At Our Lady Star of the Sea, teachers recognise the importance of a unified and consistent approach to the management of student’s behaviour through Restorative Practices.  The Restorative Practices Strategies used at our school include: Circle Time, Affective Questioning, Restorative Circles and Conflict Resolution.

Restorative Practices

Restorative Practices involve the building of positive relationships and establishing a supportive environment that is fair, consistent and democratic. The underlying principle is that relationships are important, and when a harmful or disruptive incident occurs, the focus is on the harm caused to the relationship and the subsequent repairing of that harm; rather than what rule has been broken and therefore what consequences will be imposed. 

Ways to Solve a Problem at School

Affective Questioning & Restorative Circles

Restorative circles are used by Our Lady Star of the Sea staff when speaking to students about behaviour and incidents. Restorative Circles allow the teacher to demonstrate empathy, teach children how to resolve conflict, and most importantly, allow students to have voice.  Our Lady Star of the Sea staff have a consistent approach to using restorative circles, using Affective Questions to help students to reflect on what happened, how they felt, how they chose to respond, the impact of choices made, how they could have responded differently and the impact on how they might have felt as a result of making a different choice.

 Examples of Affective Questioning:

What happened?

What were you thinking at the time?   What are you thinking now? 

What strategy did you use to de-escalate? Safety Plan)

Who has been affected by what you did?     How?                    

What needs to happen to make things better?  Any other ideas?

Paul Anderson

Student Wellbeing Leader