The most well-documented applications of Restorative Justice in schools to date are the processes which seek to repair undisputed harm - Restorative Conferencing, Family Group Conferencing and Victim/Offender Mediation. These are being used not only in cases of offending behavior but also with young people who are at risk of exclusion (or who have been excluded) as a way of addressing the relationship issues and residual tensions.

In schools where Restorative Practices are being used practitioners are discovering that other issues can be dealt with restoratively, and these may involve conflict where there is no 'guilty party' or when both sides are blaming the other. Mediation is often an appropriate response to such situations, where neutral facilitators enable those in conflict to listen to each other and find a mutually acceptable way forward.

An increasingly widespread application of Mediation in schools is the development of a Peer Mediation Service, usually run by young people themselves who have been trained to mediate amongst their peers and deal with conflicts that arise in the playground. Successful schemes are running in Junior and Secondary schools around the UK and secondary aged students have their own Young Mediators Network and run their own conferences.

Such schemes, however, are less successful if mediation is not an approach also used by the adults in the school community. This is the message of a Restorative Approach generally. It is important that Restorative Justice is seen not simply as a response to extreme behavior but that the principles are in place in staff rooms, classrooms and playgrounds every day.

It would not make sense to deal with some situations using one set of values and then deal with other situations using different values. Young people are quick to spot hypocrisy and inconsistency. Justice is a very important issue for them and they appreciate it if the rules by which they are expected to live and work in the school community also apply to adults.
Indeed a key restorative principle would be that the whole community develop the rules together and are involved in finding ways forward when these rules are broken - whoever breaks them.

The processes mentioned above require certain skills of the facilitators but are also more effective if participants are also practiced in certain key Restorative Skills which include:
Active listening
Non-violent communication
Anger management
Conflict transformation skills
Dealing with difficult situations
Restorative de-briefing and reflective practice

Restorative Justice is predicated on the notion that damage has been done to relationships by inappropriate behavior and that prior to an incident there were relationships that have subsequently been damaged. This may not have been the case. In a school community relationships and community need to be actively developed and not taken for granted. This requires a set of Relational skills and can be nurtured with certain relational processes.

The skills include:
Active Listening
Self-awareness
Emotional literacy
Building rapport
Patience
Objectivity
Developing and maintaining self esteem
Appreciating difference
Inclusive practices
Expressing feelings and needs

The Relational processes and systems, which also develop the Active Citizenship skills of the whole community, include:
Circle Time for Staff (for staff development, team building and mutual support)
Circle Time for Students (for developing self-esteem, communication skills and a spirit of co-operation)
Healing Circles
School Council
Peer-counseling
Peer mentoring
Buddying Schemes
No-Blame Approach to Bullying
A Self-Esteem Policy for Staff and for students
A Whole School Relationship Management Policy (as opposed to a 'Behaviour
Management' Policy that tends to focus on young people's behaviour)

Pieced together, the Restorative and Relational processes and skills described above make up the jigsaw of a Whole School Restorative Approach. Every school will have its own priorities and will want to build on existing good practice. Time and resources for training and support will also be issues. For further information some useful links to other websites are listed below:

Transforming Conflict - A Center for Restorative Justice in Education .This organization is developing its own website which will have information about Restorative Issues in schools, details of courses , a bibliography of useful books and a discussion forum. It will be fully online by June 2001.
www.transformingconflict.org

Mediation UK. This is the umbrella organization for community and victim/offender mediation services around the UK. It also supports mediators working in schools on Peer mediation projects.
www.mediationuk.org.uk