At QPS we aim to strengthen our learning relationships through consistent structures, expectations, support and care. We adopts a 'restorative' approach to all harmful events that occur at school, ranging from ongoing classroom disruption to incidents of serious physical, social and emotional harm. 

Restorative practice enhances a school wide culture of mutual respect, care and support even in the face of wrongdoing and relationship conflict.  Instead of seeking to punish wrongdoers, we follow a process that helps to restore harm done and change future behaviour.

This approach allows for the community of people involved to come together to explore the harm and restore relationships. Those affective have a more active involvement in the justice process and those responsible are more accountable to the people they have harmed, thus restoring emotional as well as material losses of their victims.

The Restorative Chat:

Teachers and students are engaging in restorative conversations both as prevention and as an early intervention for relatively low-level classroom disruption. This approach models calm, respectful dialogue and makes use of established language such as :

What is happening?
What were you thinking?
Who do you think is being affected?
How do you think they are affected?
What do you need to put it right?

When behaviour escalates, conferencing is required. This may range from mini conferences, full conferences or class conferences. 

If you require more information about Restorative Practice methods at QPS, please contact us atadmin@queenstown.school.nz