The Restorative

  Cat Jolleys    catjolleys.com Back in 2013, when I had hardly any grey hair and couldn't even spell perimenopause , I went on some Restorative Circle Time training, aimed at developing emotional regulation in the children in my class. I immediately loved the idea but thought 'when do I fit this in?' and 'do I do this after every conflict in my Y6 class?' and 'the caretaker is going to kill me if I move the furniture around again.' However, my school were really investing in this approach, so I got on board and...have never looked back. Circles (or Circle Times) to teach curricular content or respond (react) to conflict, have long been the norm in many Early Years classrooms across the world, but for me, their real magic lies in using them proactively, to develop emotional literacy in children of all ages, even (whisper it) in secondary schools.  Using a Circle to focus on a specific behaviour , value, emotion, experience or need, or to model emotional art