Restorative Practice

We are a Restorative Practice School 

An Introduction to Restorative Practice

The aim of Restorative Practices is to develop community and to manage conflict and tensions by repairing harm and building relationships.  This is our priority as a restorative school, as we see ourselves at the heart of and serving our community.

For effective teaching and learning to take place, we believe that good relationships need to be at the heart of everything that happens at Willow Tree Academy.

A Restorative based school…

• Focuses on relationships
• Gives a voice to all pupils and staff
• Provides equal opportunities for engagement
• Separates the deed from the doer
• Empowers participants to learn from peers and from their own mistakes
• Gives individuals opportunities to take responsibility for their actions

Restorative Practice is a process that puts repairing harm done to relationships and people over and above blame and punishment.  It shifts the emphasis from managing behaviour to focussing on building, nurturing and repairing relationships.  

We know that a whole school restorative approach can contribute to: 

• Happier and safer schools
• Mutually respectful relationships
• More effective teaching and learning
• Reduced exclusions
• Raised attendance
• Addresses bullying behaviour
• Raises morale and self esteem
• Helps promote a culture of inclusion and belonging
• Increases emotional literacy

Please read our parents guide below 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JdunSEzXvFuwFQ5vh4U4gYVNNui_VX5d/view?usp=sharing

Our RP policy can be found here:

Meet our RP Reps :

The Role of RP Reps 

At our school we have a group of trained specialists (RP Reps), who work both proactively and reactively to support other children. 

The proactive work that the RP Reps do is around friendships, play and community building. We believe that the tighter communities are, the less likely children are to harm or hurt one another. The RP Reps work proactively each playtime and lunchtime to encourage children to play nicely with one another and they ensure that everyone has a friend and is welcome to play. The RP reps are a very active group, and they work brilliantly alongside the adults who are outside.

When something has gone wrong, or is going wrong, the RP Reps work reactively to support children to repair relationships as quickly as possible. The Reps do this by leading a Restorative Circle in their RP Hub (a calming and private space where they can have quality conversations).

The Reps use the 5 key Restorative Questions (see below) to guide the circle, and they do so with pleasing success.

Our RP Rep team is ever increasing. We currently have RP Reps in Years 5 & 6 and are in the process of training a selection of hard-working Year 4s. 

We are incredibly proud of the work that our RP Reps do. 

Class Scaling Tool 

As a school we support all of our learners including staff and identify how they are feeling via our scaling system. During both registrations children and staff will give themselves a number depending on how they are feeling. This allows us to have conversations and identify any support that we can give to our learners. We find that this is a wonderful way to support our well being at Herringthorpe.