About this Profile
Profile source: An interview on behalf of the NED Foundation.
- School - Principal
About the Organisation
Jane became the principal of Macarthur Primary School in rural Victoria towards the end of 2020. Prior to this, she worked as a wellbeing leader in a school with a strong Restorative Practice culture. Jane has a long connection with working restoratively and is a strong advocate for this way of working.
Jane's current focus is to strengthen the school's RP practices, processes and policies. While RP had been introduced to Macarthur some 10 years ago, the focus had been on using the scripted questions to address wrong doing. Jane is working with staff, students and parents to understand how positive relationships, clear expectations and the explicit teaching of social and emotional competencies are the foundational keys to support Restorative Conversations.
It is Jane's belief that when time is invested in developing these, then a foundation is in place, so when moments of wrong doing do occur, there is a base to anchor the conversation to. While the school views moments of wrong doing as 'teaching moments', it believes the real work of Restorative Practice is in being proactive.
In 2005, Jane was at a school which had a traditional punitive way of working with a strong focus on effective Behaviour Management strategies. While many elements of their strategies were effective for most students, the results were ineffectual on the 'repeat offender behaviour'.
In the search for practices that would deliver better outcomes, Jane 'stumbled across' David Vinegard. She intuitively knew that this restorative way of working was the shift in practices needed by schools. The focus on strategies for building and maintaining strong relationships meant that young people could be supported in becoming successful learners and in their ability to get along with others.
Jane's focus is now on a more relational way of working with strong links with wellbeing research and neuroscience.
Jane works with staff, students and parents, to build their knowledge, skills and understanding of the benefits of Restorative Practices. She has worked in the education field for close to 30 years and has a strong background in Restorative Practice.
Since beginning her journey in Restorative Practice in 2004, Jane has worked as a classroom teacher, wellbeing leader, educational consultant and now principal. Her roles have seen her support many schools in their RP implementation process.
Jane has also developed and published the Early Years Restorative Practices script and co-authored the 'Grab and Go Circle Time kit for teaching restorative thinking' with Bill Hansberry.
- Government School
- School
- Advocacy
- Culture change
- Group based relationship education
- Human rights
- Leadership development
- Management Training
- Policy development
- Program development
- Reflective practice
- Restorative Circles
- Restorative Conferencing
- Restorative Practice meetings
- Team Building
- Workplace Conferencing
- School prep-6