A presentation of Restorative Practice developed to inform School Principals.
A new community and important connections are formed with help from i2N’s Validator program Hunter Restorative Community (Newcastle Restorative City) and restorative practice in Schools Dr Nicola Ross, Honorary Associate Professor with the Newcastle Law School, with team members Mary Porter AM (President, NED Foundation), Kerrie Thompson (CEO Vocal) Richard De Martin (Northlakes Youth Project) and Justine Cogan – freelance arts administrator, with support from Mentor Adrian Price, completed the i2N Validator Program in November 2020. The team were interested in how the new Hunter Restorative Community might play a role in growing restorative practice in Schools in our area. They completed a 2-minute presentation on this topic – which included outreach to Principals who were interested in collaborating on this project.
Through this program, Nicola connected with Janene Rosser, the new principal at Newcastle High, who was just about to complete her PhD on restorative practice in the school environment, and to lead her school on a journey that involves embracing restorative practice as a whole of school approach. Since then, Nicola has attended and spoken to teachers at the school and Janene has been invited to speak at the April Hunter Restorative Community zoom network meeting. We trust this is the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the Hunter Restorative Community and Janene as she leads change in her school – which may influence other schools to adopt a restorative approach.