Jenny Mosley Consultancies

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A child has raised a personal issue during circle time relating to how they are being mis-treated at home – what steps I should now take? I am a student teacher

 It is absolutely right to raise this issue with the class teacher as anything that may be a child protection issue must be addressed through the proper systems. Each school must have a designated person who deals with such matters and it vital to report all concerns straight away. You will know doubt have some formal training in this at some point, but please do seek advice and information from college or your school placement if you feel you need to do so.

On a more general note I am wondering what the theme of your circle time was? We advise that circle time sessions are clearly focussed on school based issues.
We suggest that along side circle time schools also use our two other 'listening systems' to give an opportunity to share personal issues with an adult. These are called 'Bubble Time' or 'Chat time' and think books. More details on how to set up these systems are found in the book 'Quality Circle Time' by Jenny Mosley. However, to explain briefly Bubble Time (Chat time) is an appointment system where children can ask for one to one time to talk with an adult and Think books are for communicating with an adult through writing and or drawing. When I have used them, I ensure that children don't think that these books are just for worries or concerns but also for communicating all kinds of thoughts feelings and ideas. One of our senior consultants tells a delightful story about a young child in Reception who was very quiet and serious who requested Bubble Time, to share the fact that she had new knickers on!!!
Our model outlines the need for all three systems to be available for children, although you will find that not all children choose to use Bubble Time or Think Books - and that's absolutely fine.