No teacher likes hearing that students think they are picking on them. Even we teachers are sensitive souls who would prefer to be liked! When young people think we don't like them, it signals that the teacher-student relationship has broken down or never existed.

However, good teaching isn't a popularity contest! Young people don't always have to agree with what we do. Believing that it's our job to please kids puts us in a permissive space; this doesn't work in classrooms. What serves young people best is a teacher working from an authoritative space – where Restorative Practice lives and breathes.  

This workshop is dedicated to the values and strategies that work best when we need to have a conversation with a student about the inappropriateness of their behaviour. Often, this conversation will follow some form of disciplinary referral.

Many teachers shy away from following up with young people after referring them to senior staff to 'be disciplined'. It's understandable! These types of conversations take a heavy emotional toll, and teachers have to be at their emotional best, particularly when the young person involved is struggling to see the issue from the perspective of others or just isn't good at owning their behaviour! When these conversations don't go as we had hoped, it's all too easy to puff out our chest, put our hands on our hips and remind the young person involved why they should respect our authority and what will happen if they don't! The result is less understanding and more disciplinary referrals; the student may even fail the subject. Everybody loses.