are still using the techniques to great effect. Please feel free to contact me if you would like any more information,
Best wishes,
Dave Williams
British School of Rio de Janeiro
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