I have been working in education for more than 50 years and have never felt so low.
Two roots of the word “education” are “educare” – to bring up, rear or educate, to train or to mould – and “educere” – to bring out or lead forth.
The latter sees education as preparing a new generation for changes that are to come. When I was a young teacher I thought this meant teachers would help draw-out children’s feelings, their compassion, hopes, fears and joys.
Genuine, vibrant circle times create a weekly space where children and their teachers sit on chairs without any curriculum demands and freely engage as a “family” in its widest sense, i.e. a group of people who support you and in whom you can confide and trust. Circle time is a time when children and staff come together to talk, play games and spend time building these relationships.
So many children have never experienced family in this way before. They have never sat together with a group of caring individuals in a safe setting to talk, listen, engage, have fun and support others with ideas.
A while ago, I ran a large circle time in a school in a deprived area with a young teacher observing who was so worn-out and anxious that she could hardly concentrate.
It was challenging, but we got through the five steps – the last one being a guided meditation in nature.
Later in the playground, a little girl came up holding hands with another. She pulled at my skirt and looked up earnestly: “I loved your circle time – I felt you gave me a family.” The wisdom of children is stunning.
In another school, I asked a girl after a circle time which had raised a number of issues that the children had viewed very differently how she felt about this. She told me: “I like the fact I could take it when someone disagreed with me and I didn’t storm off like usual.”
I asked why she hadn’t stormed off: “Because the teacher made sure we all kept to the safety rules.”
Where am I going?
I know that circle time, done properly, works. For many years, while I was a part-time teacher in a mainstream school, I also taught circle time to experienced teachers as part of a Master’s in Education module at Bristol University.
Many of these teachers for their final dissertation tackled action research projects on circle time. To evaluate the impact, they gave each individual in their group prior and post-evaluation tools to assess self-esteem, resilience or inner locus of control. Evidence from their evaluations strongly pointed to the fact that the individuals in their groups felt more confident and able, more liked or noticed, and often calmer.
So what’s going on? Why aren’t more schools creating weekly circles for children and staff? My view based on working in thousands of schools is that:
- Teachers don’t get sufficient training on active group work, psychology of motivation, or the philosophy of being human.
- The curriculum is overcrowded and can’t be got through. The first activity always to be pushed aside is something like circle time. Children pick up on this.
- Teachers need circle time too – weekly listening and support run by a trusted colleague who keeps it safe. If they experience how strengthening it is, they are far more likely to hold circle time with children.
As a teacher myself, I also got worn down by the daily grind. The only way I could revive a love of teaching was via regular circle times with the children. You need to play games with them and laugh, be bowled over by their honesty and wisdom.
If you experience fun, support and empathy in a circle you trust, you end up loving that circle of people – every time.
So what’s needed?
First, proper in-depth CPD and training – not quick superficial workshops.
Second, headteachers who believe in actively promoting values in education; well-run circles allow individuals to genuinely experience democracy, equality, justice, compassion, empathy and joy.
Third, we need champions of circle time. Lord David Puttnam, the film director, prior to being a founding chairman of the General Teaching Council and founder of the National Teaching Awards, quietly slipped into a circle time I was running in a tough east London school and later said as he opened a Quality Circle Time Conference at Westminster College in 1990:
“Delight, wonder, mystery, pity, beauty and pain are to me every bit as important to our understanding of the human experience as anything I could ever be tested on. Education is essentially about developing the perception, the attitudes and the ability to learn that will allow the free spirit of the individual to emerge, and, when ready, to fly. Teaching knowledge gives a child the ability to contribute as a national statistic of achievement. Developing understanding allows the child to participate as a full member of the human race. One of the most attractive features of the Quality Circle Time model is its importance to get the aspirations and expectations of children right: but how much easier that becomes if the elements of the model relating to staff morale and ‘quiet time’ are right.”
Finally, we need funding. The Gulbenkian Foundation gave me the first and only wonderful grant I have ever received – to create a training programme to train teachers to run circle times. The Quality Circle Time movement gathered momentum and supporters and I have been going now for more than 35 years.
However, nowadays many teachers have never heard of circle time and the ones who have are no longer promoting it. There are only pockets of excellence left.
Unless we radically get together in circles across the country, to review the potential of circle time, it too, like me, will fade away.
I didn’t invent it – I only invented a safe version for schools. Circles are deep in our human history, but now social media, apathy and fatigue are gripping us tightly – and I fear they might triumph.
Please join me in championing genuine, vibrant, weekly circle time for everyone.
- Jenny Mosley is an author and consultant who works with children and adults in schools. She is the founder of Quality Circle Time. Visit www.circle-time.co.uk
Headteacher Update Spring Term Edition 2025
This article first appeared in Headteacher Update's Spring Term Edition 2025. This edition was sent free of charge to UK primary schools in January 2025. A free-to-download digital edition is also available via www.headteacher-update.com/content/downloads