At St Bede’s, we believe that when negative incidents occur, the best way to put them right is to learn from our mistakes and work together to find a positive solution.
A report, published by the Department for Education, gave whole-school restorative approaches the highest rating of effectiveness at preventing bullying, with a survey of schools showing 97% rated restorative approaches as effective.
Often, when a relationship between two or more people is broken staff members are not always present. By using the following restorative questions, staff are able to fairly and consistently investigate what has happened in order to see things from everybody’s point of view.
What happened?
What were you thinking and feeling?
Who has been affected?
What do you need in order to move on and put things right?
What needs to happen right now to put things right?
We believe that, by following these questions in each incident that we deal with, our children will begin to develop the skills which they need to resolve broken relationships for themselves as the process focuses on self reflection and telling the truth rather than appointing blame.
When asking these questions, staff are spending time to understand the feelings of all children and how they may have led to any negative actions. This helps children to receive the advice and support they may need to prevent further negative incidents.
Mediators
Some of our Year 5 and 6 children are trained in using restorative approaches to resolve conflict on the playground, where appropriate. They wear high visibility jackets to identify themselves as mediators and have helped many children. If a problem is serious, they seek advice from an adult.
