What is Restorative Practice (RP)?

Restorative Practice is a values-based philosophy. It aims to build positive relationships and friendships throughout a community and beyond. It also helps to respond to conflict and arguments, if they do occur, in a healthy way that moves us away from blame and attack, and towards connection and healing. These skills are important for a healthy school and a happy life !

These founding principles offer a scaffold for schools seeking to grow its commitment to the use of RP.

The Values Light the Way!

The RESPECT (post-primary)/FRIENDS (primary) values are a compass to bring RP to life and they inform how we try to think, engage, speak, listen, and approach situations in our everyday interactions. The intention is to learn how to ask, listen and share in a way that honours relationships and cultivates a positive learning environment for the whole school community.

Benefits

This restorative way of being builds skills for a healthy learning environment and also happy and connected life. Restorative Practice aims to support the wellbeing of schools and the lovely community they serves by:

Engaging in relational practices that promote connection & belonging! Cultivating a shared literacy around the restorative FRIENDS/RESPECT values where we do the right thing even if no one is watching!

Growing empathy as a skill set.

Developing emotional and conflict literacy skills.

Nurturing a collaborative and equitable learning environment.

Restorative Language (The Giraffe)!

The giraffe is known as the restorative animal as it has the biggest heart of all the land animals so it speaks from its heart, promoting empathy. It also has the longest neck so it can see everyone’s perspective which is a key component of empathy building and a bridge towards conflict resolution. When things go wrong, as they sometimes do, when being restorative we try to channel our inner giraffes and think relationally. We seek to model and use restorative language, questions and intentions as a compass to work together and find a solution, to fix harm that may have happened, and to honour, build or repair relationships / friendships as best as we can

Testimonials…

RP at Home (self-paced learning module below) …reminded me how important this means of dealing with my family at home is. Using those skills, adding to those skills and how it benefits not just me as the parent, but actually the children and how they learn from the way I am working with them and in turn then howthey deal with each other ….

I wanted to get involved with RP as it’s a valuable skill set to have…not just in terms of parenting at home ..I have a large young family and every skill helps…I can see as a person…day to day , you can transfer those skills into your interactions with people generally.

Amanda-Parent

If I had a wish as a parent about RP it would be that it would be in every school ... I think the framework and the structure is so universal…if we can start it in school we are going to have more empathic relationships ...RP helps us to have the awareness to seek to understand first…to be able to get into another person’sshoesandtounderstandwhat’sgoingonHavingaccesstoaframeworkandsomethingthatisverywellresearchedintermsofgettingthemostout

of people and creating space for people to thrive…RP seems to do that in a way that is easy to pick up because the framework and the questions are there…I can'tspeakhighlyenoughofRP

John -Parent

If you would like to learn more about RP at Home,

engage with our short 10-part module on Restorative Practice for parents and guardians HERE or scan the QR code QR CODE RP.jpg