Summer Leader Seminar- 13 June 2025

The Summer Leadership Seminar will take place at Niagara Conference and Leisure on Friday 13 June. The keynotes for the session are Dave Whitaker and Mark Finnis, and they will be speaking on Relational and Restorative Practice - Creating a culture of Unconditional Positive Regard.

You can book your place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/summer-leadership-seminar-tickets-970304134787

Relational and Restorative Practice is not about replacing traditional behaviour management systems. It’s certainly not about being soft or turning a blind eye to poor behaviour. Unconditional Positive Regard is not about creating culture with no responsibility where pupils aren't held to account.

Being restorative is about elevating the culture of a school so people are pulled in, not pushed out, about fostering a greater sense of community and about encouraging a willingness to act in the right way for the right reasons. Although its roots are clearly in restorative justice – as a way of repairing the harm done to the community and relationships within it – restorative practice has the bolder ambition of proactively developing the sense of community and seeking to increase the quality of the relationships across the school and, from there, into the wider community.

Unconditional Positive Regard is about developing a culture of acceptance, empathy and genuineness - caring schools that have relational and restorative practice at the heart of all they do.

So, how do you change the culture of a school? One classroom at a time. Where do you start? In the one you’re in now.