School

Drewery, Wendy and Winslade, John. Developing Restorative Practices in Schools: Flavour of the month or saviour of the system?

A team at Waikato completed two projects on restorative conferencing in schools for the Ministry of Education, under the rubric of the Suspension Reduction Initiative. The projects included developing and trialling processes for suspension hearings using restorative conferencing and principles from restorative justice. Objectives of both projects were related to the desire to reduce numbers of suspensions and exclusions, particularly of Maori children. This paper reports on these two projects, and reflects on some of the questions they raised. Authors' abstract.

Porter, Abbey J. Restorative Practices at Queanbeyan South, an Australian Primary School

Restorative practices have proved a success at a primary school in Australia, where teachers have discovered that discipline works much better when the children themselves take part in the process. A few years ago, Queanbeyan South Public School, in New South Wales, just outside the Australian capital of Canberra, was struggling with persistent problems of bullying, violence and absenteeism among its pupils. Conventional punishments like detentions and suspensions didn't seem to help. "We were just chasing our tails," recalled teacher Elizabeth Harley, who said that disrespect for authority and low self-esteem were common among the students. (excerpt)

Adams, Helen and Cronin-Lampe, Ron and Cronin-Lampe, Kathy and Jenner, Kerry and Drewery, Wendy and Cronin-Lampe, Ron and Macfarlane, Angus H and Drewery, Wendy and McMenamin, Donald and Cronin-Lampe, Ron and Jenner, Kerry and Macfarlane, Angus H and Winslade, John and Drewery, Wendy and McMenamin, Donald and Cronin-Lampe, Ron and Cronin-Lampe, Kathy and Macfarlane, Angus H and Winslade, John and Drewery, Wendy and Prestidge, Brian and McMenamin, Donald and Cronin-Lampe, Ron and Cronin-Lampe, Kathy and Jenner, Kerry and Macfarlane, Angus H and Winslade, John and Drewery, Wendy. Restorative Practices for Schools, A Resource: Human Development and Counselling Monograph 1

This booklet has been prepared for the use of a range of educational professionals who are interested in introducing restorative practices in their school. The materials were originally prepared for the use of schools for the purpose of reducing suspensions. (excerpt)

Standing Committee on Education, Training and Young People. Inquiry into Restorative Justice Principles in Youth Settings: Submission

Stephanie Key, Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Minister for Youth, and Minister for Status of Women, goes into extensive detail about juvenile justice in South Australia.

Bowen, Helen. 2008. Restorative and Healing Justice in Aotearoa - a way forward for schools.

This paper is an attempt to encourage schools to examine their culture of conflict; and to seek out inspired leaders from school communities to develop principled models of restorative intervention.

. Restorative Practices in Schools – A progress report.

This PowerPoint is from a workshop describing a systems approach to the implementation of restorative practices in the school setting. The workshop description was:"This workshop will briefly describe a systems approach to supporting the implementation of Restorative Practices in schools by the DEECD Loddon Mallee Region. It will feature the restorative practices journey of Kyneton Secondary College, a regional 7-12 college with a student population of 700 students. The Principal will provide a practical and honest account of the challenges and successes in the first 12 months of implementation."

. Near Chaos to Near Calm.

Aldercourt P.S., Frankston North, is on a journey of improvement in student social wellbeing, self esteem and resilience. Changes in behaviour management practices have improved student connectedness to school which has led to improvements in learning. Restorative Practices have led these behavioural changes. Respect for one another and explicit rules and responsibilities have changed attitudes. An explicit Social Skills teaching program operates weekly. Literacy and numeracy are paramount. Aldercourt is committed to the improved learning of all students to achieve personal success. A playgroup connects parents to each other in a casual environment. Local groups assist in achieving our aim of connecting the community and providing the best possible school environment. Building relationships with each other, parents, local community, local businesses, local community associations and agencies like Ardoch and the Gould League enriches the school experience further. (This PowerPoint is from a workshop presentation about the Aldercourt P.S. experience).

Blood, Peta and Thorsborne, Margaret. Overcoming Resistance to Whole-School Uptake of Restorative Practices.

This paper is designed to assist change agents at a District and Regional support level; system decision makers; and external consultants apply change management theory in the educational context to assist with the implementation of restorative practices. An understanding of effective change management theories is essential to better understand the scope of the change process and to more effectively manage implementation planning. (excerpt)

Buckley, Sean and Maxwell, Gabrielle. Respectful Schools: Restorative Practices in Education. A Summary Report.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in developing practices based on restorative justice to respond to the behaviour problems and under-achievement of students in schools. This report summarises for school principals, members of boards of trustees and parents, findings from a study of restorative practices in New Zealand secondary schools. It provides information on practices and examples of how they have been introduced and used. It also looks at key themes and challenges in the introduction of restorative practices in schools. It is hoped that this information will be useful for members of school communities interested in implementing restorative approaches within their own schools and communities. (excerpt)

Wearmouth, Janice and Mckinney, Rawiri and Glynn, Ted and Mckinney, Rawiri. Restorative justice in schools: a New Zealand example.

Introducing restorative practices in schools is not straightforward. It requires considerable forethought and prior planning, negotiation and deliberation. Restorative justice requires that schools do not own or completely control the process, but have to learn to be responsive to families and local voluntary community groups who are, potentially, important sources of additional support for schools in addressing student behaviour that is seen as problematic. (excerpt)

Jenner, Kerry. Narrative Co-Mediation: The 'M' Team Approach in New Zealand.

Narrative Co-Mediation appreciates the idea that there is beauty in diversity. It models this in all structures and processes. Schools working in any one geographic area are encouraged to collaborate in terms of training and mediation issues to constantly improve practices and confidence of mediators. Collaboration includes support for adults in the supervision and management of the ‘M’ Teams. It also covers the structures in school to facilitate mediation. Student mediators themselves are in contact between schools nationally and internationally. This approach works well with issues faced by many young people in schools, such as racism, homophobia, social exclusion and is well used by special needs students in schools where it operates. (excerpt)

Blood, Peta. The Implementation of Restorative Practices in Schools.

The implementation of restorative practices in schools is much more than just another behaviour management tool, it provides an ideal platform for cultural change. Effective implementation of restorative practices requires realignment in thinking and behaviour within the school community. Repairing harm and taking responsibility for behaviour requires that we understand the environment to which relationships are being restored, and an understanding of the core business of that environment. Schools are a place for learning at a social and academic level. Restorative practices assists schools to develop a highly functioning social environment, which in turn sets the platform for academic success. (excerpt)

Shaw, Gary. Restorative practices in Australian schools: Changing relationships, changing culture.

The application of restorative justice principles and practices in schools is beginning to consolidate as an area of educational interest and reform. Although there is enthusiastic support for a philosophy that focuses on problem solving and repair of damaged relationships following an incident or crime, this support is tempered by hesitation about how restorative justice works, what impact it may have on current approaches, and how it is measured. This article presents the findings of a study conducted in eighteen Australian schools in 2004 and considers how such an approach may contribute to school culture change and to broader goals associated with producing a more civil society. (author's abstract)

Welden, Lynn M.. Restorative Practices in Australia’s Schools: Strong Relationships and Multi-School Summits Help Schools “Be and Learn” Together.

Two Australian educators are making an important difference in the emotional and academic vitality of the schools in their regions. Lyn Doppler has been principal of the award-winning Rozelle Public School in Sydney, New South Wales, since 2002. Lesley Oliver is manager of Student Inclusion and Wellbeing for the government of South Australia’s Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS), representing the South West (SW) Metro District of Adelaide. Each has been recognized for her leadership role in embedding restorative practices in Australian schools. (excerpt)

School takes no bully approach

from Sarah Collerton's article on ABC News: ....Some parents have accused schools of ignoring bullying problems, while others have looked for strategies to stamp out "modern" schoolyard violence. But Brisbane Catholic school Villanova College is using an alternative method to tackle its bullying problem. The school, for grade five to senior boys, implemented restorative practice (RP) in 2004, inspired by an Australian Story episode on a former policeman's restorative justice work. Villanova says it no longer uses the term "bully", instead preferring "wrongdoer", "offender" or "the guy who did the wrong thing". And it regularly holds Circle Time, which involves small groups of younger students talking about things that are worrying them. In more serious cases of bullying, there is the "powerful and emotionally gruelling" Community Conference, where parents, teachers and other key stakeholders intervene.

. The Australian Context – Restorative Practices as a Platform for Cultural Change in Schools.

The implementation of Restorative Practices in Australian schools is moving at a frenetic pace, with practice developing in most states and territories. The quality of that practice and the approach by practitioners is variable, dependent on their background, experience, passion and interest. It is a time where we need to stay open, stay in communication and explore together what assists to build quality practice in an educational context. We have reached tipping point and we need to manage that so that it tilts in the right direction. Poor implementation will have a dramatic effect on how schools view the long term viability of working restoratively. (excerpt)