We are very proud of our Circle Groups and the work that comes from them.
Each pupil is allocated to one of the eight Circle Groups when they arrive at Lingwood. the groups are named after ‘big cats’ – Tigers, Jaguars, Cheetahs, Pumas, Ocelots, Lions, Panthers and Leopards.
Rather than having a School Council, we decided that we would find a format where all pupils could contribute to school life, day to day issues as well as responding to individual events. Each week for 25 minutes, pupils join their Circle Group lead by an adult. The groups are made up from a mix of all the classes – Year 1 to Year 6 – and children have the opportunity to work in a very different way from their normal classroom.
Each week, children are presented with a letter, which touches on a wide range of different ideas, aspects, news and questions which the children, as a group, discuss and work through, often to a solution.
Recent topics have included charitable work, keeping fit, school values, writing, and random acts of kindness – for example.
In addition to the weekly sessions, and instead of these at the end of each half term, the pupils experience a Circle Group Activity [Building Paper Towers etc] or a Quiz [based on the work they have covered in the classroom as well as general knowledge].
Each Circle Group keeps it’s own Book with outcomes from each session written up.
