Weekly restorative circles now the norm at Dr. Ross Tilley

BOWMANVILLE -- Students in every classroom at Bowmanville’s Dr. Ross Tilley Public School know what they’ll be doing each week during period three of day one of their schedules.

In each and every classroom, students rearrange the furniture, and sit comfortably to take part in what is known as a Restorative Circle.

The idea of the circle discussions stems from the concept of restorative justice. This approach to discipline focuses on repairing harm caused by inappropriate behaviour, with victims getting a say on how the person can right the situation, and people who have acted wrongfully taking responsibility and work to fix the harm, says a Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board pamphlet.

KPR was the first board in Ontario to adopt a system-wide restorative practice, and now, Dr. Ross Tilley school has become the first in the board to adopt the school-wide practice of regularly occurring restorative circles.

The idea is that students get a chance to discuss issues and concerns, talk about classroom and schoolyard social issues and even seek ways to make the classroom function better, vice-principal Marguerite Masterson said.

“It provides everybody with a voice,” she said. “The quiet voices get heard and the leaders can also emerge.”

Restorative practices and the weekly circle exercise, mark a departure to how issues used to be resolved in schools, noted principal Peter Bischoff.

When he started teaching, discipline tended to be “authoritarian, absolutely rule-based and punitive as opposed to restorative,” he said. The new way “helps to resolve and bring closure to an issue. It’s a matter of really resolving things.”

It’s something most students are taking seriously, say two of the school’s senior pupils. “I thought it was a really good idea,” Kathryn Lang, 13, said. “There are problems that happen that restorative circles have brought out.”

Students get an opportunity to “express our opinions,” she said.

“Talking to your different classmates and hearing their problems and concerns” can be helpful, Kathryn said.

It’s also gives students a chance to look at both the positive and negative that’s happening in the classroom, 13-year-old Emma Cullen said.

“A lot of kids are really opening up and talking more and we’re all just listening to what we all have to say,” she said.

An array of issues come up in the discussions, Ms. Masterson said.

“One teacher shared with me that her class had a discussion on how to behave and manage with a supply teacher,” she said. The “degree of sophistication varies by grade,” Mr. Bischoff said.

Not only does the time set aside for restorative circles provide a time for discussion but it also allows for a green initiative at the school -- during restorative circle time, classrooms power down computers and lights. The school will use board records to monitor whether this has a noticeable impact on power consumption.

Restorative practices have really improved what was already a good school, Mr. Bischoff said.?    “The tone of the school is so incredibly and wonderfully different from a year and two years ago,” he said. “Parents are delighted.”

As one Grade 7 student recently told school administrators, “it gives everybody a fresh start.”