You are here: Home → Resources → Restorative Justice around the World → Pacific → School

School

Up one level

Drewery, Wendy and Winslade, John. Developing Restorative Practices in Schools: Flavour of the month or saviour of the system?

A team at Waikato completed two projects on restorative conferencing in schools for the Ministry of Education, under the rubric of the Suspension Reduction Initiative. The projects included developing and trialling processes for suspension hearings using restorative conferencing and principles from restorative justice. Objectives of both projects were related to the desire to reduce numbers of suspensions and exclusions, particularly of Maori children. This paper reports on these two projects, and reflects on some of the questions they raised. Authors' abstract.

Porter, Abbey J. Restorative Practices at Queanbeyan South, an Australian Primary School

Restorative practices have proved a success at a primary school in Australia, where teachers have discovered that discipline works much better when the children themselves take part in the process. A few years ago, Queanbeyan South Public School, in New South Wales, just outside the Australian capital of Canberra, was struggling with persistent problems of bullying, violence and absenteeism among its pupils. Conventional punishments like detentions and suspensions didn't seem to help. "We were just chasing our tails," recalled teacher Elizabeth Harley, who said that disrespect for authority and low self-esteem were common among the students. (excerpt)

Wearmouth, Janice and Mckinney, Rawiri and Glynn, Ted and Mckinney, Rawiri. Restorative justice in schools: a New Zealand example.

Introducing restorative practices in schools is not straightforward. It requires considerable forethought and prior planning, negotiation and deliberation. Restorative justice requires that schools do not own or completely control the process, but have to learn to be responsive to families and local voluntary community groups who are, potentially, important sources of additional support for schools in addressing student behaviour that is seen as problematic. (excerpt)

Jenner, Kerry. Narrative Co-Mediation: The 'M' Team Approach in New Zealand.

Narrative Co-Mediation appreciates the idea that there is beauty in diversity. It models this in all structures and processes. Schools working in any one geographic area are encouraged to collaborate in terms of training and mediation issues to constantly improve practices and confidence of mediators. Collaboration includes support for adults in the supervision and management of the ‘M’ Teams. It also covers the structures in school to facilitate mediation. Student mediators themselves are in contact between schools nationally and internationally. This approach works well with issues faced by many young people in schools, such as racism, homophobia, social exclusion and is well used by special needs students in schools where it operates. (excerpt)

Blood, Peta. The Implementation of Restorative Practices in Schools.

The implementation of restorative practices in schools is much more than just another behaviour management tool, it provides an ideal platform for cultural change. Effective implementation of restorative practices requires realignment in thinking and behaviour within the school community. Repairing harm and taking responsibility for behaviour requires that we understand the environment to which relationships are being restored, and an understanding of the core business of that environment. Schools are a place for learning at a social and academic level. Restorative practices assists schools to develop a highly functioning social environment, which in turn sets the platform for academic success. (excerpt)

Shaw, Gary. Restorative practices in Australian schools: Changing relationships, changing culture.

The application of restorative justice principles and practices in schools is beginning to consolidate as an area of educational interest and reform. Although there is enthusiastic support for a philosophy that focuses on problem solving and repair of damaged relationships following an incident or crime, this support is tempered by hesitation about how restorative justice works, what impact it may have on current approaches, and how it is measured. This article presents the findings of a study conducted in eighteen Australian schools in 2004 and considers how such an approach may contribute to school culture change and to broader goals associated with producing a more civil society. (author's abstract)

Welden, Lynn M.. Restorative Practices in Australia’s Schools: Strong Relationships and Multi-School Summits Help Schools “Be and Learn” Together.

Two Australian educators are making an important difference in the emotional and academic vitality of the schools in their regions. Lyn Doppler has been principal of the award-winning Rozelle Public School in Sydney, New South Wales, since 2002. Lesley Oliver is manager of Student Inclusion and Wellbeing for the government of South Australia’s Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS), representing the South West (SW) Metro District of Adelaide. Each has been recognized for her leadership role in embedding restorative practices in Australian schools. (excerpt)

Adams, Helen and Cronin-Lampe, Ron and Cronin-Lampe, Kathy and Jenner, Kerry and Drewery, Wendy and Cronin-Lampe, Ron and Macfarlane, Angus H and Drewery, Wendy and McMenamin, Donald and Cronin-Lampe, Ron and Jenner, Kerry and Macfarlane, Angus H and Winslade, John and Drewery, Wendy and McMenamin, Donald and Cronin-Lampe, Ron and Cronin-Lampe, Kathy and Macfarlane, Angus H and Winslade, John and Drewery, Wendy and Prestidge, Brian and McMenamin, Donald and Cronin-Lampe, Ron and Cronin-Lampe, Kathy and Jenner, Kerry and Macfarlane, Angus H and Winslade, John and Drewery, Wendy. Restorative Practices for Schools, A Resource: Human Development and Counselling Monograph 1

This booklet has been prepared for the use of a range of educational professionals who are interested in introducing restorative practices in their school. The materials were originally prepared for the use of schools for the purpose of reducing suspensions. (excerpt)

Blood, Peta and Thorsborne, Margaret. Overcoming Resistance to Whole-School Uptake of Restorative Practices.

This paper is designed to assist change agents at a District and Regional support level; system decision makers; and external consultants apply change management theory in the educational context to assist with the implementation of restorative practices. An understanding of effective change management theories is essential to better understand the scope of the change process and to more effectively manage implementation planning. (excerpt)

Buckley, Sean and Maxwell, Gabrielle. Respectful Schools: Restorative Practices in Education. A Summary Report.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in developing practices based on restorative justice to respond to the behaviour problems and under-achievement of students in schools. This report summarises for school principals, members of boards of trustees and parents, findings from a study of restorative practices in New Zealand secondary schools. It provides information on practices and examples of how they have been introduced and used. It also looks at key themes and challenges in the introduction of restorative practices in schools. It is hoped that this information will be useful for members of school communities interested in implementing restorative approaches within their own schools and communities. (excerpt)