Dandenong South Primary School is a Restorative Practices school
We believe that this approach provides a focus for developing positive relationships within the classroom, within the school and between the school and the community, with opportunities being provided for students to take responsibility for their behaviour and their learning.
Each class participates in Circle Time activities daily, usually when the students arrive at school each morning. The objective of Circle Time activities is to develop positive relationships and trust in the classroom. Whilst Restorative Practices is a means to restore relationships in the wake of an incident, Circle Time activities assist in building the initial relationships and establishing trust.
Restorative Practices helps each person to learn from their mistakes, grow in self-discipline, take responsibility for their actions, recognise the impact of their actions on others, reconcile, and resolve conflict with others.
When an incident occurs, students are encouraged to reflect upon the situation and their behaviour. Working with students, teachers help them to understand how the situation came about and how they can make better choices, if a similar situation arises in the future. The questions students reflect on include:
- What happened?
- Who has been affected and in what ways?
- If you had your time over, what would be different?
- What needs to happen to fix things?