Real Schools - The Inner Circle Podcast

You know, leading the implementation of Restorative Practices can require a lot of thought about changing others.  Leading those changes in others - whether that be a shift in their language, their practice, their conduct or their thinking - can be exhausting.  One way to accelerate the process and to avoid obstacles is to set the best example you possibly can.  And that means turning your gaze from others … and back onto yourself.  How restorative are you … really?  Let’s meander through that concept together in this podcast and hopefully you find some better ways to genuinely model your restorative self for others as your most powerful lever for change.

So much of becoming a truly restorative school focuses on interactions between students and teachers.  But what about us?  How do we become a restorative staff and seize the most powerful opportunity we have to influence our students and families … our example.  Our teachers, leaders and non-teaching staff are all role models in our school communities.  What’s the work required to attend to this critical component of our schools in order to support the work of implementation?  That’s the question this podcast seeks to answer.

Leading a Restorative School can be challenging and fraught. Mobilising the key people, especially parents and staff members, behind your vision requires a specific and unique skill set.  This podcast focuses on how you can deploy that skill set and accelerate your school’s progress.

In this podcast, Adam takes a forensic look at Shame - why we have it, what does it do for us and how can it make a real mess of everything.  Shame is the one emotion that every teacher and school leader needs a sound working understanding of.  Shame tells us when we’ve done the right thing and also, importantly, the wrong thing.  When we can see its presence as a signal for positive action, we can start to harness its undoubtable power for a positive shift in conduct within our schools.

In schools, it’s so important to be prepared for the unexpected.  When that unexpected event comes, and it causes people significant harm, a formal school conference can be the perfect way to ensure that you aren’t dealing with the fallout for months.  In this podcast, Adam provides a succinct and clear roadmap for planning, implementing and following through on a formal conference in such a way that your school is actually better for the effort you’ve gone to. 

In this podcast, Adam Voigt unpacks the mindset required by School Leaders to embrace conflict as a normal and healthy part of a relational system, such as a school - and then what we need to do about it.

In this podcast, Adam unpacks the importance of a reflective staff.  This is, of course, is in contrast to the staff that’s judgemental of themselves and others.  To achieve this, we take a deep dive into the Restorative Operating Domains, discussing several was to use these for meaningful reflection and also how to create the habit in those you lead of reflecting for constant improvement and adjustment.

When the principles of Restorative Practices impact your school’s whole instructional model, then you really can begin to describe yours as a restorative school.  This podcast will help you to understand the urgent imperative for for implementing restorative circles, the five principles that underpin circle success, the five types of circles to work with and the ’special sauce’ that, if artfully deployed, really makes your circles click.

 Schools have a tendency to do formal things when it comes to improving culture, conduct and behaviour - we write policies and implement programs/systems.  It’s the wrong place to start, purely because most of the interactions in a school are informal.  That’s where we need our initial impact to be.  This podcast is a deep dive into what Affective Statements, Affective Interactions and Small Impromptu Conferences can do for you in a practical and meaningful way.

 Our first podcast in this series is all about ensuring that you have in place a sound working understanding of what it means to be restorative as a leader.  Adam works through ten critical components that, if in place, add up to you being ‘match fit’ for the task of leading a truly restorative school.