How can we timetable staff Circle Time when people work different hours?
Q: I'd like to do a whole staff Circle Time but we can only get everyone together on development days as the rest of the staff are part time. What alternatives can you suggest?
Jenny:Trying to get everyone together so that each person feels part of the vision is very hard. If you want the midday supervisors for example to come to a twi-light staff meeting…it is important that we offer a creche and pay them for their time. Certainly it is possible that they, with plenty of warning can make arrangements to come. Next week I will take all my admin. staff out for a staff meeting – we will go to a local ‘tea house’ and at £4.50 per head we will all have a fantastic tea and a sense of ‘occasion’. All my golden schools hold circle meetings with the midday supervisors and support staff for just half an hour twice a half term. Often it is not the head that takes the meeting – in fact it is better if a different teacher did it for a term as they can then get to know their colleagues and feed back to the main staff all their worries and ideas. In Turn Your School Round – mentioned in the staff action plan for self-esteem was their determination to have coffee and cake for all staff on Fridays and a buffet lunch once a fortnight for all staff. It is great if everyone is invited…and if the staff are feeling very positive about their lunchtime policy, occasionally they are happy to take a lunchtime duty in order to free up the midday supervisor to come in and share the buffet lunch with the staff. I hope these ideas help – but sadly they cannot solve the problem of the fact it is so difficult to get everyone together often enough to make it feel relaxed and fun.
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