Relationships, Community, and the Restorative School

This book shares our journey with restorative practice and provides insight into how we developed a programme that impacts school culture – the Builders Project. It is a documentation of our experience of bringing restorative practice to primary school settings in Singapore, through a whole-school community building approach, to enable students to have a positive learning experience and to thrive. This contrasts with implementing restorative practice focusing on behavioural management. It is the first non-Western contribution to the field of restorative practices as a whole-school approach.

This book shares Lutheran Community Care Services (LCCS) practice assumptions that underpin the need to build, strengthen, and restore relationships. It also illustrates the application of our restorative practice principles, which are drawn from our experience, values, and research, towards building effective relationships among the individuals in the school community. Stories and perspectives of practitioners, students, parents, teachers, and school leaders are shared to highlight how they experience voice, agency, and belonging through restorative processes. Most importantly, we hope that this book will inspire you to reflect on your journey with restorative practice in schools through the reflection questions posed in each of the substantive chapters.

This book is for educators, school social work and mental health practitioners, educational policymakers, school administrators, principals, academics, researchers, and restorative practice practitioners. This book is also suitable for undergraduates or postgraduate students who desire to understand practice beyond the theories that they have learnt and gain insights on what the journey of practicing and implementing restorative practice looks like.