Restorative Practice

Restorative Practice – How we address conflict or negative behaviour, with the aim of learning and moving forward

MoE Guidelines – Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L)

The fundamental hypothesis of restorative practices is disarmingly simple: that human beings are happier, more productive and more likely to make positive changes in their behaviour when those in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them.

In 2021, Whenuapai School began its Restorative Practice journey under the guidance of Waikato University. Restorative Practice is a relational approach to school life grounded in beliefs about equality, dignity, mana and the potential of all people. The Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) Restorative Practice approach focuses on building and maintaining positive, respectful relationships across the school community and offers school staff best-practice tools and techniques to restore relationships when things go wrong. By building and maintaining positive, respectful relationships within a school, staff to staff, staff to student and student to student, issues are more easily managed.

As we have PB4L School-Wide, we already have an established framework that the PB4L Restorative Practice can fit into. School-Wide and Restorative Practices complement each other in the way they build on school values and make expectations of behaviour explicit across the school community.

The restorative conversation can take many forms, however the key principles and essence of the conversation remain the same.

Tell the story – Tell me what happened? Explore the harm – Who do you think has been affected? In what ways? Repair the harm – What do you think needs to happen to put things right? Reach an agreement – If this happens again, what will you do differently? Plan follow-up – When would be a good time to check in with you and see how you’re getting on

Kete Book Two – Holding a Restorative Conversation