In Independent Thinking on Restorative Practice: Building relationships, improving behaviour and creating stronger communities, Mark Finnis shares a practical and inspiring introduction to the use of restorative practice in educational settings.

Supportive behaviours aim to encourage, to build self-belief, self-value and confidence. They include showing an interest, making time to listen (genuine listening, not that half-hearted sort), suspending judgement, asking reflective questions, creating trust, recognising and expressing feelings. Restorative practice is summarised for me by an anecdote shared with me by Mark Finnis, the author of Restorative Practice- a book on education I would hugely recommend. Restorative justice is used when resolving conflict and repairing harm, whereas restorative practice is an underpinning ethos that builds and maintains healthy relationships. Put simply, restorative justice is what you do, whereas restorative practice is what you are. My strengths lie in building lasting relationships with brilliant clients and this is key to my success. I pride myself in asking the right questions to understand your needs and being results oriented. Restorative practice is not about replacing traditional behaviour management systems in our schools. It’s certainly not about being soft or turning a blind eye to poor behaviour. It’s about elevating the culture of a school or organization so students are pulled in, not pushed out, about fostering a greater sense of community and communal ownership.

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Ensure you call out good behaviour before you highlight negative behaviour. Earlier, we talked about attention needing behaviour, and in truth everyone needs attention and would not want to be ignored. Therefore, if a student is behaving, highlight their positive behaviour. When highlighting their positive behaviour be specific so they know and the class know why you are pleased with them. So, if you are not modelling what you are teaching, then you are not really teaching what you think you are. Students see whether you are showing warmth and respect toward them and to the other students and adults in your school. Often, they will model their own behaviour after your behaviour, albeit subconsciously.

Not only do smiles make us feel good, they have the tendency of getting passed on to others. A simple positive greeting can have an impact on all the things we want to improve: learning, behaviour and, most of all, belonging. In this enlightening, challenging and timely book, Mark Finnis sets out his vision and practical experience of cultivating a relationships-based school. Mark highlights the need for staff to build trust by building relationships, with the focus on creating and strengthening the ties of human connection to promote engagement, productivity and happiness. Carlie loves the way that different restorative interventions can work together to create exciting conversations that are accessible and meaningful to all involved. Carlie is passionate about supporting practitioners and the community to introduce the values of working restoratively into their practice at the earliest opportunity. I began using restorative and relational based approaches in the late nineties and I have written and organised training for a wide range of Children and Adult Services, Schools and across communities ever since.It’s dependent on a number of factors. The first one is how strong the leadership is. Some people say they put relationships at the heart of everything but it’s just lip service. There needs to be a clear vision, extensive communication with staff and a clear training plan matched to an outcomes framework. Deb has been an Independent Trainer and Restorative Practitioner for over 20 years and has experience of working with a wide range of agencies, organisations and communities. She is passionate about all things Restorative.