Implementing Restorative Practice in Schools

Implementing Restorative Practice in Schools: A Practical Guide to Transforming School Communities by Peta Blood, Margaret Thorsborne

One of the stages on my school’s restorative journey was to create a new slogan.

New motto decided by BOT and iwi engagement is: “ Achievement through Unity.”  How do we embed this and get staff and students use this? And put our own twist on it for this kind of stuff...

The world is changing so fast that we must remember what really matters if we want to raise young people to be the best they can be, that they are responsible, accountable, kind, caring, compassionate, thoughtful and mindful of others. In the end, it’s all about relationships.  

We know this, we have been saying it since we began, how many of our staff really believe it? most I think... 

Picture the whole school community committed to the pursuit of best practice in teaching and learning and how that whole pursuit is vitally connected to the quality of relationships in the classroom and beyond. We’d like to think about the way all relationships in the school can be transformed, not just what needs to happen when a student does the wrong thing.

Okay that makes me realise how far we have to go. we need people like Kirsty and Tipi completely understanding and with buy in, and we need whanau getting it as well. and we know some teachers are weaker than others at it too. 

Restorative practice (RP) is about changing the hearts and minds of everyone so that they are focused on strengthening and repairing relationships in their classrooms and across the school community.

This is a good explanation for a guide for parents and kids as well as teachers. 

That problems are our problems, rather than that problem child, that class, that teacher or that school.

An effective restorative process may assist someone to think about his or her behaviour, and when done well, deal with the impact of that behaviour on others.

Enormous care must be taken to plan and manage the change process so that the job of culture change is achieved with a strengthening of relationships and social capital.

It must be achieved with, not done to.

This is probably why it's not embedded properly, we very much did it to rather than with in our first year. 

we must be the change we want to see in the world

Good quote for those teachers who still practice do as I say not as I do

We need to understand the limitations of punishment in the achievement of compliance, or more importantly, in achieving the climate that supports learning in classrooms and the development of social and emotional competence in our young people.

1.1 Two paradigms (adapted from Zehr 2002) Retributive justice Restorative justice Crime and wrongdoing are violations against the laws/rules: what laws/rules have been broken? 

Crime and wrongdoing is a violation of people and relationships: who has been harmed? In what way? Blame must be apportioned: who did it? Obligations must be recognised: Whose are these?

Punishment must be imposed: what do they deserve? How can the harm be repaired?

On the one hand, we have an approach that keeps people apart, indeed, pushes people apart; on the other hand, we have an approach that brings people together.

Howard Zehr (2002) advises that the three pillars of restorative justice – harm, obligations, and engagement and participation – must be evident for a successful restorative approach.

Alfie Kohn (2006, p.28) suggests that the use of punishment actually impedes the process of ethical development with a focus of what will happen to the child (‘this is what will happen to you if you persist in following this pathway’), rather than what the consequences will be for others.

There are risks that wrongdoers will simply become angry with those who punish them. Kohn (2000) makes the same point, stating that punishment (often guised as sanctions, negative incentives or consequences) ‘creates a climate of fear, and fear generates anger and resentment’ (p.97).

The threat of punishment leads to denial of responsibility (pleading not guilty, outright lying), making excuses, and minimising the harm (they can afford it, it didn’t hurt anyone).

classic Dallas

The capacity to empathise with the victim is not encouraged if there is no process of coming together.

In other words, if we want change, for these students who live in a different world from most middle class school values, we have to be prepared to teach them how to behave while they are at school, even if it is different from how they behave in their world.

Toxic stress ‘occurs when a child experiences strong, frequent, and/or prolonged adversity – such as physical or emotional abuse, chronic neglect, caregiver substance abuse or mental illness, exposure to violence, and/or the accumulated burdens of family economic hardship – without adequate adult support’

How many of our kids are in these situations? 

Prolonged stress responses such as this can disrupt brain development, impact health and ‘increase the risk for stress-related disease and cognitive impairment, well into the adult years’

Punishment has a compounding effect on children who are already dealing with multiple stress and trauma in their lives.

Punishment contributes to this stress, something that may be very evident in those children who are easily aroused and explode in anger and rage on being challenged about their behaviour.

Punch Ricky randolph

The lure of the quick fix is a siren call, and it takes enormously strong leadership at the head of education department/ministry level to turn around the impulse to demonise and label children, and look inwards to review paradigms and failing systems.

This is what Kiri and Ranier want to do...blame leadership for having no discipline 

Removal failed to satisfy those directly harmed and those affected in the wider school community. It failed to provide a real learning opportunity for the student responsible, or for the system to examine itself for its own failures. It failed to support deep behaviour change and it failed to provide the student with an opportunity for a fresh start and reintegration into their class or school community. It also discriminated against young people already marginalised in the school community

I've never been comfortable with stand downs and suspensions, the only slightly positive outcome I can see is for a bit of relief for kids in a class eg. Punch

most adult offenders were young offenders, and most young offenders had a poor history of schooling.

scary we need to,keep this in mind ALL the time 

if we are to live together in a learning community, our behaviours and relationships must reflect a deep knowledge and understanding of what it takes to be in cooperative relationships and to work within boundaries that provide safety for all.

Maybe some "mandated" inquiry work around the concept of community is needed at the start of the yeAr? 

Relational/Authoritative. The final quadrant, where we believe the restorative philosophy of problem-solving works best, is distinguished by high pressure around expectations and standards in a climate of high support and nurture. This is the firm and fair aspect that we know works best for children and adults. We need to know the limits and we need to know that someone will be with us to help solve problems when we get ourselves into a mess. The emphasis is on repairing the harm we might have caused and helping us to take responsibility for our actions and to put in place strategies to avoid doing the same again. Together with the person or persons we have harmed, we will work out how to fix it. We will know, too, that we will end up feeling better about ourselves, and others, when we work things out this way. It is also the place where we might not know the answer to all problems, but together we will work it out in a fair and just way. It is a place of hope, collaboration, care and, above all, a position of high standards that we need to maintain, knowing that doing the right thing is not always easy.

So we kind of know this theory with kids and are trying to work towards it, but are we as a staff working towards it? maybe not as well as I gave thought so in the past

When we resort to punitive, permissive or neglectful ways of managing behaviour and conflict, there is something going on for us such as tiredness, stress or personal issues that lower our tolerance or coping abilities.

Good quote for staff guide 

It is a way of working that should inform everything we do. When we are not restorative, we have a case to answer.

So teachers in each team need to develop the trust to call each other when they don't use RP

Working restoratively is about strengthening relationships and building community within the classroom and the wider school community.

Another role for the parent whanau group?

We no longer discount, tolerate, put up with or pretend that it is not going on and we avoid the blame game.

We approach things from a perspective of needing to deal with them and we work with those involved to find the best solution to a problem or issues. We no longer deal in isolation or send students to isolation to work on their problems.

This is why I don't like PB4L. 5th hey advocate the use of a withdrawal space where one fault works with kids, rather than fixing the real issue. 

The facilitator in each of these scenarios must be carefully trained and highly skilled as the stakes are high for all participants. Significant harm has been done and people will be feeling anxious about the process and concerned about outcomes. Preparation must be done carefully, along with follow-up of agreed plans and preventative actions

We have been "going with gut" a lot. maybe all the SLT or all team leaders need to do some training, or do we just wait and do some training all together in 2015? 

The affective statement is the simple ‘I’ statement: ‘I’m feeling (state the feeling)…because (name the behaviour/s)…and what I’d like to see happen is…(state the action)’.

‘Class, I’m feeling really uncomfortable, because people are hurting one another and what I would like to see happen is that we each keep our hands to ourselves during the game.’

 I think a lot of our teachers still jump straight to blame in a situation like that. Jono, this reminds me of your class the week after you left. Ranier had them for PE and they all came back a mess because she had done the whole blame thing! and the more she did the more they hassled each other. This nice group of kids who were all a bit vulnerable at the time just turned on each other turned into animal farm in less than an hour, and it could have so been prevented.

connectedness, caring, values rather than rules and building on strengths of the young person to solve the issue

Hi Joe, nice to see you. How are you going today? Could we have a chat about your uniform? (connectedness) I don’t want you to be cold, but is there another way you could keep warm? How about wearing something underneath that doesn’t show? (caring) Wearing the uniform is about belonging and you belong here, so it is important that you wear it in a way that shows that. (values) I know you are clever enough to keep the small things small. Have a great day. (belief in strength to solve the issue)

Wow as I've been reading I've been wondering about uniform, this is a good model, I think. but it means you have to have kids buying into the values of belonging first, link to whanaungatanga? 

Questions to the wrongdoer include: Tell me what happened. What were you thinking at the time? What have you thought about since? Who has been affected? How? What needs to happen to repair the harm? Questions to the person harmed include: What did you think when____happened? How have you been harmed/affected? What has been the hardest or most challenging part? What would you like to see happen?

Restorative practice, with its emphasis on relationships, demands that schools attend to all aspects of the school culture and organisation and that they develop a range of relational practices that help prevent incidents of inappropriate behaviour from arising in the first place.

I think some of our teachers might be particularly weak in preventative measures 

The two top layers are our restorative, responsive continuum (repairing and reconnecting) and the bottom layer is about preventing issues from occurring and building healthy relationships (preventing and building).

An important consideration is how much resourcing you put into each level and who is being targeted at

to deliver programmes and curriculum to all learners in order to develop their social and emotional competence, to develop their personal and interpersonal effectiveness, to contribute to a sense of belonging, safety and wellbeing in the school community so that learning can be maximised.

self-management – managing own emotions and behaviours to achieve goals self-awareness – recognising own emotions, values, strengths and challenges social awareness – having understanding and empathy for others

relationship skills – working together, managing conflict and forming positive relationships responsible decision-making – making good decisions and choices about personal and social behaviour.

‘children who engage in positive social interactions with their teachers, peers, and families and who participate actively and cooperatively in the learning process are more successful in and out of school’

five domains of emotional literacy and the constructs that help children and young people to do well at school: self-awareness – optimism, imagination, integrity, confidence self-control – managing emotions such as anger understanding others – empathy, being helpful getting on with others – working together, fitting in and communicating well motivation – keeping going and staying on track.

teachers need to be the role models for how they expect children to interact and behave in school.ht

team teaching can be hugely powerful here

Figure 2.4 Productive pedagogy (adapted from Lingard et al. 2003)

this is what is used In Queensland new basics curriculum I think? 

‘student welfare stands alongside teaching and learning at the heart of everything a good school does…students cannot learn properly if they are distracted by issues at home, or by anxiety or depression’

To what extent is the quality of professional, collegial relationships an important issue in your staffroom, team or faculty? How are issues handled? How transparent are decisions affecting staff? How engaged are the adults with each other?

To change the behaviour of the students in our classrooms and playgrounds, we must change our own behaviours. Adults first. But for the change process to be sustained, we must look to our own relationships with our colleagues. These should be a source of deep and mutual satisfaction. This does not happen by accident. Our relationships must be built and nurtured, and repaired when disconnections occur. We have to walk our talk with each other.

 I think this started off okay, but there's been some damage lately and I haven't really acted to repair those. need to do so in future for us to move on. 

In essence what al-Falah and Rozen are saying is that approaches to problem-solving (that is, our problem-solving behaviours) will come from a ‘heart’ that is either peaceful or at war. If we come from a place of war in our heart, then we dehumaniseR

the other person or objectify them in ways that result in further harm. We see the young person as the problem or evil child. We then respond in punitive and punishing (heart of war) ways that do not deal with the underlying causal factors of the behaviour. If we take a peaceful approach (heart of peace), then we see people as people, not much different from ourselves with the same needs, cares, wants and fears. We will also seek to understand what is going on, how that child is struggling, and consider what we need to do to call them to account, whilst at the same time supporting them to change their behaviour.

Think we still have adults who come from a pomace of war first, they are learning not to but it's taking times. 

No good can come of this approach. In fact for many students who are in a place of misbehaving, through little fault of their own, they go on to do immense harm to themselves and others, in part because of the heart of war they are met with over and over in their lives.

Punch.....one of the few kids I've been ready to write off....... and a kid who needs us and this stuff more than most, need to figure out how to deal with his button pushing next year! 

RP has been variously described as ‘the glue that holds everything together’, a guiding set of principles or a framework for understanding effective school practice.

For us this sits in our teaching and learning principles under inspiring 

First order change involves the integration of restorative practice into what already exists, whilst second order change is about whole school transformation.

 This is really useful leadership theory. First order change is what we have done for the first 2-3 years, now we need to move into second order change. 

is the challenging of mindsets where true culture change begins. Mezirow (2000) refers to this as the need to transform one’s world view, where a critical part of any change process is the need for individuals to change their frame of reference by reflecting on and challenging their beliefs and assumptions.

Hard stuff 

The restorative philosophy is embedded in and integrated into quality teaching and learning with clear linkages between key initiatives, system imperatives, pedagogy and key competencies so it is not seen as an add-on or stand-alone initiative. The approach is seen as the ‘glue’ that enhances the core business of teaching and learning within the school community – a framework for best practice.

Thought so but now I'm doubting it, I think we've gone too fast and skipped parts for it to be truly embedded at the moment 

As part of relationship skill development, teachers are skilled in basic effective, innovative classroom management and pedagogy.

Attention is paid to the quality of the relationships between learners as well as between teacher and learner, in recognition of the need for an optimal environment for learning – a sense of safety and belonging.

The school has a stimulating emotional environment where interest and enjoyment are maximised for learners and teachers alike. Impediments to this are appropriately addressed. The behaviour of learners is not seen as a separate issue to be managed outside the curriculum. Regular class meetings are held to develop social and emotional competencies, self-regulation and whole-class responsibility for the climate in the classroom. Students are explicitly taught the skills required to participate in restorative processes. There is effective communication and collaboration between pastoral care and curriculum roles (e.g. classroom teachers, deans, heads of house, syndicate leaders and heads of faculty/department) when behaviour issues arise in classrooms. Induction for new staff and learners is taken seriously and adequately resourced. There is a prominent focus on the restorative approach to problem-solving. Transitions for learners are well managed: between schools, within school from one year level to the next, or between sub-schools and subject changes so that a strong sense of connectedness and/or closure is an outcome. A case management approach is taken to address issues around particular learners, with preparedness to work on underlying issues as well as the symptomatic behaviours. The school is well connected to providers that can assist with student and family issues. Restorative practice/relationship competence is built into the school’s appraisal, selection and recruitment processes.

If the above list looks like a huge job, it absolutely is! There are no quick fixes for changing people’s perceptions, beliefs and paradigms.

wow that list is huge, the one for embedding RP. but they are good indicators to use in an implementation plan. 

not an add-on programme for the purposes of behaviour management, nor does it provide just another tool in the toolbox for staff to use to deal with student behaviour. In contrast, restorative school discipline represents a school culture that permeates all aspects of school organization and relationships within the school as well as relationships between the school and its community.

think this is a huge understanding everyone needs..... it's not a programme or a thing to put in place, it's a way of  being 

Figure 4.1 Rogers’ (2003) Diffusion Model of Innovation

 this is often used to describe changes to ICT, can see it's natural use in RP too 

Innovators can struggle to allow an innovation to settle before they embark on the next lot of change, without giving staff the ability to stop and catch up on an initiative.

 sometimes this is me I think? I don't give people enough time to embed something coz I don't see how it's just not normal practice for them. 

It is important that while we don’t invest all our time and energy in changing their minds, we must not write them off totally.

if we don't write kids off, we shouldn't write staff off. Ranier? Kiri?

A whole school training in one sitting is not the most effective way to proceed as it will only reach or convince some and certainly not others.

it only takes a 10–20 per cent rate of adoption to reach tipping point

When we look at the implementation of restorative practice, we are asking implementation teams to change the minds and hearts of school practitioners.

It is our view that first order change around the implementation of restorative practice is only successful in building sustainable practice when the environment is conducive to change. This requires a strong relational focus that is values-driven and the implementation of restorative practice is aligned with a school vision that is relational in nature.

A large part of the focus was developing a consistent language across the school community and sharing this with students and parents alike.

This was really successful at hataitai 

They did not have an implementation team. Instead the school was small enough to bring everyone on board.

It was relational and highly restorative in nature, to the point that one young boy asked the principal for a conference one day, only for the principal to establish in the process that the boy was the main perpetrator. At the end of the process, the principal asked why he had requested a conference, to which the student said, ‘It was really easy. I did the wrong thing, felt bad and knew you would help me to fix it up

many, but not all, of our kids are doing thus in their own ways. 

Finally, the lack of an action plan will lead to many false starts or a hit and miss approach, according to Knoster et al. (2000).

Leaders need to: walk the talk – be congruent surface the concerns have a good understanding of restorative practice align policy and practice deal with adult issues within the school.

interconnects the areas on both sides of the green line. Really good diagram at 1961

We,actually have a lot of these in place, except the specific RP skills 

Dalmau (2000) indicates that work done above the green line alone will not effect desired culture or behaviour change because it does not tackle matters of the human heart.

It all comes back to what happens below the green line – engaging the very people that need to buy-in and to deliver frontline services in classrooms, corridors, playgrounds and offices and that means all of us.

What will make the most difference will be the leadership’s capacity to capture the hearts of its staff, parents, students and governing body to influence their thinking and ultimately their behaviour.

We are talking of course about influence.

Megan said the other day about how her language is gradually changing because of the way I have influenced that, we ned to be prepared yet changes we want will and more gradual than perhaps we want 

in the first instance, leaders must help their organisation to reflect on and to develop a strong sense of identity of who they are and who they want to be, captured in the vision, mission and values.

What do they believe about human nature? What do they believe about the most effective way to raise a child to become loving, caring, responsible, compassionate? What are the influences in their own lives that have led them to believe what they do, and is that possible to change?

We interviewed Henare and sol the other day with the same interview questions we used for the junior team. they both said it would be great to start the year at induction with all staff being asked to discuss those questions. ad the ones just above. 

the change process can become quite messy and it will feel sometimes as if there have been three steps forward and two steps back.

We have felt like that for three years! 

‘When you are at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle, because the middle is going to look different once you get there. Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving’

This is basically what I said to all the teams-about team teaching 

is equitable, inclusive, caring, respectful, safe and supportive (Figure 10.1). (Loation 2112)

like this diagram 

We stress again the need for a team that has influence amongst the school community as they will be leading the change process.

Still wondering about, given our size, a team vs whole approach to implementation? 

What is the purpose of schooling – why do we exist? What is the moral purpose of schooling? What would the school look like, feel like, sound like in 3–5 years? What would relationships be like between all members of the school community? How would people be relating to and with one another? What would the wider community (external to the school) be saying about the school?

This is the stuff we do for hole school visioning..... we don't want to be repeating stuff, and again I’m wondering team vs whole school given our size 

What will we be known for three years down the track? What would student behaviour look like? What would staff behaviour look like? What would the behaviour of the SLT look like? What would be the nature of parent involvement? What would the relationship be like between the school and parents? What would we be doing to build relationships? How would we be managing the minor issues that arise? How would we be resolving staff issues? What evidence would there be to show the school values in action? What would be the evidence that we are succeeding? Who are we? (This is an important question that gets at perceptions of the identity of

What kind of aspirations do we have? What’s at the heart of what we do here? Indeed, it goes back to one of these first questions: ‘Why do we exist?’

Most schools have a list (usually 3–5) of values such as respect, excellence, tolerance, responsibility, life-long learning and so on.

our values are a bit of a dog to work with, there are so many, and it couldn't get the board to change them so we need. to work within them 

Achieving good relationships in school depends on every member of staff understanding that adults need to model the behaviour they wish to see from students, that good behaviour needs to be taught as much as academic content and that lapses in behaviour can be a learning opportunity for students to develop their emotional literacy. We are a restorative school and all staff are expected to use restorative process as a starting point for resolving issues.

 Staff guide statement

The first step to is make sure that the plan to implement RP is firmly embedded into the school’s wider strategic plan.

Need to look at annual plan and ensure it is in there 

(d) Becoming fluent in describing the vision

the bigger vision of the school, describing it in 5 mins or less, good challenge! 

Glasser’s Choice Theory provides one explanation for human motivation – a central aspect of Choice Theory is the belief that we are internally, not externally, motivated and that we always have choice about how to behave. It is an approach used in some schools for working with individual students to help them think about and choose more appropriate behaviours.

do you know this stuff Jono? I think you would enjoy it. about choice theory and non coercion. I think a lot of our staff still use coercion through bribery, blame, guilt tripping etc. including me sometimes! 

Ensure that the school website reflects the essence of the vision, even if the word ‘restorative’ is not used. Include stories, handy hints (for parents too) and small articles in the school newsletter as a regular feature.

If the school uses social networking to communicate, find ways to insert the messages about relationships, and develop an appropriate policy for the healthy management of relationships via social networking.

Create a brochure to explain the restorative philosophy and school policy and protocols for the enrolment process, so that parents and students have this explained up front.

Make sure that induction processes for all people who are new to the school include more than a passing mention of RP. RP needs to be part of a ‘the way we do things here’ message and is hopefully reflected in all recruitment processes for staff, students and parents.

Where particular staff members are resisting the  changes, despite plenty of effective support and opportunities for skill development, then they must be held accountable (in a restorative way of course) for their behaviour

Do current job descriptions and role statements match the vision?

Does the job of middle manager change from someone who doles out punishments on behalf of classroom teachers, or does the role now mean facilitation of problem-solving and healing of relationships?

The attitude to learning and behaviour from both teachers and learners is unfailingly positive. Difficult moments are regarded as educational opportunities, indeed, as teachable moments. The school values are clearly defined for adults, students and parents in terms of expected behaviours and these behaviours are explicit, taught, known and modelled by all adults. Offending behaviour is viewed as a breach of relationships, against school community values. There is an inclusive approach to teaching and behaviour with the system aiming to keep students at school. There is an attitude of persistence among staff, parents and students that means that the school is unwilling to give up on difficult students or to want to get rid of them at the earliest opportunity. Young people are not demonised. The school sees its role as a partner in child rearing with families – not always an equal partnership, but the school is prepared to step up nevertheless.

Clear linkages between key initiatives, system imperatives, pedagogy and key competencies can be made with RP so it will not seen as an add-on or stand-alone initiative. The approach is viewed as a possible enhancement of the core business of teaching and learning within the school community – a framework for best practice. As part of relationship skill development, teachers are skilled in basic effective, innovative classroom management and pedagogy. Attention is paid to the quality of the relationships between learners as well as between teacher and learner, in recognition of the need for an optimal environment for learning – a sense of safety and belonging. The school has a stimulating emotional environment where interest and enjoyment are maximised for learners and teachers alike. Impediments to this are appropriately addressed. The behaviour of learners is not seen as a separate issue to be managed outside the curriculum. Regular class meetings are held to develop social and emotional competencies, self-regulation and 

Some really good indicators here