“Post-school learning and self-esteem: using Quality Circle Time in the Stirling compass for life partnership”, by Jane Alcorn.
This report charts a progressive and exciting project undertaken in Stirling by the Youth Support Service.
Two members of the service went on the Jenny Mosley Train The Trainers course in order to be able to train other members of their organisation. The organisation works with young people aged 14 – 25 through a multi-agency approach, focusing on participative learning programmes to people who face barriers in accessing mainstream training and employment. Many of the client group are in post-school transition, although some are there as an alternative to the latter stages of mainstream schooling. The reasons for using a circle time initiative with these groups was because the ethos of both the Quality Circle Time and the Compass for Life Partnership converged, as both organisations value the development of self-esteem and unconditional positive regard. The Partnership aims to empower young people with the skills for learning through various creative learning techniques, using motivation and incentive.
The leaders of this pilot study found that the young people got into the spirit of circle time after a few sessions. The activities were group-appropriate rather than age-appropriate. An evaluation circle was run in April 2004 to assess how the people felt about the circles that they had participated in. In all, the initial findings were positive, and the team are now planning to build on this and, with the help of our consultant Bob Morgan, aim to extend this work after reflection and development of the framework of activities. We look forward to hearing further news from this innovative project.
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