Restorative Practices: A new way of doing business.
Schools within the Trillium Lakelands District School Board have been looking at going
“restorative”. Simply put this means that we believe that the problems and conflicts within our
school communities are best solved by those who are directly involved them. Our goal is to
actively engage our students and allow them to take a greater responsibility for the actions and
activities within their school communities. We believe that Restorative Practises will be a
significant tool we can use to reach this goal.
Restorative Practices is about.
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Building and nurturing relationships
Repairing harm done to relationships through inappropriate behaviours
Considering everybody's needs in the process
Recognising responsibility for behaviours
Encouraging accountability for those behaviours (actions)
Developing emotional literacy by providing a safe forum for people to express
difficult emotions
We are looking to build a sense of community in an increasingly disconnected world. Students
who are connected to each other are less likely to harm each other. At Trillium Lakelands
District School Board we are moving to put into action processes, attitudes and skills which will
meet the needs of our school community.
The overall goal of implementing restorative practices at Trillium Lakelands District School
Board is three-fold;
1. keep kids in school (reduce suspensions, expulsions),
2. keep kids in class (reduce office referrals),
3. Keep kids coming to school (engage kids in their school community to decrease truancy).
Restorative Practices: What exactly is it?
Restorative Practices is a system of thought which believes that simple punishment does not
work, rather holding people accountable for their actions by involving them with face-to-face
encounters with those they are in conflict with or have harmed yields far more lasting results.
The principles of restorative justice are:
• Respect—among all participants in a restorative justice process.
• Inclusiveness—consensus and full participation of those affected by the incident.
• Accountability—the person responsible for the harm takes responsibility for his/her harmful
behaviour.
• Reparation—restorative consequences that repair the harm, determined through consensus.
• Restoration—through this process, the needs of the person responsible for the harm and the
community are addressed.
Research is showing that when restorative practices are implemented within the school
community there are very positive outcomes for everyone involved including increased
empathy, respect, honesty, acceptance, responsibility, and accountability as well as decreased
reoccurrences of conflict and offenses.
Restorative Practices: What are they?
Restorative practices are not one size fits all nor is it purely a reactive philosophy. Restorative
practices range on a continuum from informal, proactive structures to formal, reactive
processes. The continuum looks like this:
Restorative Practices focus on explicitly teaching, modeling and practicing the following
attitudes and skills:
 Kindness
 Empathy
 Forgiveness
 Restoring
relationships
 Active listening
 Emotional Literacy
Restorative Practices: It’s about holding people accountable and repairing harm, not
assigning punishment.
Traditionally the approach to conflict in schools has been to ask:
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What happened?
Who is to blame?
What can we do to deter/punish so this will not happen again?
These questions do not take into account the needs of all parties involved. Nor do they
promote reparation of the harm that has been caused so the people involved may never be
able to have an open trusting relationship with each other again.
Punishment, while appropriate in some cases, causes the offender to look for ways to avoid
rather than looking for ways to make things right.
At Trillium Lakelands District School Board we are using Restorative questions to look at the
challenge of conflict from a different angle. We ask:
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What happened?
What were you thinking at the time?
What have you thought about since?
Who has been affected by what you have done? In what way?
What do you think needs to be done to put things right?
This approach is based on principle that people need to take responsibility for the impact of
their behaviour on other people and that the consequences of harmful behaviour mean that
relationships are damaged and people get disconnected.
Restorative responses are focused on healing the disconnection between people wherever
possible while still holding the offender accountable for his/her actions. They even go a step
further and require the offender to find a way to make reparations for their actions.
Research is showing that offenses that are handled with a focus on reparation of harm and the
restoration of relationships lead to decreased reoccurrence of offenses, increased empathy
within the school community and an increased sense of connection between the members of
the school community.
Restorative Practices: They teach life skills.
An important restorative belief is that the people best placed to resolve a conflict or a problem
are the people involved, and that imposed solutions are less effective, less educative and
possibly less likely to be honoured. In order to engage in a restorative approach to conflict and
challenging behaviour people need certain attitudes and skills such as:
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A willingness to listen to others’ perspectives on a situation and suspend the notion
that there is only one way of looking at something.
An ability to listen to the feelings and needs behind others’ words, especially if these
words are offensive, hurtful or accusatory.
An ability to be in touch with one’s own feelings and needs so that these can be
expressed in a way that gets heard and understood by others.
A commitment to giving everyone a voice and to respecting the contributions made
even though this is a time consuming process.
A belief that hearing all sides is a worthwhile and ultimately a time saving approach as
people gradually learn these processes for themselves.
These are attitudes and skills that will be useful for the rest of the student’s life. In the
workplace, in the family or in the community these are all skills that create a better world for
everybody.
Restorative Practices: Being Proactive.
Classroom Circles/Meetings are likely the most proactive structure that restorative practices
provide. Teachers who implement classroom circles find that the students in their classroom
become a tighter knit community that demonstrate empathy and caring for all members of the
community. Students who feel connected to their peers and teachers are less likely to cause
harm to another individual.
Classroom circles are used by teachers on a regular basis they can be used for the following:
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Team / Community building
Planning
Problem Solving
Teachable moments
Sensitive issues
Check in/check out
Name games/Mixing up games
Sentences endings
Academic
No-blame conferencing
Using circles creates a classroom where kids feel safe & connected to one another. They
provide opportunities for inclusiveness, a supportive climate, equity & democracy. When the
circle discussion concerns a specific incident the focus is usually on having the broader student
community have an opportunity to share how this affects them.
“Circles are a form of participatory democracy.” ~ Kay Pranis