Period: 1.12.2020 – 30.11.2022
Grant: 173 870,00 EUR
Partners: SA Omanäolise Kooli Arenduskeskus (Estonia, leading partner), VsI Mokymosi mokykla (Lithuania) and Transforming Conflict Ltd (United Kingdom)
SA Omanäolise Kooli Arenduskeskus has been training teachers in very different fields (communication, psychology, new approaches to teaching and learning etc) for more than 20 years now. OKA has been training Estonian Police officers in the last year in the field of Restorative Justice and based on that we have seen the need to expand this approach also to schools to help them deal with increasing discipline issues, conflicts etc. OKA ́s mission has been to lead positive educational transformations and find new ways to support Estonian schools so that every child can develop their full potential in a safe and inspiring environment.
Mokymosi Mokykla ́s one of the main activities in the last 3 years has been promoting Non-Violent Communication methodology in schools. Mokymosi Mokykla has organized three international workshops on NVC, nonviolent communication dedicated to teachers and parents in which the participants were empowered by this innovative dimension regarding their relationships with themselves and others, a dimension in which all needs are met beyond conflict. The activities are focused on observing, experiencing, understanding and practicing a model of communication which is focused on clearly expressing and emphatically receiving messages so that everyone’s needs are met. Their interest is to develop this approach further and find ways to bring together different restorative practices, including NVC.
Transforming Conflict is one of the leading providers of training and consultancy in the UK and increasingly across Europe in the field of restorative approaches in schools, residential care and other youth and community settings. Their competencies and skills working out different IO ́s and the curriculum will be very much needed to ensure the most valid tools and materials for schools.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Relationships are considered to be in the 20% of relevant input you need to focus on in school to achieve 80% of the results you are aiming for (high academic results, well-being, motivation and thriving in school in general). At the same time, managing relationships requires a level of mastery – consciousness and a set of skills, attitudes and values.
It’s often not an easy job to do, but worthwhile to make an effort.
This is the journey that we are inviting you and your school to take part in!
Together we will tackle questions like:
• What everyday practices are needed to create a healthy, professional, and caring school culture on different levels (teachers, management, students, parents etc)?
• How do you engage the whole school step by step?
• How do you lead difficult conversations and solve conflicts in a way that creates unity not separation?
We are taking part in an Erasmus+ project called “Transforming Schools through Restorative Practices”, which lasts 2 years from Dec 2020. Together with our Lithuanian and UK partners we aim to create a systematic whole school approach on how to create and nourish conscious, healthy, and professional relationships on all levels of communication. For that we bring together different best practices (including restorative justice, non-violent communication, T. Gordon´s effective communication training, art of hosting etc) that have proved effective.
Good relationships, win-win-problem-resolution and understanding people’s needs is crucial to create a strong foundation for teaching and learning. The model deals with relationships on all levels – student-student, student-teacher, teacher-teacher, teacher-management, school-parents etc.
During the project we will develop the necessary guidelines and tools for the implementation of the model and support test schools in the implementation process and monitor the impact on different aspects of school life.
Implementing this model will help students and teachers develop and implement their social-emotional skills (listening, self-expressing, emotional intelligence, empathy, conflict resolution, negotiation, and cooperation skills etc) and better engage with parents as partners.
The project brings together educators and school representatives from Lithuania, Estonia and Great Britain and aims to prepare a community of practitioners in the field. It will be an inspiring and interesting journey full of mutual learning, development of processes, guidelines, tools, implementing them in your school and giving feedback.
What is needed from the school:
- Establishing a school core team (incl representatives from the management, depending on the size of the school approx 3 people)
- Participation on trainings (approx 8 days internationally, 6 days on national level), meetings and in the process of creating project results (specific agreements are made with each team separately)
- leading the implementation process in your school
- testing out and giving feedback to the developed guidelines, methods and other materials (2021/2022 study year)
- readiness to analyze and if needed consider reorganizing school´s everyday work processes (for example providing time for cooperation, testing out tools and reflection etc)
- readiness to take part of the impact monitoring process and participate in the development process as a practitioner-researcher
What we offer to the school:
- For the school representatives (1-2 people) the opportunity to take part of an international learning journey (approx 8 days)
- Free trainings on national level with other test schools (approx 6 days)
- Exciting participation in project core team and the opportunity to take part of the development process (paid)
- Support in the process of implementing the model
- The opportunity to co-create something new and innovative in the field of education
BACKGROUND
Strong social relationships in schools are the basis on which everything else stands and weak relationships can be considered to be one of the root causes for many other problems our educational system is facing today, including bullying and aggression, misbehavior and conflicts, new teachers leaving school and dropout. A positive school climate is one of those things that is difficult to define and measure, but everyone recognizes it when they see it and this is based on strong relationships.
Students appreciate a school environment where bullying is unusual, where students do not feel out of place, and where establishing genuine and respectful relationships with teachers is the norm. PISA 2018 shows that school climate is closely associated with students’ sense of well-being. (OECD 2019) It is clear that bullying can have adverse – and potentially longlasting – effects on students’ performance at school and general well-being. (OECD 2019). Given the harmful consequences that bullying can have on students’ well- being, policy makers, principals and teachers need to devise effective policies and practices to limit bullying and building a culture of good behavior, establishing clear anti-bullying rules, and creating a positive school climate, where students feel engaged and socially connected, is essential for preventing bullying. (OECD 2019)
Teachers are a critical education resource in every country. From early childhood programmes through primary and secondary school, the presence of qualified, well-motivated and supported teachers is vital for student learning. Yet teacher shortages remain a serious concern (UNESCO 2015). For example every year in Estonia approximately 800 novice teachers start working in schools. By the 5th year 50% of them leave school (Ministry of Education, EHISe data 2010-2016 about general education). This has put Estonian educational system under a lot of pressure because there are not enough teachers. One of the main reasons for that based on research is the lack of supportive relationships on different levels (M. Meristo, Personal and Contextual Factors Shaping Novice Teachers’ Early Professional Career).
Feeling safe (both students and teachers) in the school opens up personal resources that are necessary for learning and teaching in a meaningful way. Schools model the relationships that will be carried out in the outer world and this is why it is crucial to learn how to take responsibility for your actions through awareness and right attitude. It’s important to have the necessary knowledge, tools and practices to do so. Although people tend to think of restorative approaches applying only when things go wrong, in fact the pro-active elements are by far the most important. In this regard there is overlap with work a school may already be doing to develop active and more participatory teaching and learning styles, social and emotional skills, community cohesion, greater student voice and participation, and preventative policies to minimize the risk of bullying. The key lies in systematic whole- school adoption of a restorative ethos and culture and a consistent use of restorative thinking and skills in every classroom by every teacher (Hopkins 2015).
Restorative practices give people a chance to take responsibility, to understand their actions or potential actions from someone else’s viewpoint, and to make amends and foremost help build good relationships. Relationship building plays a hugely positive role in students’ social, emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes (Y. Anyon, B. Atteberry-Ash, J. Yang, M. Pauline, K. Wiley, D. Cash, B. Downing, E. Greer & L. Pisciotta). Different restorative practices – far more than punitive methods – help to prevent future infractions. And, ultimately, they help the student become a better, more successful citizen. Schools are responsible for professional execution of the learning process and establishing a supportive and safe development environment. Conflicts and misunderstandings occurring during a day should be resolved constructively and restorative practices will offer a systematic whole school approach for that. This means that schools and teachers need appropriate skills and tools to address those complex social situations in schools.
This project is trying to solve mentioned problems, by offering the opportunity for continuous training for school teams which is based on a strong curriculum and tools and guidelines that will support teachers and schools everyday work while implementing restorative practices to transform relationships in schools. Sustainable forms of cooperation and networking are needed to include different parties and make sure that everybody takes responsibility for their actions. Good relationships form the basis of a good organization culture.
The project´s target groups are:
- students
- school staff
- educators
- community and parents
Pilot schools in Estonia
Pilot schools in Lithuania
Tauragė Šaltinio progymnasium
AIM OF THE PROJECT
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The aim of the project is to create a systematic model of school culture that is based on different restorative practices (including restorative justice, non-violent communication, Gordons teacher ́s school, art of hosting etc) that help to create healthy, professional and caring relationships. Good relationships are at the center of every organisation’s culture. The model deals with relationships on all levels – student-student, student-teacher, teacher-teacher, teacher-management, school-parents etc. The goal is also to create the necessary guidelines and tools for the implementation of the model and support test schools in the implementation process.
The project brings together educators and school representatives from Lithuania, Estonia and Great Britain and aims to prepare a community of practitioners in the field. It consists of mutual learning journeys and creating materials, guidelines, tools for schools to help them implement the model. We will bring together different concepts and competencies under the roof of “restorative practices” and use the best of every approach to create a sustainable model that could profoundly change school culture.
The model will be tested out in schools during the project and best practices will be gathered and made available through the project website. As a result of the project schools will have all the necessary tools and support to implement this whole school approach when using different restorative practices: State of art of different restorative practices ́ used in schools; Guidelines how to create a restorative school culture team; Self-check/assessment tool for the schools before getting started; Curriculum to prepare restorative practice practitioners in schools; Guidelines for implementing restorative practices in schools; Whole school approach implementation plan template; Framework to manage relationships in and outside of school; Description of different levels of implementation based on restorative practices; Descriptions and implementation guidelines how to use different methods based on restorative practices (restorative circle, conflict mediation, restorative conferencing etc); Tools to lead restorative conversations; Tools for reflection and planning next steps; Template to gather best practices. 18 pioneers in the field of education will be part of the program (including partner organization and school representatives). Learning from the project, new skills, strengthened capacity of participants and partner organizations and created tools will lead to new initiatives in the field of restorative practice in schools and through that more and more schools are able to transform their school culture to more supportive, healthy and holistic where teaching and learning can take place in deeply respective environment.
MAIN ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS
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INTELLECTUAL OUTPUTS
Throughout the project period our team will be working on creating different tools and guidelines with and for the schools to best support the implementation of the Caring School Model.
- Sustainability Model (including tools for monitoring impact and sustainable financial model)
- State of art of different restorative practices´ used in schools
- Guidelines how to create a restorative school culture team
- Self-check/assessment tool for the schools before getting started
- Curriculum to prepare restorative practice practitioners in schools
- Guidelines for implementing restorative practices in schools
- Whole school approach implementation plan template
- Guidelines how to manage relationships in and outside of school
- Description of different levels of implementation based on restorative practices
- Descriptions and implementation guidelines how to use different methods based on restorative practices (restorative circle, conflict mediation, restorative conferencing etc)
- Tools to lead restorative conversations
- Tools for reflection and planning next steps
- Template to gather best practices
OTHER ACTIVITIES
- One 5-days long and one 3-days long learning event for 18 participants
- 4 project partners’ meetings;
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- Kick-off meeting in ZOOM
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- Second partner meeting in Estonia (June 2022)
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- Third partner meeting in Lithuania – (September 2022)
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- Final partner meeting in Estonia – (November 2022)
- 2 multiplier events;
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- Lithuania (November 2022)
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- Estonia (November 2022)
- 3 newsletters
- An evidence based analysis of the results and impact of the model
Caring School model (CSM)
The main goal of the Caring School Model is to support schools in creating healthy, professional and caring relationships, necessary for meaningful learning environments and a healthy school culture, through the systemic introduction of Restorative Practices on all levels of communication. The model is grounded in the principles of restorative justice, inspired by humanistic psychology, incorporating social emotional learning competencies and backed by best practice and research findings from around the world.
How do we get there?
Every school has different needs and a different starting point. Therefore, we have created our model as a tailorable school-wide approach, with activities being implemented strategically and consistently, over a period of 3 years.
The Caring School Model is a fully supported process applied in a whole-school approach on three levels of urgency addressing six levels of relationships. (expandable bullet points on each bolded statement)
CSM is a fully supported process, which includes:
- A series of trainings on change management and restorative approaches to enhance the competencies of school teams;
- All necessary materials, guidelines, templates and support documents needed for the process;
- Diagnostic and impact measurement;
- A systematic cooperation process with a designated consultant throughout the 3 years of implementation and beyond.
The model is applied in a whole-school approach, meaning:
- ALL parts of the school work together and are committed to the goal – school management, teachers, specialists and other staff, students, parents and the wider community;
- Attention is paid to building healthy and supportive relationships between ALL parties at all levels;
- It is a collaborative activity that is planned as strategic and consistent, the goals are in the school’s development plan and related to the school’s vision;
- It is not just about what happens in the classroom, but about what happens on a daily basis in the school and how students, teachers, parents, management and the wider community experience their lives in and around the school, what their well-being and health are like.
Tailored to the needs and contexts of each school, the Caring School model entails a 3 year implementation plan that includes three levels of urgency:
- Preventing and building: First and foremost, focusing on the development of social-emotional and cooperation skills and values that aid in the prevention of relational difficulties and challenging behavior, and the formation of safe, nourishing and meaningful relationships.
- Reconnecting and restoring relationships: Equipping the staff and students with skills for managing difficulties and disruptions, and engaging with conflict in a caring and respectful manner that moves from punishment to restorative practices that help to repair broken connections and rebuild trust.
- Repairing serious harm: Building skills for dealing with serious cases and employing long-term restorative interventions
These levels are addressed in six aspects of relationship within the school:
- Student – student level;
- Student – teacher level;
- Classroom level;
- School – parents level;
- Teacher – teacher level;
- Management level.
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
The model provides a complete process, a framework that can be used to reflect on everyday practice, assess the current situation, identify developmental needs, plan the implementation and evaluate the progress.
The implementation plan includes training and consultation needs and a detailed process of initiating and managing change over the span of 3 years, starting with the buy-in of the school leadership, focused cooperation with the newly-formed implementation team, continuing with the engagement and training of the wider community of staff, through to working with parents and the children directly.
Brief summary of implementation plan:
YEAR 1
- school self-assessment and commitment to cooperation
- forming and training school implementation team
- introduction of model to the whole school community
- impact assessment phase 1
- strategic planning for the next school year
YEAR 2
- continued consultation
- school-wide training
- regular reflection meetings
- annual conference for participating schools
- impact assessment phase 2
- broader strategic planning for engagement of parents
YEAR 3
- continued consultation
- continued professional training and supervision
- further basic teachers’ training (if needed)
- annual conference
- impact assessment
During the project, the team developed a number of intellectual outputs that help implement the Caring School model as a holistic approach
These tools help schools start the implementation process – planning activities holistically both at the school level and thinking of the wider community (including parents). Guidelines provide a model for implementing a whole school approach and support schools planning every step of the way. It is very important to bring all the details together so that the bigger picture makes sense and the processes bring results. It is crucial how to engage the wider network and manage relationships and tasks at different levels that are well thought out and planned in advance.
Brief summary of implementation plan:
IO 1 SUSTAINABILITY MODEL
IO2 RESTORATIVE PRACTISES METHODOLOGY
IO3 GUIDELINES FOR IMPLEMENTING RESTORATIVE PRACTICES IN SCHOOLS
IO 4 TOOLS AND BEST PRACTICES
- IO 4.1. Descriptions and Implementation Guidelines How to Use different methods based on restorative practices
- IO 4.2. Tools to Lead Restorative Conversations
- IO 4.3. Tools for Reflection and Planning Next Steps
- IO 4.4. Tools to Gather Best Practices