About the Practitioner
As Deputy Principal at Kirwan State High School, Vicki has imbedded Restorative Practice into the culture of the school since 2015.
As part of this process, Restorative Practice is used to respond to conflict and repair relationships between students and staff, respond to bullying, including cyber bullying, between students, and also to help resolve relational harm between staff members.
Vicki also works proactively with staff to develop Restorative Circles in individual classrooms in order to develop and promote a restorative culture.
2015 was a very turbulent year, including the suicide of a student and the death of the principal. This resulted in significant grieving and hurt and was a very unsettling time for all those in the school community.
Vicki was determined to turn things around, and through her search for a proactive process, became aware of Marg Thorsborne and the work that she had done to change the culture of schools through the introduction of Restorative Practice.
Through the training undertaken at the school by Marg, and embedded into the culture by Vicki, the school is no longer reactive in the way in which it deals with student and staff conflicts, and instead concentrates on building community and relationships and is well on the journey to being a restorative school.
During the six years Vicki has been proactively implementing Restorative Practices at Kirwan State High School, she has made many changes. Spreading the word about the benefits of Restorative Practice and creating a more peaceful community, by working with staff and students to develop a positive culture.
While it is still necessary on occasions to suspend a student, that student is worked with in order that they are able to understand the harm their actions have caused and to understand what they may be able to do in order to restore the relationship.
All staff undertake Restorative Practice training at least once each term and all 'Well Being' staff are trained in Restorative Practices.
Eight staff in North Queensland Region who were trained by Marg Thorsborne as Restorative Facilitators, also provide Restorative Practice training to staff from other Department of Education schools in the North Queensland region.
Organisation
- Deputy Principal
- School
- Advocacy
- ATSI health and well being
- Coaching
- Facilitation
- Family Dispute Mediation
- Family Dispute Resolution
- Gendered violence
- Grief and loss
- Group based relationship education
- Human rights
- Leadership development
- Management and HR Training
- Peer support services
- Policy development
- Program development
- Reflective practice
- Restorative Circles
- Restorative Conferencing
- Restorative Practice meetings
- Rights of carers
- Rights of people with disabilities
- Rights of those experiencing mental ill health
- Schools 7-12
- Support groups
- Team Building
- Training
- Violence risk management
- Workplace assessment
- Workplace Conferencing
- Workplace investigations
- Workplace Training