Restorative justice replaces traditional discipline at St Patrick’s Silverstream

Restorative justice could make school detentions a relic of the past at St Patrick’s College Silverstream.

The no-detention approach to school discipline, even for the worst troublemakers is being encouraged at the College by new principal Mr Gerard Tully.

Gerard Tully talking to a student

“I used to be a real detention man: ‘If a student does things wrong there must be consequences.’ But it’s a waste of time. What do you achieve by making kids, if they’ve done something wrong on a Monday, come back on Friday afternoon and write out something out of a dictionary?

“It doesn’t actually address the behaviour. This way, the student can think about what they’ve done wrong and who they’ve affected, and how we can resolve it in the future.”

While detentions, expulsions and suspensions have been typically used as forms of punishment to control pupil behaviour at the Marist college, St Patrick’s College Silverstream, restorative principles are based on the idea that a pupil needs to take responsibility for their actions.

Tully said restorative justice fitted in with the school’s focus on encouraging positive, respectful relationships between pupils and teachers.

Instead of being punished, a misbehaving pupil would discuss the impact of their actions with a teacher.

That could range from a two-minute chat to a formal, sit-down conference. While it would require a shift in thinking, it made more sense to prepare young people to be adults by tackling their problems, Tully said.

Source: Dominion Post

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