Developing Social-Emotional Skills with Theraplay® Sunshine Circles

Thanks to grant funding, we were able to run Sunshine Circles as a pilot project at a primary school in Wales. We were also able to develop and run our own online training.

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Please note that identifying information has been anonymised.

A woman sites at the computer on a video call

During the lockdown, support had to move online.

A Note on COVID-19

Due to the various restrictions that the pandemic had forced upon us, we felt that it made sense to develop the training and support sessions in a way that could be delivered online.

Weekly feedback & review sessions were held alongside weekly feed-forward & planning sessions in order to prepare staff to deliver the Sunshine Circles sessions to the children unassisted.

[Students were] much more settled on a class level - much more cooperative, asking questions and not wandering as much. [They were] more engaged in class activities, and responding well to all class staff.

- Class Teacher

Training for Theraplay and Sunshine Circles

We ask that you watch the following video clips before starting your training with us.

If you have trained with us before, please use these clips to refresh your memory.

We also encourage you to share them with others who may be interested in Theraplay®!

Resources List

We have provided a printable document that lists all the resources you will need to run Sunshine Circles with your school or organisation.

Please note that Adenydd does not recommend any particular brands or suppliers. This is simply a helpful list of resources based on what we have used in the past!

View Resources List

Shop Theraplay Books

Picture of one of the booklets available for purchase: "Sunshine Circles: Nurture your classroom with play. By Theraplay"

Preparing for Sunshine Circles

We provide support to help schools and organisations in Wales get ready to run Sunshine Circles.

Planning

We plan the project with a member of the Senior Leadership Team alongside stadd who will be involved with the project.

Careful planning is crucial at this stage. We have found that selecting the right staff to work with the children is critical to the success of the project.

Preparation and Training

We provide initial training for the school staff about the impact of attachment difficulties. We give an overview of the Theraplay® model, including the four dimensions of Nurture, Structure, Engagement and Challenge, and an introduction to the Sunshine Circles session structure and activities. Ideally, this is run as one 3-hour session.

Staff will complete one Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for each child before the intervention to act as a baseline. Some Schools also use the Boxall Profile or Thrive Assessments.

Running Sunshine Circles

Presented as a retrospective timeline of when we ran this project in a local Welsh primary school.

Staff participating in a video call on a laptop

Week 1

Following the initial training, we had another meeting for further discuss the needs of the children and the general format of the Sunshine Circles sessions. We provided a session plan for the first week, produced using what we learned from the staff.

We showed video clips of the activities from therapy sessions, and discussed how these might look in a small group session at school.

After the meeting, staff were emailed:

The session plan
A prompt sheet for the schedule/plan to put up on the wall during the session
A sheet with key information about each activity

Throughout that week the staff delivered the programme to the children.

Staff member and children engaging in play as they sit in a circle

Weeks 2-5

We met with school staff online on Monday afternoons to discuss the feedback forms they had provided to us following the Sunshine Circles sessions from the previous week.

Together, with school staff, we planned the session for the weeks ahead, showing more video clips of potential activities and discussing which would best suit the needs of the children.

As the weeks went on and the confidence of the staff increased, they played a greater role in session planning. Plans were shared via email afterwards.

Individual planning and writing as they sit in front of a computer

Week 6

After discussing the feedback forms from the previous Sunshine Circles sessions, staff then shared what they had planner themselves for the sessions for the final week using the now familiar format.

They discussed how and why they had decided which activities to use, relating their choices to both the children's needs and the four dimensions of Theraplay®.

Individual person filling in a feedback form attached to a clipboard.

End of Week 6

We discussed the final feedback forms with staff after their last Sunshine Circles session. We also discussed how to meet the needs of the children going forward. It was already apparent that children with more complex needs would benefit from continued access to Sunshine Circles.

Staff also identified other children that they felt would benefit from Sunshine Circles, so that they could receive better support for planning their next group.

Staff completed out Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for each child after the intervention and scored and compared them with the pre-intervention SDQ scores.

View Our Impact Report

After Sunshine Circles

After the project, we continue to provide support.

Support Sessions

After half term we provided follow-up and support sessions to check in with staff to see how they were getting on both with the existing group and also the new group of children.

We helped to consolidate their knowledge, and provided support for any new or recurring issues brought by either group.

End of intervention report

Staff were encouraged to complete the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) again for each child, one month after the intervention, and add this data to the post-intervention report.

This report could then be shared with the Senior Leadership Team of the school. An anonymised version of the report from the pilot project was provided to our funder.

[Student] had been swearing, hitting out, pushing, kicking, throwing toys, etc. It was evident that he has experienced a great deal of overwhelm this week and has struggled to feel safe in school. He has frequently requested Sunshine Circles nurture activities this week, such as the blanket, the lotion, the [yoghurt drink] and the straw.