Restorative Practices
In 2007 staff at Syndal South PS participated in a Curriculum Day with Marg Armstrong from Just Practices. We worked to gain an understanding of Restorative Practices and were trained to use it within our school. Gabby Hutchison, Mandy Daws or Susanne Lowe are happy to make time to discuss Restorative Practices with those in the community.
At Syndal South we are implementing Restorative Practices in the following ways:
- Common language used across the school by all staff.
- Common approach to resolving issues.
- Circle time – each class is making time to sit in circles to discuss issues. There are rules for this process and all students are heard and their contributions are valued. It is an effective way for the group to solve problems and identify new & more effective ways to build and maintain relationships within the classroom.
- Yard Duty – teachers have scripts – with focussed questions to deal with issues as they arise in the yard.
- More serious conflicts are dealt with by teachers using Student Reflection Sheets and using mediated Student Conferences to restore relationships.
“So teaching children to do as they’re told is not a good enough aim for behaviour management. Instead, what I’d like children to learn to do is to think for themselves …not to think what would happen to me if I get caught…but what effect would my behaviour have on other people.” (Porter 2002).
Restorative practices is a powerful way of looking at responses to misbehaviour. It focuses on repairing the harm done to people and relationships rather than on punishing offenders. The process focuses on healing and the related empowerment of those affected by an incident, it enhances relationships and builds social capital.
Restorative practices involves a series of practices from the informal through to the formal. The underpinning philosophy of restorative practices views schooling in a relational context. When wrongdoing or misbehaviour occurs, it is perceived as damage done to a relationship rather than school rule-breaking. Traditional behaviour management policies have concentrated on ‘apportioning blame, establishing which school rule has been violated and making wrongdoers accountable by punishing them’ (Blood & Thorsborne, 2005). Restorative practice aims to ‘engage students in meaningful dialogue’ (Thorsborne & Vinegrad 2004) and to restore relationships by involving those most directly affected.
(Margaret Armstrong, Just Practices)
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN A SCHOOL
A ‘just’ school is a place where victims and wrongdoers and their respective communities of care are active participants in processes that ensure equal justice and fairness. Victims are empowered to have their needs met and to have their experience validated. Wrongdoers are able to tell their stories and be given the chance to make amends. And finally, the community of care can seek ways to ensure that the incident does not happen again.
Schools that incorporate principles of restorative justice into student management practices can:
- begin to address the root causes of harmful behaviour rather than reacting to the symptoms
- acknowledge that harm from incidents goes beyond just victims and wrongdoers in the school community
- use restorative practices to address the trauma, repair the harm, and reintegrate wrongdoer/s back into the community
- find creative and meaningful ways of responding to violations against people and property and to develop preventative strategies
- provide a forum where the school community members engage with the wrongdoer/s, administrators are released from the demanding task of ‘meting out justice’, and schools build significant links with their communities
- bring together the community responsible and accountable for the behaviour, so that resources and knowledge, which would otherwise not be utilised, can be activated
- provide the necessary link between contemporary classrooms and pro-social behaviour management processes across the school
- understand that sometimes a desire for retribution masks a concern for public safety which can be adequately addressed in a restorative way
- make the commitment of time necessary to repairing relationships instead of going down the quick fix path
- work “with” rather that “do to” young wrongdoers
Three main areas should be the topic of regular review and the focus for the implementation of restorative practice. These are:
- The provision of programs that enhance the personal and social competencies of students, teachers and parents, so that daily interactions proceed more positively and generate fewer problems.
- The provision of positive, effective and socially healthy environments for all students.
- The establishment of structures and arrangements so that extra support is available, whenever needed, as an entitlement for all students, and a recognition of the needs of teachers who also need to access sources of support.
Restorative approaches to student management will highly complement ‘protective’ strategies that schools build into their daily programs.
Restorative Practices in Schools: Rethinking Behaviour Management (Margaret Thorsborne and David Vinegrad)