Creating Circles of Friends – Zoom Webinar April 3rd and repeated April 30th – 2- 4pm
Creating Circles of Friends – Zoom Webinar
3rd April and again on 30th April 2-4pm
Free/Contributions welcomed
Circle of Friends is an approach to enhancing the inclusion, in a mainstream setting, of any child or young person who is experiencing difficulties in school because of disability, personal crisis or because of their challenging behaviour towards others. The ‘circle of friends’ approach works by mobilising the young person’s peers to provide support and engage in problem solving with the person in difficulty.
‘Circle of friends’ is not the same as ‘circle time’ but many of the skills and techniques used by teachers in ‘circle time’ can be used to support the ‘circle of friends’ process. Over the past 20 years Colin Newton and Derek Wilson have been encouraging the use of ‘circle of friends’ in a wide variety of primary and secondary schools, often with very successful outcomes. Some of these are described in their books ‘Circles of Friends’, (Folens, 1999) and ‘Creating Circles of Friends’ (Inclusive Solutions).
Learn how to build teams around challenging pupils by drawing on a resource which is always there… other children. Enjoy participating in a multi-media workshop that will challenge, entertain and reach for your emotions. Circles of support are for us all, for life… and they work!
The course will answer the questions:
- What do you do with the child who is isolated by their aggression and anger, through being different, disabled or new to the school/community?
- Practically how do we go about including the high profile children or young people?
- How can we help some children to become friends?
We will cover:
- The importance of welcoming
- Inclusion values underpinning this work
- The intentional building of relationships – ‘Circle of Friends’ work as an example
- Not doing it alone – the importance of teams in developing inclusive practice
- Practical setting up of circles of friends
- Lessons learned
- Stories of circles in primary and secondary mainstream schools
Intended Outcomes:
- To be able to understand the values and wider context of inclusion
- To be able to set up and run a ‘circle of friends’ to reduce likelihood of a pupil being excluded or segregated
- To understand and be able to maximise the power of the peer group in supporting relationships, achievement and behaviour
About the Trainer:
Colin Newton was Principal Educational Psychologist of City of Nottingham LA from 1998 – 2001, where he contributed to the consultation on and successful development of an inclusive education policy across the LA. In 1999 Colin and Derek collaborated in the writing of their best seller Circles of Friends reflecting some 5 years of training and development work to bring this approach to the UK. In 2001 he co-founded Inclusive Solutions with Derek Wilson to promote the mainstream inclusion of all children and adults across the UK whatever their difference, impairment or challenge. Inclusive Solutions provides accessible, interactive training on all aspects of inclusive practice, in inclusion settings and beyond.Colin’s career has been values driven, but also practical using applied psychology in training and real life problem solving with schools, families and individual children and young people.
Platform is Zoom – we will send you log in details – if using a Mac use the Chrome Browser not Safari
Cost:
Contributions welcomed – otherwise free to all
via Bank Transfer:
Clydesdale Bank: Inclusive Solutions
82-70-18 – 80531946
Or Paypal – inclusive.solutions@ntlworld.com
Apply by emailing your details – inclusive.solutions@me.com or posting to: Inclusive Solutions, 23 Playford Rd, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4 5QZ
Tel: 01473 437590 or 0115 9556045
Name:………………………………………….
Service/Position/Status:………………………………
Invoice Address (if you need one for contribution) ………………………………
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Or pay us direct via Bank Transfer:
Clydesdale Bank: Inclusive Solutions
82-70-18 – 80531946