About the Authors of ‘The Co-operative Classroom’:
Jane Gilmore and Patrick Dymond

The Co-operative Classroom resources are the culmination of the authors’ own experience as teachers in infant, primary, secondary and special schools.
Jane Gilmore, with over 20 years teaching experience, is also a child psychologist. After giving up full-time teaching, she ran a consultancy service for parents and teachers concerned about their children’s educational and social development. She established the particular style and philosophy of circletime, described in the books, early in her teaching career when faced with challenging behaviour in inner city schools. The use of the circle was for her a logical progression from daily class meetings as she began to engage children in a dialogue about their educational and emotional needs. Both the authors have used and developed circletime for many years and believe that attending to children’s emotional needs is central to educational success.

Most of our books and activity files are based on the ethos of our teacher’s pack; ‘The Co-operative Classroom’ This is a set of four books for promoting the qualities of responsible citizenship in a practical and achievable way. By helping children develop social and emotional literacy a more positive classroom climate can be achieved in which children support each other and make more positive relationships. By implementing the ideas and philosophy of this pack schools not only establish a comprehensive anti- -bullying policy but help children to develop the skills, and attitudes for effective citizenship
Links’ materials will provide you with an enhancing approach to learning and behaviour, that will benefit all your children. Spending time with children who have learnt how to co-operate is rewarding and enjoyable. Our resources cover circletime, social and emotional literacy, anti-bullying, classroom management, citizenship and literacy. We advocate a drug-free alternative to teaching children with low motivation and distractible behaviour. by restoring self- confidence and stimulating interest in learning. Although the qualities of circletime are central to this philosophy, creating a ‘Co-operative Classroom’ is not dependant on the circle format.

‘The Co-operative Classroom’ teacher’s pack is unusual in that it re-examines the whole environment in which children learn. We believe it has an important role to play in creating not only happier classrooms, but classrooms that challenge children to take responsibility as active and caring school citizens. Based on the principles of humanistic psychology it is full of practical ideas for managing your class. These go beyond achieving a quiet ‘on-task’ group to giving you the opportunity to enjoy a class who genuinely care about each other and are used to behaving co-operatively. The authors’ enthusiasm for this way of running primary classrooms is reflected in their writing. The books are clearly based on personal experience of a philosophy of education that has been successfully translated into practice.

The benefit for us all is that children whoexperience citizenship as an part of educational provision, and are socially and emotionally literate, will grow up with a natural expectation of peace, justice and equality for all.

Using this pack could be a step towards changing your world!

They have seen how an over-prescriptive approach to the curriculum reduces motivation and enjoyment for children and teachers. This inspired them to produce the comprehensive set of resources centred around ‘The Co-operative Classroom’. Having seen the dramatic improvement in individual and class behaviour using the approach described in this pack the authors formed this into a practical philosophy for primary education aimed at educating for active citizenship. This model for citizenship and positive behaviour can form the basis of children’s total school experience - a way of accessing the whole curriculum, rather than an addition to it. Their books have now sold to almost a third of British primary schools and developing the skills and attitudes for active citizenship has now established as an entitlement for all children.