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Introduction

Early Years Circletime Presentation- Rationale. The area I have chosen to cover for my Early years presentation is circletime. This is an area I have researched in detail and feel is very important for young children's development, especially in the Early Years. Circle time gives children the opportunity to share their feelings and emotions and to develop their talking and listening skills. Circle time is also an effective way for children to develop self awareness. This is important for building their self confidence and a feeling of identity. This is particularly important for young children as it allows them to get to know their class members better and will hopefully reduce any prejudice or stereotyping that may be built up between pupils in the classroom. One main advantage of circle time is offering the children the ability to speak out and communicate their views and feelings to their class members. This is incredibly important for children's educational development and should be recognised as an area to focus on in the Early Years. The National Curriculum states that: 'Children's first approach to language is through listening and talking. Talk is often the first record of any individual or group in response to events and preparation for action. It is our prime means of communication and it is proper that its importance should be recognised in the curriculum in schools'. (The National Curriculum 1999) Circletime is an effective way of showing to the children that their opinions really matter and that people are interested in them and the way they are feeling. Giving the children a chance to express themselves freely will enhance their self esteem and will hopefully help them to develop the skills and attitudes necessary to act responsibly now and as adults. ...read more.

Middle

Mosley highlights the struggle some teachers face when she says: 'Some teachers, immersed in the sudden flurry of new books and materials relating to Circle Time, without access to an understanding of the whole model, have found themselves struggling to find a way forward'. (Mosley, J, 1997, p7) I have therefore planned a staff training session with a focus on the introduction of circletime into the classroom. I will begin the session with a very brief introduction to circletime and what it involves. As many teachers do not use circletime in their lessons and lack confidence in teaching it I have aimed to keep the information quite brief and to the point. I have selected some points which relate directly to the problems of bullying which are apparent in the school and have listed the positive effects circletime can have on the children's behaviour and development. The training will begin by me introducing circletime, with the accompaniment of a PowerPoint presentation, highlighting the key points. From past training sessions I have learnt that members of the team work in a variety of ways and many people find information a lot easier to take in if they have a visual resource to look at throughout the session. I have made copies of the PowerPoint presentation for every member of the group so they can follow the on screen presentation on their individual copy if they prefer. I have made the key benefits of using circletime quite brief and decided to only use three points which were relevant to the problems the school is currently having with the issue of bullying. In order to then get the whole team participating in the training from the outset I have planned to introduce a circletime game which everybody can be involved in quite early on into the training session. ...read more.

Conclusion

As the leader of the session it will also be my role to sum up key points being made by individuals and to be able to move the discussion forwards. As is started here, the leader's role involves: 'You not only need to be aware of the direction of the discussion yourself, but must also make others aware of it. This means summing up from time to time in the course of the discussion, perhaps showing points of agreement and difference and moving the discussion on'. (Dean, J. 1987, p141) In order to recap on some of the important points covered during the training I have designed a quiz for the end of the session, where I have planned to ask the group to go into three smaller groups and work together to complete the quiz. Again this is another opportunity to work together in a small team, using each individual's skills and abilities to recap the main discussion points covered through the session. As well as asking the group to discuss their views on circle time and how effective they have found the games and activities covered during the session I will also ask them to evaluate the session at the end, highlighting the areas of the training they really enjoyed and also, the areas which they feel could have been improved. This will also be helpful for myself for future training sessions as I will have a better understanding of the kinds of activities individuals find helpful and which areas to concentrate on in the future. I feel that planning to use a variety of interactive methods throughout the session, as well as ensuring all information is available in different formats; will result in as many individuals in the group being involved in the session as possible and hopefully expanding their knowledge which can then be transferred to the classroom. ...read more.

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