Health Education

Circles of self-esteem
Heather Collin

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Heather Collin, (1995),"Circles of self-esteem", Health Education, Vol. 95 Iss 2 pp. 14 - 16
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There have been many articles in various

publications, including this one[1], which
describe circle work. Until I went on an
in-service training course provided by my
local education authority, I maybe like you
had only read about it. I would like to offer
you my experience of moving from the idea to
the practice, together with some comments
from the children I worked with.
First, what do we mean by circle work? I
describe how to hold a circle session later in
this article. But, most importantly, this technique provides a way to build relationships,
raise self-esteem and develop skills. Research
shows a strong link between a childs selfesteem and his or her health. Children who
feel good about themselves are more able to
make healthy choices. In fact, they do better
in every way, being more able to handle the
ups and downs of daily life.

Circles of self-esteem

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Heather Collin

The author
Heather Collin is a teacher at Hylton Red House Primary
School in Sunderland.

Judgement of self

Abstract
Describes the advantages of introducing circle sessions
into the classroom, and some of the strategies helpful in
running circle sessions, such as rounds, brainstorms and
the need for ground rules. Summarizes some of the
evidence for low self-esteem among young people. Gives
an account of the authors personal experience of circle
work, and how it helped her teaching practice. Includes
comments from some of her pupils.

In the book Your Childs Self-esteem[2],

Corkille Briggs says: A persons judgement
of self influences the kinds of friends he
chooses, how he gets along with others and
the kind of person he marries, and how productive he will be. It affects his creativity,
integrity, stability and even whether he will be
a leader or a follower. His feeling of self-worth
forms the core of his personality and determines the use he makes of his aptitude and
abilities. His attitude towards himself has a
direct bearing on how he lives all parts of his
life. In fact, self-esteem is the mainspring that
states each of us for success or failure as a
human being.
The model of the three-pronged approach
to health education also supports the need for
self-esteem. It defines the three essential
elements required to make healthy choices as
self-esteem, information and skills.

Poor mental health

Statistics provide depressing evidence that
many young people suffer from poor selfesteem and feel unable to take control of their
lives. For example, in the past 10 years, the
suicide rate has increased by 30 per cent
among those under 25 and by 50 per cent for
young men. In 1991, nearly 500 men under
24 killed themselves, as did 93 young women.
Each year, one in every 100 15-19-year-olds
attempts suicide.
According to the Mental Health Foundation, two million children suffer from mental
ill-health. The risk of childhood mental illness
increases in families where parents are unemployed, divorced, living alone, or homeless,

Health Education
Number 2 March 1995 pp. 1416
MCB University Press ISSN 0965-4283

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where the mother suffers from depression or

where child abuse occurs.
It has been suggested that as many as one
in 20 children suffer from mental illness in its
broadest definition and feel they have no one
to talk to. The North London Samaritan
Project questioned 7,000 young people and
found that nearly one in five stated they had
no one to talk to, and that two out of five had
experienced the feeling that there was no
point in living.
As White says in his book, Self-esteem[3]:
Self-esteem can be learnt, but it cannot be
taught. If we wish to raise a childs selfesteem, we need to create an environment,
and provide experiences which will help the
child discover how to learn it for himself. It is
like showing a child how to ride a bicycle. You
can demonstrate it yourself and then you can
hold him upright in the saddle and run along
behind; but the reality is that, having made
the right safe conditions, you have just got to
be there with him while he tries for himself .

usually brings the idea for the circle work

but others will contribute when they feel
empowered to do so.
It is necessary for the teacher to take part in
any activity. He or she must always be honest
but within reasonable bounds. If the round
is My worst fear is and the teachers worst
fear is of the headteacher it may be both
more appropriate, not to say safer, to name
spiders instead! Similarly, children will also
disclose at their own level of trust.

Circle strategies
Rounds
Everyone has their turn, but always has the
right to pass in other words, miss out their
turn. At the end of the round, the teacher can
ask those who passed if they want to take their
turn now, so giving a second opportunity to
those who did not know what they wanted to
say earlier but do now. It is best not to invite
anyone directly to take part as he or she may
feel pressured. I found in my classroom that
some children passed often until they felt
more confident and often children passed
because they felt comfortable doing so.
Topics for rounds can start with anything,
before going on to tackle more serious or
sensitive subjects. Useful starter topics include:
My favourite colour is
If I had one wish
My best dream is
I am afraid of
If I was in charge of the world I would

Starting out
So where does a group begin? A basic framework for circle work is that everyone sits in a
circle ideally on equal-sized seats or on the
floor. This makes it possible for everyone to
see everyone else, which aids listening. At
first, and with younger children, the teacher
needs to act as a facilitator but others can
take on this role once confidence begins to
build up. For example, at first the teacher
Figure 1 Most pupils enjoy participating in circle work
but a few object to sitting on the floor!

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Brainstorms
For this, everyone brainstorms ideas and
one person writes them down on the board or
paper. The rule in a brainstorm is that there
are no wrong answers. This approach
encourages those children who usually will
not risk an answer unless they are reasonably
sure they are right.
Once the children are used to brainstorms,
any topic can be chosen. Useful ones to begin
with are:
The uses of an old boot
The uses of a wire coathanger
The uses of a black bin liner

As the teacher, I found the circle created an

atmosphere and environment which gave me
confidence and allowed me to deal with issues
within the safety of a group with shared ownership, equality and rules. As Jennifer said I
like circle time it helps you sort things out.
Its hard to sort out your problems but in the
circle youve got everybody to help.

A slow build-up
Together as a class, we found that the aim of
the circle became clear and the activities
purposeful although to get to this point took
a considerable amount of teacher-led guidance and we had to build up the time in the
circle slowly. As Jemma said: At first it was
hard but now its easy.
To make circle work an everyday activity in
my classroom, I began to build up the time
spent in the circle. We established rules for the
circle gradually as the need arose, but I found
listening such a priority that we had little
training sessions using a ball of wool where
only the person in possession of the ball could
speak.
As the children developed the skill of listening, their confidence and self-esteem also
developed. The biggest safety in the circle
seemed to be our rule that no one would laugh
at what anyone said. As one child said: I like
circle time because if youve got a problem
you can tell everyone and they wont laugh.

Ground rules
These are the groups operating rules[4].
There should be as few as possible and they
should all be worded in a positive way: Do
rules as opposed to Dont rules. For example, We will listen to the person speaking
instead of Dont all talk at once. These
rules can be different from the class or school
rules. They can be changed when everyone
decides they should be and will be enforced
by the whole group not just the teacher.
This can be refreshing when a child interrupts
and the person next to him or her says:
Youre breaking our rules.
Teachers also need to remember that they
are members of the group. They need to feel
comfortable with the rules, too. There should
be no rule that the teacher is not willing to
have provided everyone agrees. The process
of making ground rules may be slow but
includes many skills listening, negotiating,
debating, compromising and so on.

Rewarding work
Now that I am working with another class on
circle work, I understand how many variables
there are in a group of people sitting in a circle
together. This class has found this work much
more difficult even though I felt more confident. We built up the circle with a lot of pair
work and it took much longer to establish the
relationships and rules.
I find it a rewarding way to work it can be
used for half an hour a week or for as long as
everyone wants each day. Why not try it yourself?

Underestimating the method

Having been introduced to these basic strategies, I decided to give it a go with children in
Year 3. I saw circle work as the opportunity to
get to know the children in my class. Looking
back on my experience, I feel this was a limited view, underestimating the huge possibilities it offered to all in my classroom.
I was in my first year of teaching, learning
on the job, and sometimes dealing with social
situations which left me feeling inadequate. I
felt unsure how to help children such as
Rachael, who seemed to be disturbed and
often caused confrontations which resulted in
great confusion for all involved. She felt victimized by others and responded in a confrontational way. She began to use the circle
to talk through incidents, eventually requesting the class to form the circle when she needed to talk.

References
1 Cansell, P., Circles of communication, Health
Education, September 1992, pp. 23-5.
2 Corkille Briggs, D., Your Childs Self-esteem, Doubleday, London, 1970.
3 White, M., Self-esteem, Daniels, Cambridge, 1991.
4 Thornton, J., "Rools! Rools! Rools!", Health
Education, March 1993, pp. 17-19.

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