Building Peace in Schools: Reflections on Restorative Practice Training
Building Peace in Schools: Reflections on Restorative Practice Training
Ben Harper, Peer Mediation National Coordinator for Quakers in Britain, recently completed a comprehensive training course on restorative practices for education settings. The training provided him with valuable tools and insights to support schools in adopting restorative approaches to conflict resolution.
REPORT BY BEN HARPER
It has been great to attend a Restorative Practice Facilitator for Education Settings training course recently. The course comprised of 10 one and half hour sessions and was run by Restorative Now. Restorative Now provides training to people across the education, housing and youth offending sector to up skill them in the use of restorative principles and practices. They are a Registered Training Provider with the Restorative Justice Council.
My role as Peer Mediation National Coordinator means I spend most of my time promoting the value of peer led conflict resolution, but I often see that this lands best in schools where there is a wider commitment to restorative and relational practice. Taking a restorative approach to behaviour in school can have its challenges; it can take more time, it can be perceived as a less ‘tough’ approach, and ultimately it is counter cultural to the way most teachers have been trained to manage behaviour.

As a former teacher, I confess to not always being restorative in my approach, perhaps for many of the reasons above. I also lacked the tools. This course was aimed at upskilling people with those tools. But it also invited me to consider my own beliefs about behaviour. One of the questions I was most exercised by was ‘What is it about punishment that gives it such popularity?’ Engaging with this question made me realise that punishment really is quite an attractive option, even to someone who claims to believe in restorative approaches! I was helped in addressing this by some other training I completed recently which invited us to consider that despite our many differences, all human beings are ultimately working to meet their universal human needs ‘just like me’.
Having cemented my conviction that restorative approaches are ultimately more humane, more effective in the long run, and therefore more desirable, I was keen to have the tools to help me ‘do this ‘stuff’. We were run through a script to elicit feelings and needs from two people in conflict before looking at how we might facilitate a joint meeting between parties. This all echoed my experience and understanding of mediation, although I could see the nuances needed to make this effective for adults facilitating this between parties in a school context.

We also spent some significant time considering the impact of trauma, neglect and abuse on a person’s ability to engage well in these kinds of process. I was reminded of the significant impact Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) can have on a person’s self concept, and how important it is to ensure restorative processes ultimately empower all parties to feel heard, understood and make amends, and not just further activate shame.
Our course ended with some exploration of ‘Talking Circles’. Talking circles are an approach that can be used by schools to create more relational environments. They involve children and adults sitting together for structured times of listening to one another, and have been shown to be really effective in developing empathy, understanding and connection between participants. I was reminded that restorative approaches are important, but there is also the possibility to proactively build connections within school communities when this type of practice forms a regular part of school life. This kind of approach might help to prevent harm, rather than just repair harm.
I’m really keen to see more schools adopting relational and restorative practices. The broader vision of this is explored further in the Peace at the Heart report authored by my colleagues in the Peace Education team at Quakers in Britain. The skills and knowledge I acquired on this course will undoubtedly make me more equipped to promote such approaches. My ‘big hope’ is that as I do that, it may help to make these approaches the norm, not just in education, but in society as a whole.

With a career spanning the disciplines of teaching, youth work, mentoring and coaching, Ben Harper is passionate about supporting those who work with children and young people to be well, and do well. Ben is the Peer Mediation National Co-ordinator for Quakers in Britain and plays a key role in supporting the CMC Peer Mediation Working Group.