An example of practice: St Mary's CofE Primary School, Washington

St Mary’s CofE Primary School is a small rural primary school in the district of Horsham. The school has approximately 95 pupils, of whom there are a lower-than-average number of children with EHCPs, but a higher-than-average percentage of children receiving SEN support.

Emmalene Greene is the school’s deputy headteacher, inclusion lead, SENCO, senior mental health lead (SMHL) and designated safeguarding lead (DSL). Emmalene led this piece of work on restorative practice. 

In this case study, Emmalene reflects on the development of the work at the school and future considerations.

"Our school development plan for the academic year 2024 to 2025 was to develop restorative approaches in line with our therapeutic response to behaviour. This piece of work grew organically over a period of years. 

This was not a reactive response to children’s growing mental health needs, but a journey that was purposefully moving to shape how we respond to children’s behaviour as a form of communication. 

Each part of this process has been about nurturing one step at a time through carefully delivery, monitoring, staff and pupil feedback and involving our whole school community - including our families and governors."

"In 2024 to 2025 we were looking at how our Behaviour Policy was shaped and whether it reflected the needs of our pupils currently in our school. 

We wanted to grow and nurture children who are:

• self-aware
• reflective
• empathetic
• problem-solvers
• good communicators

I had seen the benefits and power of restorative practice from working in a previous setting at Singleton CofE Primary School in West Sussex, and how children could become empowered when the narrative shifted from adult-centred conflict resolution, to child-centred."

"Restorative practice (RP) has many strands, but we first implemented Circles in St Mary’s following a period of staff training. The classroom culture must be right before Circles can take-off. Children need to feel safe and need to have developed trusting relationships with staff and peers for this to work. 

I spent time monitoring Circles, gaining feedback from the adults and children whilst observing their use. The joy of Circles is that they are multi-purpose.

They can be used pre-emptively to share an upcoming situation, like preparing for a class trip. They can be used to support transition - how was your weekend? and how are we feeling being back in school today? Or they can be used to reflect on a class-felt problem, like a lunch time incident, or a learning behaviour that warrants some thought. Their use is so wonderful because they can be adapted to suit almost anything. 

When Circles run well, they change the culture of the classroom and it increases collaboration, because suddenly everyone’s point of view becomes heard - it shifts there being a ‘right way’ or a ‘wrong way’ to think or respond. Circles gives everyone a voice.

This is key from pupils at risk of emotionally-based school avoidance (EBSA), because sometimes we can think we have given all pupils voice, but it can be challenging to hear everyone’s voice, or for everyone’s voice to actually feel heard. 

The pupil voice at this time showed that hearing how other people think, was one of the biggest advantages of Circles. It began to open the way in which other children expected their peers to behave or think. This was particularly powerful for our neurodivergent children who explained how it helped them to see what their friends thought and felt, and it was quite different to what they expected. 

From a staff perspective, it gave us more insight and windows of opportunity to hear about their inner thoughts or find out more about their home-life, hobbies and interests.

It was lovely to see how Circles brought the children together even more - they enjoyed listening to one another. This became another ‘pull’ factor for school, because it was a safe place, where we listen to one another, talk openly, share our feelings safely and can trust one another.  

After Circles ran for a term, and monitoring was complete, I created an evaluation of its impact for our team and the governing body. We then felt ready to move onto restorative enquiry. 

In the process of setting up Circles, we also began the WOWSI project and the impact of the culmination of these 2 prongs of our response to EBSA has been important in shaping our Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) offer."

"After the first term of Circles being implemented the response was overwhelmingly positive and we agreed to include Circles as a twice-weekly event in our classrooms, plus additional Circles would occur where needed. However, we do not dictate when this occurs, as Circles are fundamentally organic and responsive.

We have found great success in Circles being held on a Monday morning. This transition from home to school is often a wobbly period and it gives us all a chance to reconnect.

Circles can enable us to find out more about one another’s weekends, but also familiarise relationships and discuss the week ahead, alleviating some of the worries children may have and provide that space for togetherness.

Our entire team has seen the benefits of Circles and our staff voice trickles through the school, including our wellbeing governor.

Circles continue to be part of our whole-school practice along with the other dimensions of restorative practice which has shaped our behaviour policy and response. None of this would be possible without our teams’ commitment.

As a result, our response to EBSA continues to be child-centred. There are often no specific patterns or same approach to a unique individual or lived experience, but Circles, amongst our SEMH offer, continues to help us respond on an individual basis to our families and children and utilise all of the tools we now have implemented at St Mary’s."

"This year we are focussing on our 5 Pillars of Wellbeing, looking at the themes which help us to further breakdown the stigma of mental health and exemplifying all of the small and big acts we as a school celebrate and mark, that promote our mental health."