'Say sorry' scheme helps exclusions fall at Burnley school
Jul 06, 2011
from Nafeesa Shan's article in Lancaster Telegraph:
Exclusions have dropped by two thirds at an East Lancashire school which has piloted a new scheme where troublemakers say sorry.
Burnley super school Sir John Thursby Community College, has been working with the Youth Offending Team over the past year to help improve general pupil behaviour.
Assistant headteacher Helen Campbell said the Writing Wrongs programme had helped year nine students at the Eastern Avenue school prevent and deal with conflicts both inside and outside the school environment.
Developed by the Youth Offending Team’s education officer Andy Winters, pupils used the justice system’s restorative approaches in the school environment.
Restorative justice - which is increasingly being used by police to resolve lower-level crimes - aims to help both criminals and victims come to terms with the impact of an offence.
And after the initial 12 months there has been a 66 per cent drop in the number of internal exclusions, 99.8 per cent of students were confident enough to use restorative approaches during conflicts in school and 85.5 per cent would use the skills outside the school environment.
RJ in Schools
The figures are impressive and reflect the experience of other Restorative Schools. They are important in "selling" the seeds of schools looking seriously at developing restorative approaches to both self regulating communities and repairing harm.
I'd be very interested in what has been done in this school, particularly the involvement of the local YOT. I especially like the mention that young people believed the skills that they had learned and practiced would transfer into their "out of school" lives. If this can be achieved and evidenced after only 12 months of implementing this approach, what could we hope for by having longer term strategies?
Well done