Middle Gate’s First Community Circle

Of The School Year

By Eliza Hallabeck

For the first time this school year students at Middle Gate Elementary School gathered in the school’s gymnasium for a community circle on Friday, October 21.

Two community circles were held during the school day to accommodate all the students in the school.

The event focused on teaching students the meaning and importance of “perseverance.”

Middle Gate lead teacher Susan Ruddock told the group before she spoke about perseverance that it was her first community circle with the school community.

“This is so exciting,” said Ms Ruddock.

Ms Ruddock then went on to introduce perseverance as the base for the school district’s cultivating character tree, which list’s Newtown’s core character attributes as determined by the school district.

“These assemblies tie into the character core attributes that all Newtown students follow,” said Ms Ruddock before the event.

On Friday, the district’s cultivating character tree, which also lists other attributes students are expected to remember and live up to, was held up for the students to view.

“The core attribute that we’ll be focusing on this month is perseverance,” said Ms Ruddock before the event. “It is one of the hardest attributes to teach, but once learned will allow students to handle failures in a positive way, persist and try other strategies — certainly a lifelong skill.”

During the community circle Ms Ruddock explained to students different ways to demonstrate perseverance includes working hard, learning from failure, and demonstrating pride.

Community circles to be conducted during the rest of the school year will focus on the other character attributes on the cultivating character tree, according to Ms Ruddock.