Playground "Circle Up"

I had the most amazing "circle up" in the playground while on duty yesterday!

A child came to me seeking help (to tell on someone) and so I approached the group and asked everyone who was involved in the "fence kicking, the name calling and yuckky talking" to come over. I explained that I'd like them all to "circle up" so we can talk about it together - them circling up only took about 10 seconds!


Long story short... We had a very successful mini circle where we established what had happened (without blaming anyone!) all of them got to say what the worst of it was for them, I also asked the 'perpetrators' , "what have you thought about since hearing all of the thoughts?" and without prompting the boy told me it wasn't a good idea for him to be kicking the fence (even though it was his house and he was alowed to) because the little children might think they were alowed to and they might hurt themselves or get in trouble for kicking fences! (I must say, I hardly did any actual talking! - it was incredible!)

Then I asked what can we do to fix it? the 'perpetrators' both (without being asked to) stepped forward into the circle and took turns to apologise to those they had harmed!! these children replied with "Thanks for that" or "thanks for saying sorry" (again - you could have picked my jaw off the grass!!!)

Then I asked - did anyone have anything to add? one little gem said "I really liked their apologies, they were really nice!"

I walked away on a cloud! What an amazing school I work at! Obviously these children already have some of these skills in them, but, they are also recieving quality teaching!

Well done everyone!!