Teachers are being undermined during “restorative justice” sessions held by schools, Ofsted’s national director of education has warned.
Sean Harford said he was concerned by reports of how some schools are using restorative justice discussions for supposed disputes between teachers and pupils.
Posting on Twitter, he said: “What this has actually meant is that the pupil has played up in class and been insolent to the teacher when challenged about it, been removed from the lesson and then lied about what happened to the ‘receiving’ school leader.
“The teachers have then been expected to take part in the ‘restorative discussion’ as if they need to justify their actions to the pupil (and ‘mediating’ teacher).
“This just seems wrong to me and undermines the teacher, when the pupil knows they will get such a hearing when clearly they have done something wrong.”
He warned against schools using restorative justice in this way as it “undermines and demoralises their teachers”.
Restorative justice involves allowing those who have been harmed to convey the impact of the harm to those responsible, and for those responsible to acknowledge this impact and take steps to put it right.
The Restorative Justice Council says that becoming a restorative school can result in increased attendance, reduced exclusions and improved achievement.
Several replies to Mr Harford’s tweet suggest the examples he described were of schools not using the practice correctly.
Mr Harford said he was not criticising restorative justice, but the way it was being implemented in some schools.
In another tweet he said: “I just think we need to get some perspective back if this kind of practice is taking hold in schools.
“The ‘drip, drip, drip’ of low level disruption and pupils answering back is soul destroying when you just want to teach; I remember this.”
He said it was a plea for “common sense in schools.”
Schools minister Nick Gibb also commented in the twitter debate.
He said: “Teachers are professionals who make innumerable split-second decisions in class; it is important that a school’s behaviour policy does not undermine teachers.
“Behaviour policies should not create a disincentive to dealing with disruptive pupils.”
