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Part I
The context for Circle Time
Effectively delivered Quality Circle Time can have a profound impact on the ethos of a school, through enhanced inter and intra personal skills and improved emotional wellbeing of pupils. No surprise then to find that the vast majority of Leeds primary school heads ensure that every teacher regularly facilitates Circle Time lessons. Many secondary schools, keen to build on these tremendous skills now include Quality Circle Time in the PSHCE curriculum. It is a democratic and creative approach used to consider a wide range of issues affecting the whole school community. The Quality Circle Time model provides a safe environment in which all children feel equally valued and learn to develop mutual respect, trust, empathy and understanding.
Leeds City Council â www.leedsadviceforschools.com (accessed 2009)
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A rationale for Circle Time in secondary schools
Doesn't Circle Time belong in primary schools?
For many years now, Circle Time has been a âbuzzâ term in primary education and like any new trend it is vulnerable to misuse and abuse. We have heard âCircle Timeâ applied to a superficial news round where children sat in a circle and shouted out one-word responses to the class teacher's question about their weekend. Similarly, we heard a story of a teacher who felt she had only run a good âCircle Timeâ if pupils had been manoeuvred into talking about matters they later wished they had kept private. Such accounts are enough to cause most teachers either to dismiss the process as superficial and meaningless, or to be filled with horror! Those who are reading about this subject for the first time should be reassured that in both the cases cited, the teachers had failed to adhere to the basic ground rules and structures advocated in our particular model of Circle Time.
âThat's all very wellâ, I hear secondary teachers say. âBut what has a primary school practice, even a good one, got to do with the secondary school?â The answer is that there is a growing challenge. In a recent survey of year 7 students in a secondary school, we found over 90 per cent had been part of Circle Time meetings in their primary schooling. In regular, weekly Circle Time meetings, they have grasped an understanding of the value of the individual and the notion of consultation. As part of a class, they have developed supportive peer relationships, giving and receiving class certificates signed by the rest of the class. They are used to holding positions of responsibility such as âchild of the weekâ when they become the teacher's right hand person, or a âbuddyâ to a younger child. Often they have received specific training for positions of wider responsibility in the school such as âpeer mediatorsâ, âguardian angelsâ, âplayground friendsâ or school council members. They are used to taking turns and know that they can speak and be heard. They have a clear understanding of the need for rules in a school community and the rewards and sanctions that accompany them. They are used to receiving regular good news about their behaviour and academic progress in the form of stickers, stamps and certificates and are in no doubt as to the expectations of their school. Concepts as esoteric as democracy and citizenship have been experienced through the functioning of their classroom and school environments. They then enter secondary school and become the youngest, often stripped of responsibility and voice. A commitment to building on this excellent practice of primary school classrooms becomes the challenge to secondary school colleagues.
Learning from SEAL
In the 2001 white paper on secondary schools, the Government pronounced its goal of âstrengthening the emotional intelligence of pupilsâ because it recognised that doing so would significantly improve pupils' behaviour and raise levels of achievement. In 2005, the SEAL programme was rolled out to primary schools and in 2007 secondary school materials arrived to build on the work in primaries. One of the authors wrote a book on promoting student success through emotional literacy (Tew, 2007). The other (Mosley, 2008) was asked to write the secondary SEAL (Appendix A).
In 2010 primary and secondary SEAL programmes were evaluated by the universities of Sussex and Manchester respectively.
Robin Banerjee at the University of Sussex found a link between the work schools do to ensure staff and pupils experience positive relationships, and improvements in pupil attainment. The researchers looked at 32 primaries and 24 secondaries involved in the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) Programme, and found a distinct difference between schools that viewed SEAL as simply a set of activities for a specific group of students and those that saw it as something that affected the whole-school ethos.
What they found was that âhaving a whole-school universal approach to SEAL was the strongest predictor of an enhanced school ethos, characterized by positive social relationships, attitudes and behaviour.â (Banerjee, 2010: 4)
Where schools were perceived by staff and pupils to have a more positive social ethos, they were, in turn, found to have: âmore positive pupil experiences of peer interaction; better Ofsted ratings for behaviour; lower levels of persistent absence; and higher attainment in KS2 SATs and GCSEs.â (ibid: 4)
Neil Humphrey, with colleagues at the University of Manchester, carried out an evaluation of secondary SEAL (Wiglesworth et al., 2012). He found anecdotal reports of positive changes from teachers in schools taking part, yet no statistically significant impact on pupils' social and emotional skills, general mental health difficulties, pro-social behaviour or behaviour problems. This could well be explained by another observation Humphrey made. He said that several of the schools examined took âa somewhat super-ficial approach to implementationâ and that an initial spike of âenergy, enthusiasm and activityâ was often followed by a gradual drop-off in activity.
Once again it appears that only when this kind of work is taken on by a whole-school approach and embedded in the general ethos of âthe way we do things round hereâ, is there likely to be any significant impact on student behaviour, wellbeing or attainment (Tew & Park, 2013).
That is why we advocate a whole-school approach, which involves having structured opportunities for all members of the school community to speak and be heard. The Quality Circle Time model advocates listening systems that include each voice and structured ways of responding that build stronger school communities where each member feels valued.
Circle Time, Ofsted and SMSC
In 2012, Ofsted introduced a new inspection framework for inspecting schools in England under Section 5 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended). In this framework, students' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is seen to be important in every aspect of school life and each strand of the inspection report. When schools take on an approach such as Circle Time, the staff has regular, timetabled opportunities to hear student voices and to âtune inâ to student thinking and responding. Each student has a regular opportunity to voice their concerns, to work out their differences and to think in-depth about issues that affect them personally and collectively.
Ofsted Report Greenford High School, November 2011
A key strength lies in the positive relationships between students from a diverse range of backgrounds and between students and staff. The promotion of equality of opportunity lies at the heart of the school's work, actively encouraging respect for human rights and value for different cultures. The success of this approach is seen in students' outstanding spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. As a result, students behave exceptionally well around the school. Politeness and consideration for others are the norm.
This is an outstanding school that has invested in training all its teaching staff in Circle Time over a period of four years.
Recent research indicates that successful schools are characterised by a healthy climate and a strong ethos, which respects and nurtures good relationships with clear, safe and secure boundaries (Tew, 2009). We cannot transmit moral codes through exhortation, or cajole young people into becoming good citizens. Instead we need to provide them with a range of different opportunities to explore their feelings about how they live their lives and how they engage with other people. As a group process, Circle Time helps to generate a sense of âbelongingâ which encourages individuals to become active members of the class and school community...
