Transforming Conflict is honoured that the patron of the Restorative Justice Council, Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, has agreed to open our conference in Cardiff on March 15th.

Director Belinda Hopkins is the first of our team of trainers to become an Accredited Restorative Practitioner on the new Restorative Justice Council Practitioner Register. After more than 40 hours work, preparing a portfolia of evidence linked to the National Occupational Standards for Best Practice, Belinda has been successful in her application.

Belinda Hopkins will be the Course Tutor on this years’ certificated course at the Cambridge Institute of Education, for more information please follow the link below or contact Belinda via email at belinda@transformingconflict.org 

THE number of times violent or abusive pupils have been suspended from state schools in Glasgow has plummeted by 53% in the past four years to its lowest ever level.

Our training courses have always been open to members of youth offending services and we have had excellent feedback from these participants. In the light of the recent news that the YJB has released funding for every YOS in England and Wales to train up 2 people to be trained , and then become trainers in restorative practices, Transforming Conflict has given much thought to what we can offer.

Transforming Conflict’s Finnish partners involved in the School Mediation Project VERSO have published a short report about their work. Transforming Conflict’s director Belinda Hopkins has helped the project manager and her team develop their already solid experience in the field of mediation in order to deepen their understanding of the restorative philosophy and its application as a school-wide approach. Maija Gellin and her lead trainers came to England for their initial training and then Belinda went to Finland in the summer 2010 to train the whole team.

Lisbon, Portugal

This is a groundbreaking film - the first to show what the full range of restorative responses to conflict and challenge looks like in schools from different sectors.

Course postponed until 2012

Herne Bay School held a conference on Restorative Approaches on Sept 4th, at which Belinda Hopkins, Transforming Conflict's Executive Director, was the plenary speaker and World Café hostess. After Belinda's opening speech, which set the context for the day, various workshops were offered.

Enhancing the Community - Restorative Approaches in County Durham

Our current newsletter (December 2010) contains news about our new film, restorative approaches in Pupil Referral Units, the 7th annual conference, which will take place in Birmingham on the 18th March 2011, and more!

Thanks to the pioneering work of Dominic Barter and others (in Rio de Janeiro, Sau Paulo and Porto Alegre) there is increasing interest in restorative justice and restorative approaches in Brazil and also in other South American countries. At the beginning of October 2009 Belinda Hopkins, Transforming Conflict’s director, was invited to run a 3 day training workshop with 80 educationalists during a conference on restorative justice at the University ABC in Sâo Paulo in Brasil. Lode Walgrave, a Belgian academic who is very well-respected in the field of restorative justice was also invited to talk about restorative justice in the criminal justice field. During the conference UniABC’s own television unit conducted interviews with Belinda and with Lode. These interviews and some footage of the conference have been uploaded to You Tube. The first 3 clips are about Lode Walgrave’s input and the second three are from Belinda’s interview . The interviews are in English with Portuguese sub-titles.

Dr Cremin will be promoting a series of seminars in 2010/2011 exploring the contribution a restorative approach can make in schools. More news of this venture to follow.

The London Borough of Lewisham has published an inspiring anti-bullying guide that is informed throughout by restorative philosophy and practice - from informal interventions in minor cases to full restorative conferences for the most serious of cases:

Iffley Mead school, in Oxfordshire, a school for children with complex learning needs, has had the recognition it deserves, with a mention in the national press and headline news in the local Oxford Mail: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/3736038.Restoring_order_to_the_classroom/

Transforming Conflict has now incorporated and is a limited company. We still consider ourselves a company committed to building social capital and promoting social justice, and all our profits are used to improve our service and our message. We have also moved into bigger, brighter offices at the same address - our beautiful venue in rural Berkshire to which visitors are always welcome for coffee and to browse our expanding library. Just let us know when you would like to come.

A group of experts look at restorative justice, a practice which brings together the victims and the perpetrators of conflict in order to find an agreed resolution. The approach has had a clear and positive impact on behaviour where it has been used is schools. Sir Charles Pollard, former chief constable of Thames Valley Police, and Graham Robb, board member of the Youth Justice Board share their experiences of restorative justice to an audience at the RSA. Mel Stanley, deputy head at Deptford Green School, talks about her experience of restorative justice and Kenny Frederick, headteacher at George Green's School, discusses her school's various approaches to resolving conflict.

At its August 2008 meeting, the Denver Public Schools board approved a new discipline policy that includes restorative interventions.

A new report has been written and published by the Howard League for Penal Reform - Children as victims: child-sized crimes in a child-sized world, it focuses on children as victims of crime and how low level crime is perceived and experienced. The recommendations in the report are of great interest to us - especially their recommendation of restorative approaches, including conflict resolution education and peer mediation schemes within education establishments.

A report issued by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that zero tolerance policies in use throughout U.S. school districts have not been effective in reducing violence or promoting learning in school. The report called for a change in these policies and indicated a need for alternatives, including restorative practices such as restorative justice conferences. An article by Doug Graves and Laura Mirsky provides details from the APA report.

After a recent restorative meeting between a supply teacher and a student following a disruptive incident, the member of staff concerned wrote the following to the facilitator:

After nearly six years of part-time study Belinda has now successfully defended her thesis on the implementation of restorative approaches in schools and is now Dr Hopkins. Using a unique synthesis of participatory action research and narrative enquiry which she has termed ‘restorative research methodology’ Belinda has explored in three distinct case studies, the journeys of educationalists as they implement restorative approaches in their schools. The findings are timely and will benefit all those trying to do something similar in their own school or area. A book on this research will be following in due course but in the meantime if anyone wants to read the thesis please e-mail Belinda on Belinda@transformingconflict.org and she can send you the pdf version.

Please click the link below to fill in the questionnaire for Schools and Agencies.

The first features Harriet Wall at Drayton School using restorative approaches to deal with issues that arise in classrooms and corridors at her school. The second is a film of some restorative work done in a school in Twickenham, focusing especially on a conflict between a group of Year 8 girls. They can be viewed on the teacherstv website: