Author: education

Information for Parents and Carers

Restorative Approaches - Why?
Developing good relationships and positive behaviour in the classroom, playground and wider community is essential for creating the right environment for effective learning and teaching. Where children and young people feel included, respected, safe and secure; and when their achievements and contributions are valued and celebrated, they are more likely to develop self-confidence, resilience and positive views about themselves.
Research carried out by and for the Scottish Government indicates that restorative approaches help schools create peaceful learning environments in which children are successful learners; confident individuals; responsible citizens and effective contributors.

What is a Restorative Approach?
Restorative approaches are fundamentally about improving relationships, and encouraging and promoting positive behaviour. The approaches are grounded in the understanding that individuals are responsible for their actions and when an action has caused harm, those involved have a responsibility to put things right. This is a further development in positive behaviour management with a shift from the language and culture of more traditional approaches to discipline such as blame and punishment.

Helping children to deal with their feelings

Clear and agreed expectations

Taking responsibility

The Restorative School

Developing
resilience

Partnership working

Cooperating and moving forward

Alternatives to punishment

Clear and agreed expectations
At the beginning of each school year children and teachers will work together to discuss rules for the whole school and individual classes. These are reflected in our school policies such as behaviour management and anti- bullying. These policies are regularly reviewed with representatives of our whole school community.
Helping children to deal with their feelings
Children have to cope with a range of situations and feelings. At times your child may feel happy and excited and at other times they may feel frustrated, upset or angry. This is all part of growing up. As adults we are here to support them in dealing appropriately with this range of feelings. As a restorative school we will take time to listen and value each child’s feelings and work with them as an individual or in a group to make things better. Our Bounce Back Health and Wellbeing Programme helps children to express their feelings in a positive way.
Developing Resilience
Resilience helps children see challenges both academic and social as a normal part of life. As a restorative school we help children to develop the skills, willingness and strategies to face issues/conflicts/feelings using a range of resources that help to build resilience. This is another key feature of the Bounce Back programme, which literally means to ‘bounce back’ when things go wrong or are getting hard.
Encouraging responsibility and autonomy
To help discuss a situation questions are phrased in a simple, non-judgemental and consistent way. This encourages children to acknowledge their part in the situation. We ask the following five magic questions ensuring children have ample time to think and respond:
What happened? What were you thinking?
How did you feel? Who else has been affected?
What do you need/need to do?
As a restorative school we place most emphasis on making things better and moving forward.

Cooperating and moving forward
When an issue arises, emotions can be heightened and those closest to the situation can struggle to see the picture clearly. When adults describe a situation it gives children time to tell themselves what to do. When children are given information they can often figure out for themselves what needs to be done. We begin with acknowledgement of the good choice that has been made by meeting to resolve the issue and set ground rules to ensure all viewpoints will be listened to and a full picture will be established. In a restorative school we use a process of enquiry that includes asking simple questions to establish the following:
The facts, feelings about the situation and exploration about who else has been affected
Subsequent thoughts and feelings about the situation
Identifying what each party needs to do to make things better
Alternatives to punishments
As a restorative school children experience the consequences of their actions by engaging in a restorative discussion as described above. This helps them to see how their behaviour has impacted on others and provides them with the opportunity to learn from what has happened and move forward constructively.
Partnerships
Restorative approaches have been adopted as part of the Getting It Right framework. As a restorative school, where appropriate, we adopt a multi-agency approach to meet the needs of each child. Partner agencies support a restorative approach. These include: School & Family Development Workers, Educational Psychology Service, NHS.
However the strongest support network is and always will be between home and school.

school

home

pupil

“If I understand the consequence for others I am more likely to change my behaviour.”