Safe and Welcoming School Environment
Student Culture, Language and Identity
Southmoor establishes a safe, secure and welcoming learning environment that values every stakeholder’s culture, language and identity. We believe that positive and authentic relations among students, families, teachers and staff is critical in fostering a safe and welcoming school.
Transformative Social-Emotional Learning
Social Emotional learning and mental health is critical in establishing a safe learning environment. Our program offers opportunities for our students to engage in learning experiences that foster identity, agency belonging, curiosity and collaborative problem solving
Restorative Practices
Restorative Practices in Schools is philosophically based in fostering relationships, strengthening understanding, repairing harm, and building strong communities. Identifying and addressing the needs and harms that occur when there is conflict in the school community by cultivating empathy and modeling conflict resolution skills serves students and adults alike.
Restorative Practices, when practiced with fidelity, create a safe space for connection and dialogue. When facilitated by trained practitioners, Restorative Practices lead to a more equitable and inclusive environment for students, staff, families, and community members.
The variety of practices or models used in applying this philosophy have been developed an honed by indigenous peoples and religious groups for centuries. They have been further developed and implemented around the world by academics, governments, schools, communities and practitioners for decades. Restorative Practices in Schools assist in building a school culture of relationship and respect. At the core, Restorative Practices are built on what are known as the 5 R’s: Relationship, Respect, Responsibility, Repair, and Reintegration.
The following definitions of the 5 R’s were written by Dr. Beverly Title in History and Operational Values of Teaching Peace.
They can also be found on the Colorado Coordinating Council on Restorative Justice website RJColorado.org.
The 5 R’s
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Restorative Practices recognize that when a wrong occurs, individuals and communities feel violated. It is the damage to these relationships that is primarily important and is the central focus of what Restorative Practices seek to address.
When relationships are strong, people experience more fulfilling lives, and communities become places where we want to live. Relationships may be mended through the willingness to be accountable for one’s actions and to make repair of harm done.
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Respect is the key ingredient that holds the container for all Restorative Practices, and it is what keeps the process safe. It is essential that all persons in a restorative process be treated with respect. One way we acknowledge respect is that participation is a restorative process works best when it is chosen by the participant.
Every person is expected to show respect for others and for themselves. Restorative processes require deep listening, done in a way that does not presume we know what the speaker is going to say, but that we honor the importance of the other’s point of view.
Our focus for listening is to understand other people, so, even if we disagree with their thinking, we can be respectful and try hard to comprehend how it seems to them.
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For Restorative Practices to be effective, personal responsibility must be taken. Each person needs to take responsibility for any harm they caused to another, admitting any wrong that was done, even if it was unintentional. Taking responsibility also includes a willingness to give an explanation of the harmful behavior.
Adopted by the RJ Council and posted on Restorative Justice Colorado, August 2016 4 search deeply in their hearts and minds to discover if there is any part of the matter at hand for which they have some responsibility. Everyone needs to be willing to accept responsibility for his or her own behavior and the effect it has had on others and the community as a whole.
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The restorative approach is to repair the harm that was done and address underlying causes to the fullest extent possible, recognizing that harm may extend beyond anyone’s capacity for repair.
Once the persons involved have accepted responsibility for their behavior and they have heard in the restorative process about how others were harmed by their action, they are expected to make repairs. It is this principle that allows us to set aside thoughts of revenge and punishment. It is through taking responsibility for one’s own behavior and making repair, that persons may regain or strengthen their self-respect and the respect of others.
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For the restorative process to be complete, persons who may have felt alienated must be accepted into the community. Reintegration is realized when all persons have put harm behind them and moved into a new role in the community. This new role recognizes their worth and the importance of the new learning that has been accomplished.
The person having shown him or herself to be an honorable person through acceptance of responsibility and repair of harm has transformed the hurtful act. At the reintegration point, all parties are back in the right relationship with each other and with the community.
This reintegration process is the final step in achieving wholeness.
These five principles are a guide for restorative justice practices regardless of the setting. Building a restorative school culture based on relationships and respect among members of the school and community are the starting point for Restorative Practices in Schools. They enhance collaboration and problem-solving, create a culture of inclusiveness and personal responsibility and generate higher levels of engagement and satisfaction.
Through the fostering of relationships and the building of respect, students and staff communicate better and discipline will be seen as supportive and reparative, rather than adversarial. The practice of building relationships and respect among all members of the school community are the proactive elements of Restorative Practices. Strong restorative culture makes responsible repair of harm the norm when disciplinary situations arise. This is done through fostering a shift in thinking from who broke the law or school rules, what law/rule was broken, and what is the punishment, to who was harmed, how we meet the needs of all involved, and how to repair what has been harmed.
The impact of Restorative Practices on the school community will be much greater than a decrease in suspension, expulsion, and the increase in equity. A restorative school community increases student social and emotional engagement through:
Allowing all voices to be heard and respected
Understanding the impacts of behavior
Increasing responsibility for actions
Repairing harm caused by behaviors