Restorative Practice

At Barley Croft, our approach to behaviour and relationships focuses on building community, preventing harm, and repairing relationships when harm happens. It builds on our school vision of

Belong-Believe-Become.

We use restorative practice across the school. This practice is built on the following principles which form the foundation of our restorative and relationship‑centred approach:

1. Fair: Every child and adult is treated with equity, dignity and respect.

2. Mutual respect: Interactions are grounded in trust, kindness and shared responsibility.

3. Consistent: Expectations, language and responses are predictable and fair across the school.

4. Listen compassionately: All voices are heard; we seek to understand before seeking to be understood.

5. Calm: Adults model emotional regulation and create a safe, settled environment.

6. Reflective: We view behaviour as communication and take time to reflect, repair and learn.

7. Caring: Every interaction prioritises relationships, belonging and wellbeing.

Whole-school expectations

These expectations help everyone feel safe, happy and ready to learn. They are simple, memorable and used across the whole school.

At Barley Croft we…

1. Try our Best and Take Pride: We always try our hardest and take pride in our work, our words and our choices.
2. Are Kind: We use kind words and actions with everyone, every day.
3. Show Respect: We treat people, property and our school with respect.
4. Listen Well: We listen actively to each other so everyone feels heard.
5. Move Calmly: We walk safely and calmly around school and during transitions.
6. Are Tolerant: We welcome differences and look after each other.

If children are not following our whole-school expectations, we will use a stepped response to support them to make positive choices as outlined below:

THINK (x2) – Use the language of “you need to think about your choices”.

- First response (low-level): Reminder of expectation, think 1 (private where possible).

- Second response: Clear warning + offer to help (“I need you to stop or you’ll need to take a break to calm down”). Think 2

CHANCE TO CHANGE – Children given structured time out but still use language of “this is your chance to change”. Time restricted to 5 minutes in paired class. Welcome back into classroom positively using language of “I can see you’re ready to learn now”

REFLECT – Children attend reflection at lunchtime. Led by member of SLT. Restorative conversation held, restorative reflection sheet filled out. Pledge or change to behaviour made.