Mark Finnis

If you could find a way to improve school behaviour whilst also building better relationships and ensuring your school values are actually lived, then why wouldn’t you grab it?

Fortunately, such an approach is within reach. It’s called Restorative Practice and Mark Finnis, one of its leading proponents in the UK, is one of our top speakers and Associates.

Whilst RP’s close relation, Restorative Justice, is an approach to dealing with the fall out when things go wrong, limiting the damage, stopping things escalating and working to ensure whatever happened doesn’t happen again, Mark's work is all about getting the ethos, culture and relationships right in the first place. It’s an approach he not only takes to schools across the country but to local government, social services and children’s services too.

At its heart is the need we all have for human connection, built by genuine two-way communication. And having witnessed the effects of Mark’s input on what was a challenging inner-city secondary school it is nothing short of remarkable.

Perhaps the most striking aspect we observed was the way in which every single human being in the school, from the students to the leadership team to the support staff, had the opportunity to listen and to speak – to interact as a human being, not simply a number or a job title – before 9.00am each and every day.

To achieve this, it’s simply a question of relooking at the school timetable with a will to making, as the phrase goes, ‘the main thing, the main thing’. And as far as Mark is concerned, the main thing is the quality of the relationships that are being built.