Circle of Friends “In an intact group the pool of shared understandings is like a shared bank account of the group wealth”
Circle of friends is an approach to enhancing the inclusion, in a mainstream setting, of any young person (known as ‘the focus child’), who is experiencing difficulties in school because of a disability, personal crisis or because of their challenging behavior towards others. The ‘circle of friends’ approach works by mobilizing the young person’s peers to provide support and engage in problem solving with the person in difficulty. ‘Circle of friends’ is not the same as ‘circle time’ but many of the skills and techniques used by teachers in ‘circle time’ can be used to support the ‘circle of friends’ process.