Avoch Primary, Highland

Avoch Primary School joined the pilot because of an interest in improving relationships in the school – pupil-teacher relationships, pupil-pupil relationships and teacher-parent relationships. We were also hoping to increase pupil participation, encouraging children to become more involved in the running of the school and to work on ways to solve problems for themselves.

Progress to date:

Pupils
• P7 children are successfully running a peer mediation service in the school.
• A P7-P1 buddying system is in place to help the new intake settle into the school.
• A P4-P3 buddying system is in place to help the P3 children as they move into the middle school.
• P6 pupils are trained to play with the infants at break-times and are successfully operating as Play Friends in the Infant Playground.
• A PSD programme is in place from P2 to P7 including the development of skills in emotional literacy, interdependence and interpersonal relationships. (Nursery and P1 programme is not yet completed).


Staff
• All staff have been involved in Raising Awareness sessions.
• Three members of the teaching staff have completed four days of training about restorative meetings.
• Voluntary CAT sessions have been held for teaching staff, where the focus was on training in restorative enquiry.
• One member of staff has completed four days of training to become a “trainer” herself.


Parents
• SACRO attended and outlined the initiative at a Parent Evening run by the School Board.
• An Anti-Bullying leaflet has been issued to parents outlining the role of Restorative Interventions in beating bullying and building relationships.
• A curriculum newsletter has been issued detailing Avoch Primary School’s participation in the initiative.


Overall the initiative has thus far met with much success. Pupils are developing skills in resolving conflict and groups of children who were often arguing are getting along better. The time of the class teacher and of the management team spent resolving conflict with P6 and P7 girls is greatly reduced.

There are still some children who find themselves regularly in conflict with others, but the initiative has developed staff skills and given a model for dealing with these situations, thus ensuring a fair approach in which the adult does not become emotionally involved in the conflict. This has improved pupil-staff relationships and the relationships between staff and parents. Fewer pupils are sent from classes to the management team for disciplining, and for many children, solutions are longer lasting and are part of a learning experience.