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Restorative Approaches in Educational Settings 

Restorative approaches in educational settings are inspired by the philosophy of restorative justice, which puts rep- airing harm done to relationships and people over and above the need for assigning blame and punishment.

Key Values:  create an ethos of respect, inclusion, accountability and taking responsibility, commitment to relationships, impartiality, being non-judgmental, collaboration, empowerment and emotional articulacy.

 Processes and practices include interventions when harm has happened, such as restorative enquiry, mediation and group mediation. However there are also processes and practices that help to prevent harm and conflict occurring and which build a sense of belonging, safety and social responsibility.  These include Circle Time and Restorative Pedagogy (teachers modelling the values and skills and creating opportunities for their development amongst the students whatever the subject being taught.) 

 The restorative approach is based on the belief that the people best placed to resolve a conflict or a problem are the people directly involved, and that imposed solutions are less effective, less educative and possibly less likely to be honoured. In order to engage in a restorative approach to conflict and challenging behaviour people need certain attitudes and skills. Skills-based training can develop both restorative skills and attitudes.

 It can help participants to identify a variety of applications of these skills to meet the needs of the whole school community. The ultimate aim of the training and the project is to build a strong, mutually respectful, safe and inclusive school community in which everyone feels valued and heard. 

One key to effective implementation is support beyond the home/school gate, not just of an isolated initiative, but in terms of locality-wide strategy that is adequately funded over several years. Local authority support can also mean that should an individual home/school need an external facilitator in cases where impartiality or neutrality of their own staff is an issue then there will be a team to call on. 

Planning local authority wide means including all sectors – local authority, independent and voluntary.  Establishing a protocol for partnership with Police and Youth Justice is helpful too.  

This piece is taken from information provided by Dr Belinda Hopkins, Director of Transforming Conflict.  More details are available on her website www.transformingconflict.org

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