Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice is at the very core of education at St Thomas of Canterbury College. The wider community is currently facing a challenging time with tamariki. It is important that during their time at STC, our tamariki develop empathy for others and own their actions. To do this we employ Restorative Practices to inform all of our decision making in pastoral care.

When an incident occurs, our Deans do a fantastic job in making sure everyone is safe, all information about the incident is collected and contact is made home to all families involved. From this point we begin the process of rebuilding the relationship. To do this we ask those who have harmed someone to own their actions and understand the importance or repairing this harm. This allows those involved to be accountable and avoids the adults in their world from taking ownership and smoothing out the path. The best learning for young people is to be afforded as many different experiences in life. This will help create well rounded and empathetic tamariki.

The process can be tough. Emotions can run high. However, allowing people to openly talk about how they feel in being harmed helps redress the power imbalance created by an incident. Those who have harmed find it very difficult to sit face to face with those they have harmed and this is a powerful moment. Our conferencing process allows for the incident to be dealt with and an agreement to be in place to help avoid future incidents.

The most important part in all of this is allowing our tamariki to fully engage in the process and take ownership of their actions. In a punitive system, those who have harmed are very rarely held accountable to those they have harmed. This means those who have been harmed will always hold a sense of injustice as they are not included in the punitive process. Restorative justice places those who have been harmed at the centre of the process and allows them to feel heard.

At St Thomas of Canterbury College, we focus on Educated Hearts. We are guided by forgiveness. We make sure the dignity of everyone involved is upheld and that relationships are repaired. Restorative Practice help us stay true to our values and guides how we ensure our students remain happy, healthy and safe at STC.