Southern Suburbs BM; Tuesday, 7th February 2012; Gymea NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

PIP Maintenance of Accreditation - Castle Hill; Monday, 13th February 2012; 4:30-6:30 pm read more

Hunter Valley BM; Monday, 13th February 2012; New Lambton NSW; 5:00 pm. read more

Northern Suburbs BM; Monday, 13th February 2012; Cammeray NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

Central Metropolitan BM; Tuesday, 14th February 2012; Burwood NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

PIP Cyber Savvy - Dee Why; Wednesday 15 February 2012; 4:30-6:30 pm read more

South Coast BM; Wednesday, 15th February 2012; Woonona NSW; 6:45 pm. read more

Penrith Blue Mountains BM; Wednesday, 15th February 2012; Penrith NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

Metropolitan East BM; Wednesday, 15th February 2012; Randwick NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

Central Coast BM; Thursday, 16th February 2012; Gosford NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

IEU Reps Training Day - Tamworth; Friday 17 February 2012; 9:15-3:15pm read more

Mid North Coast BM; Friday, 17th February 2012; Nambucca Heads NSW; 6:00 pm. read more

South East Branch Meeting; Friday, 17th February 2012; Griffith NSW; 6:00 pm. read more

Riverina BM; Friday, 17th February 2012; Wagga Wagga NSW; 7:30 pm. read more

North West Branch Meeting; Friday, 17th February 2012; Tamworth NSW; 5:30 pm. read more

Principals BM; Saturday, 18th February 2012; IEU Office Parramatta; 10:00 am. read more

Cumberland BM; Monday, 20th February 2012; IEU Office Parramatta; 4:30 pm. read more

PIP Maintenance of Accreditation - Sydney City; Monday 20 February 2012; 4.30 - 6.30pm read more

Ku-ring-gai BM; Thursday, 21st February 2012; Hornsby NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

IEU Reps Training Day - Orange, Friday 24 Feb 2012; 9.15 to 3.15 read more

North Coast BM; Wednesday, 22nd February 2012; IEU Office Lismore; 5:00 pm. read more

PIP Maintenance of Accreditation - Revesby Heights; Wednesday 22 February 2012; 4:30-6:30pm read more

Monaro BM; Thursday, 23rd February 2012; Barton ACT; 4:15 pm. read more

Lansdowne BM; Thursday, 23rd February 2012; Fairfield NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

Central Western BM; Friday, 24th February 2012; Orange NSW; 7:30 pm. read more

PIP Maintenance of Accreditation - Forbes; Monday 27 February 2012; 4.30-6.30 read more

A Healing Game

Every relationship is an exercise in sustainability, peace, social justice, equity, and ecological health, writes Phil Smith and Anna McKenzie, of the Australian Association for Environmental Education, in the August edition of IE.

Sustainable communities must be founded on healthy relationships, including those with the planet, other species, things, institutions, choices and change. But relationships do not always run smoothly, so achieving sustainable communities needs us to have skills in building, maintaining and healing relationships.

Schools are the grounding place for learning how to live together in healthy ways. There are learning and sustainability wins when school communities relate in constructive and respectful ways. Positive relationships facilitate learning and collaboration.

Schools are places where young people should be able to make mistakes, be supported to learn from these mistakes and become better people for it.

Restorative Practices, an approach to managing relationships in schools, includes processes and strategies for the development, repair and improvement of relationships, for building social capital and interpersonal discipline, and for helping individuals collaborate in empowering ways.

The socially sustainable and Restorative Practices ideal for managing young people is to take a firm but fair approach, with high expectation and high support for positive behaviour. There is opportunity for capacity building and everyone is involved in working with others.

Blame and judgement

It is not a case of power and control over, where things are done ‘to’ others — an inflexible, oppressive, punitive approach with high expectations but no support. Neither is it an approach that is permissive, chaotic and lacking in responsibility, where things are done ‘for’ others, without expectation. And it is not a ‘not’ approach – neglectful and indifferent, lacking in expectation and support. Rather, it is a means by which members of a school community build power and control with each other.

In similar ways, students can learn to have and build respectful relationships with the earth. If we have high expectations for the planet’s survival as well as our own into the future, we must be ‘with’ the earth, providing high support for its natural systems, acknowledging our impact, and doing what we can to repair the damage, all in it together, and living sustainably.

There is no better way to be with the planet than growing plants with children.

Children’s capacity for nurture and wonder is revitalising. Grow sunflowers and examine their composite flowers. ‘They’re like lots of little daffodils!’, a Grade 3 child observed. Grow climbing beans or sweet peas on a wire A-frame to create ‘a living greenhouse’.

Urban forest

Make a place to daydream — perhaps an arbor with a timber seat. Better still, don’t just grow plants, create habitat such as a frog bog, a butterfly garden or an urban forest.

Gardner’s eighth intelligence is naturalist intelligence. It accounts for the potential in children to tune their attention to patterns, relationships and connections in the human and natural worlds around them.

Children who are ‘nature smart’ pay attention. Opportunities across the curriculum that strengthen the ability to notice things and distinguish between things help children to appreciate the interweaving relationships that exist.

Restorative Practices is also relational in focus, helping young people to understand the causes of harm, notice the connections that have been broken and what’s needed to repair relationships.

It does not spotlight rules that have been broken and nor does it seek to blame or judge. Instead, it requires acknowledgement of harm done, acceptance of responsibility and an examination of how things can be done differently. It is about repairing the breach in relationship and learning to forgive. Students learn emotional and relational skills for personal and social sustainability.

The restorative approach has clear expectations for behaviour firmly founded in the school curriculum and strongly underpinned by explicit teaching. For example, at Campbell Primary School in the ACT, these expectations are established through programs including: Skills for Growing, where lessons are devoted to learning and practicing interpersonal skills such as ‘the gift of listening’; Rock and Water, where senior students discover self-control and self-reliance through physical and mental exercises; and specific lessons devoted to exploring what the school’s values ‘look like’, ‘feel like’, ‘sound like’. Those values – Support, Cooperation, Acceptance, Respect, Friendship, Fun and Forgiveness – are included in the lyrics of the school song sung regularly at assemblies for common understanding and community sustainability.

At Campbell PS, teachers make the day’s lesson framework explicit by posting it on the whiteboard and negotiating with students any changes that may need to occur. Teachers begin staff meetings with Circle Time to build shared communities of practice in a climate of trust and mutuality. Examples of questions include: What went well today? What was unexpected about your day? Why were you given your first name? In class, Circle Time builds class cohesion, social understanding, emotional literacy, and a sense of belonging, by playing games and having fun together through to exploring philosophy (is fire alive?), applying critical thinking, and discussing important issues.

Social skills are taught explicitly and practiced through role play, and real-life ‘teachable moments’ are used to spot strengths, name behaviour or explore alternative ways to interact and solve social problems.

Direct participation in negotiating their own learning builds student self-efficacy and confidence for changing the world. Students learn to build community to shape their worlds in the future. They learn to be adults who have a responsibility for creating and maintaining healthy, sustainable communities. Students learn the consequences of their choices.
At points of conflict, Restorative Practices processes ask a series of affective questions designed to elicit information about harm, responsibility, repair and alternative ways to act. In learning to live sustainably, students are encouraged to question and reflect on the impacts of their choices on the environment. They also learn alternative options for action.
Humans have an impulse towards wholeness, healing and integration.

Our relationships help establish our place in the world. Through them, we learn roles and responsibilities and where and how we fit in, achieving personal, social and environmental sustainability. It is vital that schools help students to develop mutually enhancing relationships with others and the world around them because unhealthy people cannot create a healthy planet.