St Augustine of Canterbury were the host school to Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer who came to see what Restorative Approaches were all about and to learn how their practices are being successfully embedded into the school culture. Baroness Miller, who is the Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Home Affairs, has an interest in RJ and recently spent a few hours with the Restorative Community Justice Panel at Chard. Soon after she was invited to attend the school to see how it operates with young people and staff.
During her visit, the Baroness was able to take part in a Restorative Circle, where 16 students from year’s 7 – 11 who had been personally involved in an RJ meeting previously, explained how they had felt before, during and after the meeting. They were also able to give the Baroness a positive message about RJ, which they asked she take back to the House of Lords and pass on to her colleagues. The next part of the visit involved the school Peer Mentors who explained their role and how they felt that being a Peer Mentor increased their feelings of being part of the school community.
Whilst refreshments were taken, the Baroness rounded off the visit with a discussion with Gail Crees, Liz Lewis and Louise Hawkins-Rowe plus Sonia Hulejczuk and Laura Payne from the Youth Offending Team.
After the visit, Baroness Miller said” "It was very inspiring to learn from the students what a big difference this RJ initiative has made in so many ways. They told me that one of the benefits of feeling less worried and stressed about things outside the classroom was that they could concentrate on learning! The peer mentors were very impressive. An employer will be lucky to get a young person with all the skills they have developed.
