Just Schools: A Whole School Approach to Restorative Justice

Source: (2004) Foreword and introduction by Guy Masters. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

By ‘justice’ Belinda Hopkins means fairness, and the restorative approach that she describes is based on respecting the individuality of everyone in a school – adults as well as children – although the reader is slightly thrown off the scent by Guy Masters’ foreword on using restorative methods in the criminal justice system. Hopkins, a former teacher, describes how to start a restorative programme in a school.
Part II, ‘Restorative skills and processes’, outlines how to become a ‘listening school’, with suggested techniques for encouraging children to work out their rights and responsibilities. The restorative approaches to bullying will be of interest to many people. She believes in mediation as a process of transforming relationships and attitudes. She describes five basic steps, obviously writing from her own experience.
Throughout she stresses the importance of a whole-school approach, and she acknowledges the need for a careful balance between blaming the victim and recognizing that his or her behaviour sometimes provokes an attack. There is a section on circles, which can also be used by governors, staff and others in resolving conflicts.
The last part is about implementation and sustainability, and grasps the nettle by questioning whether rewards and punishments are the best way of managing relationships. Howard Zehr’s paradigms of retributive and restorative justice are adapted to make them relevant for schools.
After a discussion of consistency and voluntariness , Hopkins gives more guidance on five stages for making a start, recognizing that the aim should not be merely ‘negative peacemaking’ to make children behave, but to show them conflict management skills. Schools should be not merely re-structured, bur re-cultured, and the restorative method introduced in teacher training. Finally, some of the text diagrams are helpfully reprinted in reproducible form.