1.4 Prof. Commitment – alannas eportfolio 19

Before looking into the approach of restorative practice, I believed in order for a child to understand they have done wrong is to punish that type of behaviour. Ensure they understand the behaviour is not acceptable and there will be negative consequences.

Through our input on restorative practice and my reading around the area, I can now clearly see how beneficial the approach of restorative practice is over restorative justice.

The restorative approach technique is focusing on relationships and repairing harm to the child and the child affected.

There are 3 key questions that must be included in the conversation;

What happened?
Who was harmed? How did this happen?
What do you think needs to be done to repair the harm?

This is seen to be successful as instead of the teacher burning bridges and creating tension between teacher and child, and child and peer, the conversation had will open up discussion and a safe space to discuss what happened and how everyone is feeling. It provides the child to take responsibility for what they have done wrong, and allows them to take responsibility.

A critical moment for me in semester 1 which has impacted my professional development was the Working Together module. I felt I needed to step up and use my previous knowledge to help support the group as we were struggling to find out feet with the concept of the task. However, I lacked confidence in the first couple months, this resulted in the group work becoming a challenge for me. My confidence slowly started to grow through each session our group met up. I put myself out there more to share my ideas and reading I had previously done. Feedback from my peers also helped shape and build my confidence. Seeing how positive the headteacher of our agency visit was made me more determined, and willing to succeed as he spoke of his teachers in the school so highly. Through collaborative working I managed to reflect on the practitioner I want to become. I have kept on top of updating my self-audit which has been interesting to see my confidence improve already, I have goals in my head for how to improve my confidence in regard to placement and daily life. I try to keep myself familiar with the professional standards to ensure I am fully confident in these for going into placement. I believe these standards will support my confidence, learning and help my professional practice develop well.

Through semester 1, I have come to terms with the importance of reflection. In the Working Together module, I reflected on my work and my groups work which helped me to see how well my group, and I progressed through the module. I also did some reflection in the Values module when reflecting on my personal, social and professional values; thus, opening my eyes to how many values I hold as a professional.

What Restorative Practice means to me?

Reflection of Semester 1