Circle of Friends

Delivered via Zoom Webinar

‘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.

Over the past 12 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, 2005). This is an excellent opportunity to learn from the educational psychologists who brought this Department of Education endorsed approach to the UK.

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!

We will cover:

•The importance of Welcome

•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