resilience

In education, we are always looking for ways to improve the quality of learning and teaching for the children in our care. However, in the last few months especially, the focus for educators has shifted towards the emotional wellbeing of our learners. Our children have been through so much and the repercussions are beginning to surface in classrooms across the country. Many learners are struggling to deal with ‘big emotions’ and we naturally want to do all that we can to support and nurture them.

This blog investigates ‘restorative practice’ and explores how this approach can be used in the classroom setting and beyond.

What is Restorative Practice?

Traditional behaviour management systems tend to focus on acknowledgement of bad choices, followed by a punishment/negative consequence. However, restorative practice employs a different technique. The restorative approach seeks to empower learners, helping them to take responsibility for their actions, understanding why it happened and what consequences their actions have caused.

I often explain to colleagues that traditional behaviour management techniques where children are punished and then the issue is considered to be ‘dealt with’, is much like putting a plaster on a punctured tyre. You may have temporarily ‘fixed’ the problem, but you haven’t actually addressed it. Furthermore, the situation will more than likely escalate.

The restorative approach involves meeting with all children involved in a situation and looking to develop, nurture and repair relationships. The onus is not on an adult intervening and telling the child what the consequence of their action is. Instead, the adult should initiate a thought process that helps children themselves understand why they did it as well as the consequences. If learners understand the reasons for their behaviour and the full repercussions for themselves and others involved, they are less likely to ‘reoffend’.

How Does it Work?

The whole approach stems from the following questions that empower learners to really think about their behaviour:

What happened?
What were you thinking and feeling at the time?
What have you thought about it since?
Who has been affected and in what way?
How could things have been done differently?
What do you think needs to happen to make things right?

Remember, that for this approach to be successful, you must give the children time and space to calm down first. When children are experiencing ‘big emotions’ it is next to impossible for them to think rationally – just as it would be difficult for us as adults to achieve.

It is also important to know that this set of questions is not only discussed with the ‘offender’ but any other learners involved. This ensures that a fair and balanced process is followed, especially as conflicts are very rarely completely one-sided.

What Does Restorative Practice Look Like in the School Setting?

There are many situations where restorative approaches can enhance the environment for learners and staff members alike so let’s explore them and see how they might look in practice.

Daily Classroom Behaviour Management

The most effective way of developing a restorative approach to behaviour management, is to model it in your daily language. An example of this is to make an ‘affective statement’: “When you talk over me, it makes me feel let down.” Additionally, you can ask learners ‘affective questions’: “Who do you think was affected by you making that choice? How has this action affected them?”

By immersing your learners in restorative language, this gives them a strong foundation to build upon and really think about the choices they make.

In the Playground

The majority of friendship fall-outs happen at break or lunchtime, with many of these unresolved by the time learners go back into the classroom. This results in pupils who are not ready to learn and teachers who are left to use valuable teaching time to resolve these conflicts. Instead, playground staff can use the restorative script to address fall-outs more effectively. Here is an example of one such scenario:

What happened? “I told Tim that I don’t want to play with him, ever again.”
What were you thinking and feeling at the time? “I was angry because Tim always chooses what game we play and I’m sick of it.”
What have you thought about it since? “I’m still angry but I feel sad that I made Tim cry.”
Who has been affected and in what way? “Tim is upset because I told him I didn’t want to play with him and I’m upset because I’ve lost my friend.”
How could things have been done differently? “I could have told Tim I wanted to have a choice, before I got too angry.”
What do you think needs to happen to make things right? “I need to apologise to Tim, but tell him if we play a game together, we need to take turns when choosing the game.”

This script would then be repeated with Tim, so that he can also see the part that he played in the incident.

Peer Mediation

The main intention behind restorative practice is to empower learners to regulate their own behaviour and choices. A key part of this is for learners to help peers identify and resolve their own issues. This would involve very focused training for learners and a clear remit. They are not there to ‘police the playground’; instead, they are there to be approachable and visible to peers. Peers can come to them for advice to resolve minor friendship fall-outs. They would also be trained to send learners to staff members if the incident is too advanced for them to deal with.

Peer mediation equips learners with lifelong skills that can be applied in a variety of settings, as well as freeing up playground staff to deal with more challenging incidents.

Bullying

This is an issue that often proves to be controversial within education. Many educators believe that ‘bullies’ need to be punished severely, however, this often proves to be ineffective.

All too often, learners who become ‘bullies’ have a variety of unmet needs and issues themselves, therefore punishing them does not help the situation. Restorative practice can help to identify the cause of their behaviour and help the learner think about their choices in a far more constructive and emotionally intelligent way.

In this situation, the adult would get both parties together to explain their thoughts and feelings; each having the opportunity to speak uninterrupted and impartially. After both parties have been heard, the focus should shift towards repairing the relationship by agreeing upon a solution. It is vital that everyone collaborates at this point, as the ownership of the action becomes shared – not just the responsibility of the ‘bully’ or the ‘victim’.

Finally, the situation needs to be monitored carefully, with regular updates and check-ins; more intervention from adults may be required to resolve the situation fully.

What Are the Benefits of This Approach for Learners?

Ownership of Actions

By listening to the person/people their actions have directly affected, learners are more likely to understand and take responsibility for their choices.

The Impact of Their Actions is Evident

Being face-to-face with the person/people they have hurt is an unforgettable and emotional experience for learners that really highlights the consequences of their choices.

They Can Decide to Resolve Conflicts

Learners can use the restorative approach to decide to make a positive change. They have the opportunity to apologise for their previous actions and work collaboratively to ensure a happier outcome is achieved in the future.

Repaired Relationships

The process of both parties in a conflict feeling they have been valued and listened to, can often be the change required to repair a relationship. The outcome could be to restore a friendship or an agreement to respectfully avoid each other – both acceptable resolutions.

The Influence Over Future Choices

Most importantly, restorative practice is a great way of influencing the choices learners make in the future. This is due to the way the method really gets to the root of actions, as opposed to merely punishing them.

What Are the Benefits of This Approach for Teachers?

A Consistent Approach to Conflict Resolution

Implementing a restorative approach to behaviour management across the school results in improved consistency for all learners and staff. The terminology is familiar for all involved and everybody is working towards a shared goal.

Less Disruption in the Classroom

As the approach becomes fully embedded within a school-setting, children are better equipped at dealing with conflicts themselves. Additionally, they have more strategies to help them regulate their behaviour, thus preventing conflicts in the first place. This means that teachers have less disruptions during learning and teaching time.

Improved Relationships and Calmer Classrooms

Developing, nurturing and repairing relationships is at the heart of restorative practice. This approach helps staff and learners to understand each other better, leading to increased empathy and more effective relationships between staff and learners, as well as learners and peers.

More Resilient and Independent Learners

This approach to behaviour management empowers learners and enables them to take responsibility and ownership for their own decisions. It really develops a range of life skills for learners that will equip them well for the future. Learners are more resilient problem-solvers and less likely to give up at the first hurdle to success. They are also far more likely to approach issues independently, instead of looking for adult intervention and support straight away.

What Resources Can Support Me In Implementing Restorative Practice?

Visual resources for Learners

This conflict resolution poster is a great visual aid for learners, to help them solve conflicts independently. This conflict resolution techniques poster supports children through each step of the conflict resolution process. Why not create a ‘Calm Corner’ in your classroom, to help learners regulate their behaviour? This calm corner resource pack could help you create a calmer classroom environment.

Activities for Learners

This kindness PowerPoint is a great whole-class resource to promote a more empathetic and positive environment. These resolving conflict cards are a wonderfully creative way of encouraging children to think about the consequences of choices on others, as well as identifying ways to resolve issues.

Reflective resources for Learners

When addressing a conflict that has already happened, this conflict resolution activity sheet uses the key restorative questions to encourage learners to understand the reasons for their actions and improve future choices. Similarly, this behaviour reflection sheet supports learners in analysing their choices, as well as considering how to prevent these actions in the future.

Support For Teachers

This helpful behaviour management tips for primary teachers guide, is full of helpful techniques that support restorative practice. Additionally, this solution-focused behaviour management planning template is a great way to approach behaviour management in the classroom. The editable template gives you the opportunity to reflect with your pupils on what they enjoy in class and the challenges they face, so that you can work together to create a proactive strategy to support their learning.

Information for Parents

Hand out this positive behaviour management leaflet for parents and carers, to explain what positive behaviour is. There are also helpful tips to promote positive behaviour at home and ways to encourage children to show positive behaviour choices.

How can you support your school staff mental health and wellbeing? This blog looks into some mental health statistics for education staff and ways in which members of the Senior Management Team can support their staff wellbeing.

Teaching and working in education can be extremely rewarding, however, many school environments are considered stressful and demanding. While there is a clear effort for schools to support children’s health and wellbeing, there is still a lot to be done to support and improve the wellbeing of staff.

The Numbers

According to the UK’s Health and Safety Executive, school staff and education professionals report the highest rates of work-related stress, depression and anxiety in Britain. The Teacher Wellbeing Index 2020 reports that in the UK, 62% of education professionals have described themselves as stressed, while 32% have experienced high levels of depression. More than half have considered leaving the sector due to pressures on their health and wellbeing, which are caused by long working hours, increased workload, lack of support and staff wellbeing resources. On top of that, more than half (57%) of education professionals do not feel that they can share mental health concerns with their employer. All these factors have a detrimental impact on staff wellbeing, resulting in burn-out and forcing professionals to leave their jobs.

2020 was a challenging year for all of us. The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and continues to have, a considerable impact on our mental health and wellbeing and education professionals are not exempt from this. As well as trying to balance their personal and work life, they are also trying to meet even higher school demands and expectations. You might think that the pandemic is solely responsible for these high levels of stress and poor mental health, but if we look carefully at the Teacher Wellbeing Index of the year 2019, we notice that the levels were high even before the pandemic. Long before the education system was faced with the challenges of school closures, back in 2019, more than half of education professionals had considered leaving the profession. 72% had described themselves as stressed and 33% had worked more than 51 hours per week. Sadly, half of them thought their organisational culture to have a negative effect on their wellbeing.

What do these statistics show us?

They show us a very simple fact: that school leaders, teachers and other school staff need to be supported, with their mental health and wellbeing prioritised. We must always keep in mind that a significant way to support our children’s wellbeing is by safeguarding our teachers’ mental health.

What Is Wellbeing?

Wellbeing is generally defined as the state of being healthy, calm and happy. The term includes aspects of our physical, emotional and mental health. When our wellbeing is good, we feel better prepared to deal with life’s difficulties; we experience a more positive outlook, feel motivated and our life feels balanced.

Why Is School Staff Wellbeing Important?

Good staff wellbeing means that teachers and those who work in an educational setting feel good in their day-to-day work. A school that shows high levels of staff wellbeing is a mentally healthy school. Staff feel motivated, productive and inspired. They show improved performance and job satisfaction and have fewer absences. Last but not least, good staff wellbeing is responsible for motivated and mentally healthy pupils with higher attainment, enhanced wellbeing and better coping mechanisms.

How Can Schools Support Staff Wellbeing?

There are a variety of ways schools and education settings can support staff wellbeing, and the following list is not exhaustive. School leaders are responsible for major changes for their schools, but in order to lead well, they too must get the support they need.

School Ethos and Culture

The main questions that school leaders should ask themselves are ‘What is our school culture?’ and ‘How do we want to be perceived by people in and out of school?’ School ethos and culture contribute to how a school functions and what is significant in the day-to-day life of the staff and pupils. To support those who work for the school, the Senior Leadership Team may reflect on the following questions:

How does our school look after staff?
What’s the environment like in our school? Is it a supportive, welcoming and inclusive environment? How can we make our school more healthy? Even having a bowl with fresh fruit in the staffroom for staff to help themselves to shows that someone cares.
Do we promote an environment of trust where staff feel open and encouraged to speak about their health and wellbeing and share concerns? Are we open to discuss mental health and wellbeing issues? How approachable are we?
Do staff feel appreciated and respected? How do we know? How can we show that we appreciate all that they do for the school and their pupils? There are a number of ways to show appreciation, and these Teacher Wellbeing Postcards are brilliant for saying a wee thank you and brightening someone’s day.
Do we encourage staff to take breaks, finish on time and ask for support? Is there a culture of expect them to work harder and longer?
What do we do to ensure that staff are listened to? Even providing them with space where they can go and take time out if they need to will show that the school respects their feelings and needs. Why not create a time-out room and place these Mind Your Mind Mindfulness Colouring Pages there? This will encourage staff to take some time out and relax their mind.
How do we promote human connections? Are there any social events we could run to facilitate team building and help our staff to get to know each other at a more personal level? It’s important to keep in mind that school staff are human beings first and foremost.
Last but not least, do we, as the school leaders, model good behaviour and look after our own wellbeing? How do we model good mental health and behaviour in practice?

Policies

When reflecting on policies, it is a good idea to think about the following:

What’s our school wellbeing strategy? Has it been created taking all stakeholders into account? Is it shared with everyone in and out of the school?
What are our school policies and procedures for staff wellbeing specifically?

How does our school support staff wellbeing in practice? Consider whether your school can invest in mindfulness, relaxation, managing stress and resilience workshops for its staff. These will give staff important knowledge, will teach them techniques to manage their emotions and will help them feel valued. Less workload and more teacher appraisal would be a very good way of supporting wellbeing in practice. Why not use these Scots Staff Shout Outs and these Fun End of Year Staff Award Certifications to praise staff? Another good wellbeing strategy would be to give staff the opportunity to have discussions with the Senior Leadership Team for whatever reason. All these strategies will promote a sense of belonging in the school community, resulting in happier and appreciative staff.

Help and Support

When we’re talking about help and support, we’re talking about appreciating that staff are not machines but people with lives, challenges and dreams. Consider the following:

Are the Senior Leadership Team knowledgeable about how they can support their staff?
Do staff know how to access support if they need it? Is there clear information about this?
Does the school offer strategies to prevent the escalation of mental health issues?

A very useful guide you could share with your staff is this amazing Teacher Wellbeing Toolkit created by Twinkl, which aims to support school staff to look after their wellbeing in a number of ways.

The above information sets out only some of the many ways that schools can reflect on how to support the mental health and wellbeing of their staff. It’s important to keep in mind that education staff are humans too, and that teachers who feel valued and appreciated can care for their pupils better than those who don’t.