The Importance of Circle Time Training
Tue, Apr 17th 2007
Just how important is training when you are carrying out circle time with your class? Read here how it can help.
It s not unusual to enter a classroom in the UK and find a circle time session in full swing. Circle time can help children with valuable communication skills, with problem-solving, confidence building and the boosting of self-esteem. Being an ideal, and government-recommended, forum for delivering the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) curriculum also means that its use in primary schools is flourishing.
Jenny Mosley developed her Quality Circle Time model over the last twenty years based on experience, research and collaboration with thousands of teachers in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland and abroad. It is underpinning theory and has been ‘road-tested’ in the field over the past two decades by hosts of willing teachers. Working best as part of a whole-school system of positive behaviour management, Jenny and her consultants have trained thousands of practitioners.
However, an underlying and slightly alarming trend has arisen where well-meaning teachers, who are probably themselves tired and over-stretched, are reaching out to new interventions such as circle time. They are told that it works and begin practice from a cold start, without having the time or resources to learn the best practice and pick up the essential skills that they need to be secure as to how it works safely and effectively.
There are plenty of training options available for delivering the Literacy and Numeracy strategies. However, the PSHE and SEAL curricula, which are arguably very pertinent skills for children to gain in today’s society, are sometimes left for the teacher to pick up with minimal support. Circle time can provide an excellent vehicle for this delivery but only when the children are ready, behaviourally and emotionally for it, and when guidelines and safety procedures are in place. SEAL guidelines recommend circle time as a method of delivery, but only training will keep it as a safe and efficient practice, Jenny and colleagues are very concerned that more harm may be done than good.
A brief set of guidelines recommended by Jenny Mosley Consultancies are:
- Teachers should be trained and at ease with running circle times before setting out.
- Teachers should be aware of how to manage potentially sensitive issues, and have other class listening systems in place to manage this.
- Children should be secure in the knowledge of their own school’s behaviour policies and behavioural expectations.
- Circles times should be enjoyable for children, always keeping a positive focus.
- Children should be very clear on the ground rules of circle time.
- The most important ground rule is that children and adults do not use put-downs about other people or use people’s names in a negative way.
- Class problem-solving can be very effective when the class is ready, however the ground rules still apply.
- Circle time should always end on a positive note.
Poor practice dilutes the model, reduces its efficacy, gives the consultancy a poor name and reduces the benefits that children gain. Teachers who are given circle time training should feel secure that the trainer who trains them is themselves fully trained and equipped for the job in hand. The consequences of teachers receiving inadequate or no training and running circle times could do more harm to children than good. The benefits of gaining proper training and using circle time to good effect in a safe and enjoyable way are huge. It is a vision of the consultancy that all children who attend circle times should gain maximum benefit from this potentially transformative system.
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