What is PB4L Restorative Practice?

By focusing on building and maintaining positive and respectful relationships across school communities, PB4L Restorative Practice give school staff best practice tools and techniques to maintain and restore relationships if things go wrong.PB4L Restorative Practice has four underlying principles:

• Positive interpersonal relationships are a major influence on behaviour
• A culture of care supports the mana of all individuals in the school community
• Cultural responsiveness is key to creating learning communities of mutual respect and inclusion.
• A restorative approach leads to individuals taking responsibility for their behaviour.

PB4L Restorative Practice is currently in more than 300 schools in New Zealand. Feedback from secondary schools participating in pilot testing of PB4L Restorative Practice (2011) showed the following positive outcomes:

• a calmer school environment, with less classroom disruption and more time for teaching
• an increase in the engagement and learning of students in the classroom
• growth in relational and problem-solving skills, both for adults and students across the school community
• improvements in attitudes and relationships across the whole school community
• a consistent best-practice approach across the whole school community that aligns with the school’s shared values.

Watch this video about building inclusive networks of positive respectful relationships across the school community.