Introduction to Circle Solutions for Social Emotional Learning

Circle Solutions: Building the Social and Emotional Foundations Every School Needs

As a school leader, you know that academic success alone is not enough. For students to learn well, behave well, and relate well, they need strong social and emotional foundations. UNESCO identifies four pillars of learning: Learning to KNOW, Learning to DO, Learning to BE and Learning to LIVE TOGETHER. Schools traditionally focus on the first two.

Circle Solutions strengthens the last two—those that shape resilience, wellbeing, inclusion, and healthy relationships, both inside and beyond the classroom.

This full-day training introduces your staff to Circle Solutions, a powerful and practical framework for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). It is grounded in the ASPIRE principles:

Agency, Safety, Positivity, Inclusion, Respect, and Equity. (ASPIRE)

These ensure that SEL is taught in a way that is safe, strengths-based, relational, and aligned with whole-school wellbeing. The approach is not an add-on; it is a way of working that enhances classroom culture and supports every other aspect of teaching.

During the session, participants sit in a real Circle, experiencing firsthand how the pedagogy works. They will:

• Understand why SEL is essential to mental health, resilience, and learning

• Explore how ASPIRE principles shape effective Circles

• Practise planning and running a Circle session

• Learn a range of activities and ideas they can use immediately

• Strengthen their own confidence and relational skills

By the end of the day, teachers have both the theoretical understanding and the practical tools to implement Circle Solutions successfully in their own classrooms and across their year groups.

What your school gains by investing in this course

◾A stronger, healthier school culture
Circle Solutions creates classrooms where students feel safe, connected, respected, and valued—conditions proven to reduce behavioural issues and increase engagement.

◾Improved well-being for students and staff
When SEL is embedded, students develop emotional regulation, empathy, confidence, and resilience. Teachers experience fewer behavioural disruptions and more positive interactions.

◾Better learning outcomes
A regulated, connected student learns more effectively. SEL strengthens attention, persistence, collaboration, and readiness to learn, benefiting all subjects.

◾A coherent, schoolwide framework
Because Circle Solutions offers a clear pedagogy and shared language (ASPIRE), your whole staff works with the same principles, improving consistency and alignment.

◾Immediate classroom impact
Teachers leave with concrete activities, structures, and routines they can use the very next day.

◾Long-term capacity building
This introduction is the prerequisite for the accredited two-day Circle Solutions Trainer course. Schools can develop internal SEL champions who sustain and scale the approach over time.

By investing in this course, you are not simply offering another training day—you are strengthening the human foundations that make learning possible. You are equipping your staff with a practical, inclusive, research-aligned approach that improves wellbeing, behaviour, relationships, and academic focus.

This is the training that helps your school become a place where every student—and every adult—can truly flourish.

Duration: 1 full day 

Audience: Suitable for both primary and secondary schools.

Certificate: Certificate of Mastery