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Bitel, Mark. Preliminary Findings from the Evaluation of Restorative Justice in Schools.

The preliminary evidence from the pupil surveys does not show clear effects between the schools which are in the pilot (programme schools) and the comparator schools (nonprogramme schools). However, when comparing the pre- and post-intervention surveys in schools that have implemented restorative practices to a significant degree, there are clear trends that suggest that restorative practices are having a significant effect. (excerpt)

Boulton, John and Mirsky, Laura. Restorative Practices as a Tool for Organizational Change: The Bessels Leigh School

The Bessels Leigh School, in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England, a residential special school for boys with emotional and behavioral difficulties, age 11-16, has seen a remarkable change in culture, due to restorative practices. Via restorative processes both formal and informal, the approximately 28 pupils are encouraged to express their emotions and feelings and consider those of others. In a very powerful way they are made aware of the consequences of their behavior and can recognize the harm that their actions have caused. In partnership with the IIRP and Real Justice UK and SaferSanerSchools UK, Bessels Leigh School is on track to become a demonstration school for restorative practices in the UK. (excerpt)

Burssens, Dieter and Vettenburg, Nicole. Restorative Group Conferencing at School: A Constructive Response to Serious Incidents.

This article presents the results of a Flemish experiment with restorative group conferencing at school suggesting positive results. Schools are often powerless when a serious incident occurs within the school premises. The end result is usually seen as a failure by the school board and the teachers. The experiment with restorative group conferencing demonstrates that there is a possibility for tackling these problems radically and constructively. The offenders have to take their responsibility, but without being stigmatized. The needs of the victims are acknowledged and the harm they have suffered will be repaired to the extent possible. Lastly, a restorative plan is developed that commands broad support both inside and outside school. Based on the positive outcome of the experiment, the Flemish Education Department is currently taking steps towards a broader implementation. Almost all schools are confronted regularly with disturbing or transgressive behavior having the potential to affect the life at school in a negative manner. In such situations, the school board has few or even no means at their disposal for giving a constructive response to the harmful consequences of the incident. However, since 2000, the Flemish youth protection system has been applying “restorative group conferencing” in response to this serious juvenile delinquency. The promising results suggest the idea of applying it in education as well. Hence, an experiment was launched from October 2002 to March 2004 where 14 restorative group conferencing sessions were organized in the wake of serious incidents in 9 different schools in Flanders. The experiment applied restorative group conferencing to incidents of divergent natures. Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjra.gov.

Compton, Randy and Jones, Tricia S. Kids Working It Out: Strategies and Stories for Making Peace in Our Schools

In recent years, a number of deadly incidents in schools in, for example, the United States and Germany have dramatized issues of conflict and violence in school settings. With all of this in view, Tricia Jones and Randy Compton, editors of this book, offer resources in conflict resolution education for parents, educators, and policymakers looking for ways to help young people learn constructive responses to conflict, build positive relationships, and promote just societies. The book consists of two overarching parts with chapters on particular topics in each part. Part one, more theoretical, covers the need for and potential of conflict resolution education. Part two, more practical, deals with "what works" - that is, with success stories in conflict resolution education. In each part chapters are written by experts and practitioners in the field. Additionally, in part two, each chapter ends with personal reflections by participants in conflicts and conflict resolution processes. Appendices provide information on additional books, publications, websites, organizations, and programs of relevance to conflict resolution in school settings.

Edgar, Kimmett and Bowen, Gillian and Bitel, Mark and Bowen, Gillian and Thurlow, Jane and Bitel, Mark. The evaluation of the Lambeth Restorative Justice Conference Pilot Project in Schools.

In May 2000, the Youth Justice Board in England initiated a plan to test, in two schools in Lambeth, restorative justice approaches in response to robbery and bullying in school settings. This was part of the Board’s overall exploration of interventions that might reduce youth crime. The project was devised in partnership with the Metropolitan Police in Lambeth. To evaluate the project, the Youth Justice Board engaged Partners in Evaluation and the Oxford Centre for Criminological Research. The evaluation, reported in this document, reviewed a number of key areas: levels of victimization, bullying, and robbery in the two schools; means for introducing restorative justice approaches in the schools; satisfaction of participants (victims and offenders) in the schools’ restorative justice conferences; short-term and long-term effects of the conferences on participants; and the larger effects of conferences, if any, on the nature and frequency of acts of victimization in the two schools. This paper presents research findings and analysis in these key areas, as well as a number of recommendations to enhance the use of restorative justice conferences in school settings. Additionally, several appendices provide further information on the study methodology, data-gathering, and research instruments.

Gutling, Bernd-Uwe and Semper, Anja. Mediation in schools "MeinS" (abstract).

The presenters will show how victim-offender mediation works in schools. They will discuss the training of school mediators and the rules for the mediation practice. They will show a video (11 minutes) developed with 13-year old children in a school in Oldenburg [Germany]. This video shows the different steps of the development of conflicts in schools and how they can be solved by means of mediation. Authors' abstract.

Hadhazi, Livia. Application of the conflict management technique "Face to face" in the Zöld Kakas Líceum Secondary School.

The Family, Child, Youth Priority Non-Profit Association contacted our school in 2000 through MᲩa Herczog, one of their co-workers. She had been looking for a good place (institution) to try out a new method of conflict managing system. She chose our school, because there are and have always been "drop-out" students. Drop-out students - with behaviour problems mainly. The basic principles of my school are as follows: Humanistic approach, Managing conflicts in an open way, Treating students as equal co-workers. All the teachers were ready to accept, to study and to apply this new system, so the Association organised a training for us to become facilitators. From the year after we started to build in this restorative view in a progressive way into the education of our first year students. At the same time, we started to apply the method in real conflicts, to manage real cases. I thought that students would rather turn to somebody else for help at their age, rather than to a teacher. Therefore I organised a "face to face" SIG [special interest group] and started to train students with strong motivation to become peer facilitators. (excerpt)

Healy, Julie and Gribben, Marie and McCann, Cathy and Gribben, Marie. School Restorative Conferencing: A positive approach to keeping young people in the school community

The primary aim of the School Restorative Conferencing (SRC) scheme, which opened as a pilot in 2000, is to provide a positive approach to school inclusion for all through a restorative justice model.The project works with schools in the Southern Education & Library Board area and is based in Barnardo's Diamond House Centre, Moy, County Tyrone. (excerpt)

Henskens-Rejiman, Joke and van Pagee, Robert. Restorative Practices in a Dutch School

Joke Henskens-Reijman and Roel van Pagee are principals with Terra College, a collection of schools in The Hague (Netherlands). In this paper they describe efforts to incorporate restorative practices into the culture of two of the schools. They begin by describing changes in the population of the schools over the last decade, changes giving rise to an increase in disciplinary problems. Henskens-Reijman and van Pagee, dissatisfied with standard ways of dealing with disciplinary issues, heard about Real Justice conferences. Following training of staff, they began to employ conferences with victims and offenders to deal with problems. Henskens-Reijman and van Pagee explain steps taken to incorporate restorative practices and challenges in taking those steps.

Hopkins, Belinda. Restorative Approaches in Schools in the U.K.

This paper focues on what could be achieved in a school community if restorative skills and processes were used by everybody, with everybody, to build, nurture and repair relationships. Examples of what is happening in the U.K. will be given but the emphasis will be on what could be possible in your own community. The workshop will be informative, thought-provoking, participative, fun and inspiring.

Hopkins, Belinda. Restorative Approaches in UK Schools

This presentation describes the growing interest in the UK in the development of Restorative Approaches within schools. It discusses the various ways in which this is happening, the evaluations that have occurred to date of these projects and the challenges that lie ahead. Abstract courtesy of the Centre for Justice and Peace Development, Massey University, http://justpeace.massey.ac.nz.

Introducing Restorative Practices into Scottish Schools

In 2004, the Scottish Executive allocated funding for a 30-month pilot project to introduce restorative practices into schools in three Local Authorities. An August 2007 evaluation report outlines the implementation process for the different areas and the progress made in establishing restorative practices in the school.

Kane, Jean. Full report of evaluation of restorative practices in 3 Scottish councils.

In 2004, as part of the ‘Better Behaviour, Better Learning’ Initiative, funding was provided by the Scottish Executive for a two-year pilot project on Restorative Practices (RP) in 3 Scottish Local Authorities2. The idea of RP in education in Scotland had first been introduced in a Scottish Executive Circular on School Exclusion in 2003. A team from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow was commissioned to undertake an evaluation of the pilot project. In recognition of the challenge and time required for school change and of the early benefits of RP, the Scottish Executive has extended the period of the pilot project by a further two years. This evaluation report summarises the strengths and achievements of the implementation of RP in the first two years, 2004-2006. (excerpt)

Lewis, Ivan. Speech to the Second International Restorative Justice Conference (The role of restorative justice and citizenship education in our schools)

It is clear that in Drayton School restorative justice has enabled pupils to become actively involved in their lives and the life of their school. But before we reflect on the valuable role that restorative justice may play in schools, I believe it is important to firstly consider the key elements of this approach. As its name implies, restorative justice gives individuals a real opportunity to put right what they may have done wrong. Effective conflict resolution is promoted through encouraging individuals to consider the feelings of others and the effect their actions can have on them. At its core, restorative justice is about individuals taking responsibility for their actions. These, among others, are essential elements of the citizenship curriculum in schools. (excerpt)

Lewis, Lesley. The Glasgow RJS: Restorative Practices in Schools.

In August 2004, The Restorative Justice Service (RJS) in Glasgow launched a Schools restorative justice conferencing service to four selected secondary schools across the city of Glasgow. (excerpt)

Lloyd, Gwynedd and Riddell, Sheila and McCluskey, Gillean and Weedon, Elisabet and Riddell, Sheila and Kane, Jean and Weedon, Elisabet and Stead, Joan and Riddell, Sheila and McCluskey, Gillean and Kane, Jean. Restorative Approaches in Scottish Schools: Transformations and Challenges.

This presentation will give some findings from our evaluation of a pilot project funded by the government in Scotland. I will mainly talk in my presentation about some of the important themes, issues and challenges that have emerged from the project. If conference participants wish to know more, they can attend a workshop with two university colleagues and two staff from Scottish schools, one elementary and one high school, offering some real, detailed stories from their schools. My intention is to inform, stimulate and perhaps provoke you with some ideas and to tell (and show you) a little about Scotland. (excerpt)

Restorative Practice in Schools Receives a Boost in the UK.

The Youth Justice Board and the Government’s Children’s Fund in the UK are sponsoring new programs to address misbehaviour in schools. The funding is part of a greater emphasis on using restorative justice by the government. Projects will address bullying, truancy, crimes, and other destructive behaviours, in the expectation that use of restorative processes will reduce the number of students expelled from school each year.

Rhondda Cynon Taf Youth Offending Team. Rhondda Cynon Taf introduces Restorative Justice to Welsh schools: News from the Rhondda Cynon Taf's Youth Offending Team

Following a successful bid to the Youth Justice Board - and with additional funding from Social Inclusion in Schools and the Crime and Disorder Strategy Group - Rhondda Cynon Taf is piloting a series of Restorative Justice conferences in five local schools.

Robb, Graham. Restorative Approaches in Schools: A Perspective from England.

This paper draws on my experience as a headteacher working in partnership with Thames Valley Police between 1999 and 2004 to implement restorative approaches to a secondary school. I will reflect on the conclusions of the Youth Justice Board evaluation report on the Restorative Justice (RJ) in Schools initiative and identify issues for developing restorative approaches in English schools. (excerpt)

Robinson, Betty. Restorative Practices in Schools.

Restorative Approaches in Schools in Scotland is a new and very exciting development. Three areas in Scotland, including my area Fife, were part of the Scottish Executive's pilot to reduce exclusions and help restore discipline in High Schools. (Excerpt)