New-Bridge is an integrated and all-ability college in Loughbrickland, Co Down Northern Ireland, educating 654 pupils of all backgrounds and faiths.

 

They began their journey as a restorative school back in 2012 and since then have continued to hone and develop a whole school culture where relational practice is at the centre of all that they do. They hold a strong belief in people’s ability to resolve their own problems if given time and support to do this. Restorative practice informs their “relationship keeping”. They use restorative practice not to excuse poor behavioural choices, but to learn from personal accountability and responsibility for their own actions and teach students to make better decisions to repair relationships when conflict arises.

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Their ‘When The Adults Change…’ journey began in 2017, and whole school training was delivered in 2018. In August 2022 they joined Paul’s 'Push and Pull Factors' whole school training, which served as a wonderful refresh of their core values and the importance of keeping them at the forefront of all that the school does. Since then, New-Bridge's strategy group has engaged in Paul's online course, and key takeaways are shared at regular intervals with the full teaching and non-teaching staff.

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A long list of school rules was replaced with three Core Values in 2019 and the Positive Behaviour Policy was updated in line with the relational approach to teaching and learning. Restorative Practice Scripts were added, which script difficult conversations using restorative approaches. These were found to be an effective tool in further developing the restorative way and deepening the culture of relational learning.

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Praise postcards are routinely sent home, and positive phone calls home are made on Fridays by form tutors and year coordinators. This has been powerful and much more meaningful to pupils than the monetary rewards of the past.

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New-Bridge is all about turning specific events into learning opportunities for young people, and Intervention Days are a good example of restorative practice in action. New-Bridge relies very much on the skills and expertise of youth workers, as the school has now employed its own full-time youth worker who has brought in youth work pedagogy and practices which relate to the young people in the school community. A main focus of the school youth worker is to establish healthy relationships with students so that they feel supported to achieve their potential and have a trusting adult to whom they can talk about their feelings and emotions. 

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New-Bridge have set up collaborations with a number of youth work groups to support intervention work in the school. There is a 'Restorative Us’ team of teachers to lead and inspire our entire community in our restorative way. They have moved further away from traditional punitive measures such as suspensions, replacing them with Intervention Days or sessions which are more self-reflective and emphasise personal accountability. Students therefore learn new coping strategies. 

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Suspensions were reduced by 28% from 2020/21- 2021/22, whilst with those who availed of an intervention session (instead of a suspension) 89% did not repeat the same behaviour. This demonstrates the impact of accountability conversations and focused work on repair.

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In June 2024 New-Bridge was recognised in the Families First Awards as the School of the Year for the region, and also got a WOW Award, recognising it as a Centre of Excellence. What an achievement!

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New-Bridge is delighted to hold the title of ‘Partner School’ and wants to continue to develop this partnership every day in their daily interactions with our pupils and staff. Restorative work will continue to grow in specific lessons which focus on the literacy and language that pupils use towards each other and members of staff. Monthly restorative practice focuses will extend to pupils, who now understand what restorative approaches and language mean in developing strong relationships.