Some schools never stop innovating! Centre Point Group of Schools and Mother's Pet Kindergarten Schools, Nagpur have worked with The Teacher Foundation over the years to implement Jenny Mosley’s Whole School Quality Circle Time approach in the schools, dedicating themselves to enhancing the social and emotional learning of their staff and students alike. Their commitment to creating a safe and sensitive school environment is evident, as they conduct regular Quality Circle Time sessions with their students across grades and in all their branches. They have now blended an audio visual learning programme on life skills with Quality Circle Time and have found it quite effective!
Here is what the schools have to say:
The need of the hour is a method of communication, a language children understand and appreciate. Quality Circle Time (QCT) deals with spending time, discussing behaviour, exploring feelings, playing games, with very pleasing results. This activity was introduced in our school to provide considerable opportunity for varying the procedure in dealing with children to those, where they could find out a bit more about themselves and what they are capable of and how they relate to each other.
The children have come to realize that if they understand themselves it will help them to better understand others. This is their opportunity to talk and to be listened to, where they will get close attention from peers and most importantly, teachers, to form and exchange ideas and opinions which are then brought back to the big group for an airing. Their self esteem, potential, growth and moral development gets a platform through Circle Time. It teaches respect, positivity, safety and warmth.
To add depth to the topics that are discussed during QCT, it has been interwoven with an audio visual learning program where movies based on life skills, attitudes and values are shown to students. Based on the movie just seen, a few questions are put forth during the opening round and the children discuss it. It is fresh in their minds and thus helps them to discuss it well. They try to relate with the story and each one comes out with his/her opinion about the same – for eg. If a movie shown deals with the problem of 'fear', the children are asked questions pertaining to reasons for their fears and how to get over such fears, how can one be courageous, etc.
Thus a balance between both the activities has a good impact on the children. They tend to identify themselves better with the characters in the film and empathise more effectively with their friends.
Benefits Observed
- The children have a better understanding and implementation of the life skills, values, attitudes for reasoning and believing.
- It registers well with them when the film is viewed by them and later discussed. They relate better with it and come up with their opinions and views with deeper understanding of the issue at hand.
- If they are facing similar experiences, they get a solution for the same via discussions and get an opportunity to express themselves and take a stand. It gives confidence to the children to give their opinions and what they have seen is understood well.
However…
During the discussion the approach of the children sometimes gets restricted to the movie viewed. They tread on the same lines and find it difficult to think and ideate beyond the film. While expressing their opinion, it is seen that the notions formed by the children after watching the movie are the ones they express during discussion in QCT. It restricts their minds from wandering along different lines and broadening their approach.
One of the many remarkable learnings of students that we encounter:
After watching one of the movies dealing with overcoming fear, the children were asked
‘What do they fear’ during QCT. Others had to offer suggestions by asking
“Would it help if….”
A child answered,
“I fear my father meeting with an accident as he rides his bike too fast”. Listening to this the other one said –
“Would it help if you ask your father to ride below 45 km/ph which is the right speed limit. I saw it in a TV ad”
If only we adults listened to our children!
