CIRCLES OF ADULTS

Description

Circles of adults is a process that ‘listens deeper’ to generate reflective problem solving that can create lasting behaviour change and effective behaviour intervention plans. This is a particularly valuable process for those looking to enhance their leadership and facilitation skills or to build such processes into their school or team approach to complex pupils.

‘The question is not should they be here anymore. Now it’s how can we figure out how best to include them?’

In this practical workshop session we will explore ways of problem solving around complex situations. The session will be practical and will aim to allow the sharing of experiences and good practice as well promoting innovative approaches to problem solving around systemic, organisational as well as individual inclusion issues.

Behaviour problems, relationship challenges and personnel dilemmas can all be worked on with these team oriented problem solving processes.

We will introduce participants to a powerful and effective approach.

The ‘Circles of Adults’ approach addresses the need for a problem solving process that is able to take an in-depth look at meeting the emotional needs that commonly underlie challenging behaviour in schools. The approach is co-facilitated and is designed to enable the participation of teacher teams to reach a deeper understanding of a young person and to evolve a set of hypotheses and emerging strategies that better accommodate to unmet emotional and learning needs. The approach takes at least 90 minutes and is intended for use with the most challenging young people, those at high risk of being permanently excluded from the regular school system.

Learning Objectives

1. Increased confidence regarding problem solving around inclusion in mainstream settings
2. Access to a wider range of practical strategies and techniques to impact on communication, realtionship, learning and behaviour issues
3. Learn new problem solving processes

Course Content

The course answers the questions :

• How to set up and run a Circle of Adults process
• How can we work out how to include this child best?
• How can we understand what lies beneath their behaviour?
• Is there a more structured way to run this meeting?
• Can we explore the emotional impact the person is having on us and still agree strategies?
• How can I get unstuck from this problem?