feelings; nurturing ourselves; peer power; celebrating differences; and saying goodbye. The 45-minute sessions are planned in detail for each year group to show progression and to promote boys’ emotional literacy. Circle time is used as a vehicle to improve speaking and listening skills, extend powers of concentration and enhance relationships. We also see it as a time to encourage respect and value of other’s differences, develop confidence and self-esteem, and to support the boys as they learn to be kind, not only to each other, but also to themselves. ‘In the Junior School, we have a friendship tree – boys can nominate each other for a friendship leaf to put on the tree and these leaves are awarded in our celebration assembly and placed on the tree.’ Circle time helps to establish a sense of community and is a time to have fun, too. Well-chosen resources are used to support it and these may include a talking object, games, puppets and collaborative reward charts.
When boys join the Junior School, we do all we can to ensure they settle in quickly, make friends and enjoy their new environment. Boys are assigned a Year 6 buddy, who writes to them in the summer term before they arrive in September and the pair are given a checklist of things to achieve in their first few days of term, such as learning the rules of patball or reading a book to each other in the Library. The whole school has a team-building day in the second week of term. Wellbeing is part of the general practice of the school as a whole. Boys can nominate each other for a friendship leaf to put on the friendship tree and these leaves are awarded in our celebration assembly and placed on the tree. Around the school, we also promote a shared language for correcting behaviour founded on two principles; the effect on others’ emotions, and offering a ‘choice or consequence’, emphasising that boys have control over their actions and decision-making. Wellbeing circle time is used to develop trust between pupils and teachers and is a time to share issues that concern them. The following themes form a rolling programme throughout the year: why we are here; praise and criticism; personal power; the power to choose; thinking about feelings; managing difficult
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