Many schools who choose to become restorative use what’s been called the Restorative Operating Domains or the Social Discipline Window to reflect on their practice.
The powerful part of this simple model is that the two axes are old, eternal truisms about what great educators are – firm and fair.
When I wrote my second edition of Restoring Teaching, I found myself wanting to question everything about my work. I adopted the scientific method of looking to disprove myself.
And that’s how I found myself adding an irregular fifth box to this regular, old quadrant model. My observation is that – should you practise for long enough in the WITH box – another box magically appears.
In this box – which I’ve labelled the BY box – students start doing the heavy lifting of resolving conflict BY themselves, speaking respectfully BY themselves, overcoming poor behaviours BY themselves, learning through circles BY themselves.
You get the drift.
I grappled with the positioning of the BY box and settled that there’s only one door to it – through that WITH box.
And I observe the teachers reaching the BY box slowly making themselves obsolete when it comes to intervening in student growth, learning and socialising.
Their stress levels are plummeting and their workload is nose diving.
Which makes it a door worth walking through.
Keep fighting that good fight,
Want a sneak peak at the next episode in my Real Schools of Thought podcast?
This one tells the incredible story of our partners at Nepean School, which is a school for kids with a physical disability and/or complex health impairment. Claire and Jade are fiercely committed to creating a truly inclusive, restorative culture at Nepean, where kindness is actually baked in to their school rules.
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