At the heart of a positive school climate are the relationships we build; those between students and teachers, between students, between teachers and between the school and its community including its parents.

At Mount Carmel College we believe that a Restorative Practice approach assists all members of the community to build, maintain and restore relationships.

The aim of Restorative Practice is to restore right relationships and bring about healing after some hurt or harm has been done to another or others.  It has, at its heart, the key Gospel values of reconciliation, responsibility, reintegration and resolution of conflict.  Restorative Practice offers processes that can help all students learn to understand and deal with their own emotions in ways that build stronger relationships.

The Restorative Practice motto within the College is Triple R: Respect, Restore, Repair.

Restorative practice includes the following four key elements:

• Focus upon harm and relationships, not on blame and punishment.
• Working with one another.
• Importance of fair process.
• Key restorative questions:
  • What happened?
  • What were you thinking at the time?
  • What have you thought about since?
  • Who has been affected by what you have done?
  • In what way?
  • What do you think you need to do to make things right?

By incorporating these key elements in the process of Restorative Practice the students build a powerful basis for experiencing and building healthy dialogue with each other.