What is Restorative Practice (RP)?

Restorative Practice is a valuesbased philosophy. It aims to build positive relationships and friendships throughout our school community and beyond. It also help to respond to conflict and arguments, if they do occur, in a healthy way that moves us away from blame and attack, and towards connection and healing. These skills are important for a healthy school and a happy life!

Restorative Practice in our School

In our school we are growing our commitment to Restorative Practice and the values light the way! We will use the RESPECT values to help us to bring RP to life and they inform how we try to think, engage, speak, listen, and approach situations in our everyday interactions in school. The intention is to learn how to ask, listen and share in a way that honours a positive learning environment for the whole school community.

Restorative Language (The Giraffe)

The giraffe is known as the restorative animal as it has the biggest heart of all the land animals so it speaks from its heart, promoting empathy. It also has the longest neck so it can see everyone’s perspective which is a key component of empathy building and a bridge towards conflict resolution. When things go wrong, as they sometimes do, we will try to channel our inner giraffes and think restoratively. We will seek to model and use restorative language, questions and intentions as a compass to work together and find a solution, to fix harm that may have happened, and to honour, build or repair relationships / friendships as best as we can.

This restorative way of being builds skills for a happy and connected life. Restorative Practice aim is to support the wellbeing of our school and the lovely community it serves. We are on this long-term restorative journey in our school, it’s a work in progress and we are still learning with you all. We may not always get it right but we hope that we can all work together along the way.

For more information visit www.connectrp.ie or look at the following TED talk Michelle Stowe’s TEDx on Restorative Conversations