The Restorative Classroom Using Restorative Approaches to Foster Effective Learning

Restorative approaches are about more than just repairing relationships when things go wrong, they are also about making and maintaining relationships and they inform a style of teaching just as much as they do an approach to problem solving and conflict resolution. By giving everyone a voice, considering everyone's thoughts, feelings and needs and believing in people's ability to find solutions to their own problems by working together, young people will develop the language and skills they need to properly engage with their peers. The Restorative Classroom invites classroom teachers and teaching assistants to reflect on themselves, on their role, their purpose and their intention in the classroom and on their current style of engagement with their students. It combines a focus on the making, maintaining and repairing of relationships in the classroom with the development of social responsibility and a mutually supportive learning community in that classroom.

Part One: Restorative Approaches, Chapter 1: A Relational and Restorative Pedagogy – What is it and Who is it for?, Chapter 2: Setting the Context, Chapter 3: Five Key Themes for Creating the Restorative Classroom, Part Two: Making, Maintaining and Repairing Relationships, Chapter 4: Developing Relationships through Circles, Chapter 5: Fostering Social Responsibility, Chapter 6: Getting Along and Learning how to Speak Restorative, Chapter 7: Classroom Practice – How to Resist the Temptation to Manage Behaviour, Chapter 8: Teaching and Learning in a Restorative Classroom, Chapter 9: Responding Restoratively when Things have gone Wrong, Part Three: The Restorative Staffroom, Chapter 10: The Restorative Staffroom and its Place in the Restorative School, Bibliography, Appendix

Belinda Hopkins