Obtaining an item count from a list in a Django template

Question

I am trying to get the object count on a 'list' using the length filter in the Django template and it is returning the number of characters. It looks like my list is not a real list but rather a long string. My mixin looks like this:

class ItemObjectMixin:
model = None
template_name = None
my_filter = ItemFilter

def get(self, request):
    items = self.model.objects.all()
    items_count = items.count()

    itemsFilter = ItemsFilter(request.GET, queryset=items)
    items = itemsFilter.qs
    remaining = items.count()

    return render(request, self.template_name, locals())

And my class-based view looks like:

class MyItemsListView(ItemObjectMixin, ListView):
model = Items
template_name = "Items/myItems.html"

My template has the following partial code:

      <tbody>
        {% for item in items %}
        <tr>
            <td><a href="/item/{{ item.slug }}">{{ item.title }}</a></td>
            <td>{{ item.id }}</td>
            {% if item.group_of_items %}
            <td>{{ item.group_of_items|length }}</td>
            {% endif %}
            <td>{{ item.group_of_items }}</td>
        </tr>
        {% endif %}
    </tbody>

The code {{ item.group_of_items|length }} gives the number of characters for each instance of 'group_of_items'. I understand why this is happening but would like a solution where the for loop gives a list of objects rather than a string. Any takers? Cheers.