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In recent years, the whole-school use of restorative practice has become synonymous with relational approaches based on empowerment and democratisation to support the reparation of harm between victim and offender. Similarly, the preventative function of restorative practice to the development of pro-social skills within a learning community has been highlighted alongside the centrality of whole-school approaches to social and emotional learning. In one setting, the whole-school use of restorative practice was enhanced and delivered through vertically structured coaching groups that provided a secure family base and exposure to diversity for pupils throughout their time in school. Coaching groups operated as a plumb-line back to restorative practice, as the site where pro-social skills could be tacitly modelled and rehearsed. Coaching groups provided an opportunity for trusting relationships to develop, impacting on feelings of safety and providing opportunities for disclosure and safeguarding. Subsequently, collective responsibility for behaviour was supported, creating a distributed network of relational accountability and transforming how sanctions were administered, to create a non-hierarchical and relational system of discipline. This relates to transgressive forms of education and a socially orientated pedagogy, emphasising accountability alongside a whole-school ethos of care. Responsibility for behaviour is reframed from a singular to a collective pursuit, where relational responsibility eschews the alienating effect of individual notions of blame. Ultimately, this transformation subverted the classroom’s politics of domination, allowing perceptions of learning and conflict to become entirely reframed.

This paper provides an exploration of a non-hierarchical model of discipline observed in one Secondary School in the North-East of England, that employed the whole-school use of Restorative Practice enhanced by vertically structured Coaching Groups. This model supported a school community characterised by working restoratively with others to achieve an environment of high challenge-high support (Wachtel, 2013). Drawing on an original evaluation of Embedding Restorative Practice in Schools (Warin & Hibbin, 2020), the ‘Distributed Network of Relational Accountability’ (Hibbin & Warin, 2021) that this school created was based on relationship over authority and collective accounts of responsibility over individualised notions of blame. This model is described and unpacked, to understand how such a relationship-centred approach to behaviour that disrupts traditional ways of engaging with discipline in school, can be implemented and sustained over time. Key themes in relation to the modelling and practice of pro-social skills within the context of Coaching, and the democratization of the disciplinary system through discernment and knowing the child, are explored. It is suggested that such practice that is based on notions of Relational Responsibility (McNamee & Gergen, 1999) alongside a whole school ethos of care (Warin, 2017) fosters commitment, pro-social ability and ultimately leads to more democratic versions of Restorative Practice. In addition, it supplies both students and teachers with important opportunities for community building and disclosure, through exposure to diversity within the secure family base of the Coaching Group.

Social media (SM) research presents new challenges for research ethics committees (RECs) who must balance familiar ethical principles with new notions of public availability. This article qualitatively examines how U.K. REC members view this balance in terms of risk and consent. While it found significant variance overall, there were discernible experience-based trends. REC members with less experience of reviewing SM held inflexible notions of consent and risk that could be categorized as either relying on traditional notions of requiring direct consent, or viewing publicly available data as “fair game.” More experienced REC members took a more nuanced approach to data use and consent. We conclude that the more nuanced approach should be best practice during ethical review of SM research.

This report provides a comparative analysis of Nurture Groups in seven school settings across the North West of England: five with traditional Nurture Groups in school, and two ‘alternative provisions’ pursuing either ‘integrated nurture’, or practice based upon attachment principles but without specialised Nurture Group provision. The broad aims of the report centre upon uncovering the principles of nurture-in-practice in relation to: the impact of the Nurture Group as a psychosocial intervention for vulnerable children; the influence of school leadership; the preconditions for effective communication; and lessons for mainstream primary classrooms. The methodology included a range of data collection strategies: interviews with Heads; focus groups with a mix of NG/mainstream staff; interviews with NG staff; tours of the school; observations; the collection of Boxall profiles and other relevant data. We also carried out two child case studies within each school through informal conversations with the child and with a parent/carer. The data was analysed across five areas: The Child; The Nurture Group; The Mainstream Class; The Parents/Carers; and The Whole School. Across these five areas two key themes emerged as being particularly important drivers of nurture-in-practice. These were: the importance of relationships to enhance communication and to model positive and functional ways of relating to children, parents and teachers. training for all staff members to instil an understanding of and value for nurture across the school to promote a vision of whole school as therapeutic community and an understanding of behaviour as communication. More specifically, these two themes can be understood in relation to the development of strategies to: promote a multi-targeted and timely response; timetable nurture effectively; create a balanced Nurture Group dynamic; prioritise psychosocial concerns whilst simultaneously balancing academic aims and outcomes; stagger transitions; p

This report provides a comparative analysis of Nurture Groups in seven school settings across the North West of England: five with traditional Nurture Groups in school, and two ‘alternative provisions’ pursing either ‘integrated nurture’, or practice based upon attachment principles but without specialised Nurture Group provision. The broad aims of the report centre upon uncovering the principles of nurture-in-practice in relation to: the impact of the Nurture Group as a psychosocial intervention for vulnerable children; the influence of school leadership; the preconditions for effective communication; and lessons for mainstream primary classrooms. Overall, this report concludes that a commitment to the creation and maintenance of ongoing relationships; an understanding of behaviour as communication which naturally leads to less punitive, more restorative, forms of behaviour management; and a commitment to the support and training of the whole staff-base are essential elements in the promotion of successful nurture practice in school. It is suggested that these principles are most effectively implemented through the simultaneous provision of specialised Nurture Groups as well as through an integrated nurturing philosophy that runs across the whole school.

The oral re-telling of traditional tales, modelled by a storyteller and taught to children in school, can be understood as ‘non-instrumental’ practice in speaking and listening that emphasises oral language over the reading and writing of stories. While oral storytelling has significant benefits to children’s education and development, it is under-utilised within Primary Education in the UK. This interview and library-based study explores participant perceptions of oral storytelling in relation to its psychosocial effects and benefits. In addition, observation of an oral storytelling initiative provides a research context through which such perceptions are understood. The findings highlight the benefits of oral storytelling to children in relation to a complex of processes tied to the opportunities afforded by oral storytelling for self-expression, identification with story characters, empathic understanding of self and others and bi-directional communication. It is suggested that the oral retelling of pre-existing stories offers children a parsimonious yet psycho-socially complex form of Speaking and Listening practice which is as rare within the classroom as it is native to human thought and interaction. It is upon the basis of the importance of talk to learning and development that its use within education needs to be viewed, to allow more opportunities for oral language practice that supports the psychosocial development of young people in school to be encouraged and actively pursued.

The oral re-telling of traditional tales, modelled by a storyteller and taught to children in school, can be understood as ‘non-instrumental’ practice in speaking and listening that emphasises oral language over the reading and writing of stories. While oral storytelling has significant benefits to children’s education and development, it is under-utilised within Primary Education in the UK. This interview and library-based study explores participant perceptions of oral storytelling and the barriers to the utilisation of such non-instrumental practice in school. In addition, observation of an oral storytelling initiative provides a research context through which such perceptions are understood. The findings suggest that speaking and listening is implicitly devalued as a result of the elevation of instrumental literacy-based practice in the primary curriculum. In addition, enquiry into the specific effects of engaging with orality as a precursor to literacy development is lacking. It is suggested that while New Literacy Studies has enhanced our understanding of the interrelationship between the written and spoken word, it is less helpful when considering language as a ‘continuum of spontaneity’. It is concluded that spoken language that is explicitly unattached to literacy-based outcomes should be strongly encouraged in school. In addition, it is important to understand on an empirical basis whether the attachment of a written outcome affects the way that spoken language practice is engaged with in the classroom.

The oral re-telling of traditional tales, modelled by a storyteller and taught to children in school, can be understood as ‘non-instrumental’ practice in speaking and listening that emphasises oral language over the reading and writing of stories. While oral storytelling has significant benefits to children’s education and development, it is under-utilised within Primary Education in the UK. This interview and library-based study explores participant perceptions of oral storytelling in relation to its psychosocial effects and benefits. In addition, observation of an oral storytelling initiative provides a research context through which such perceptions are understood. The findings highlight the benefits of oral storytelling to children in relation to a complex of processes tied to the opportunities afforded by oral storytelling for self-expression, identification with story characters, empathic understanding of self and others and bi-directional communication. It is suggested that the oral retelling of pre-existing stories offers children a parsimonious yet psycho-socially complex form of Speaking and Listening practice which is as rare within the classroom as it is native to human thought and interaction. It is upon the basis of the importance of talk to learning and development that its use within education needs to be viewed, to allow more opportunities for oral language practice that supports the psychosocial development of young people in school to be encouraged and actively pursued.

This report provides a comparative analysis of Nurture Groups in seven school settings across the North West of England: five with traditional Nurture Groups in school, and two ‘alternative provisions’ pursing either ‘integrated nurture’, or practice based upon attachment principles but without specialised Nurture Group provision. The broad aims of the report centre upon uncovering the principles of nurture-in-practice in relation to: the impact of the Nurture Group as a psychosocial intervention for vulnerable children; the influence of school leadership; the preconditions for effective communication; and lessons for mainstream primary classrooms. Overall, this report concludes that a commitment to the creation and maintenance of ongoing relationships; an understanding of behaviour as communication which naturally leads to less punitive, more restorative, forms of behaviour management; and a commitment to the support and training of the whole staff-base are essential elements in the promotion of successful nurture practice in school. It is suggested that these principles are most effectively implemented through the simultaneous provision of specialised Nurture Groups as well as through an integrated nurturing philosophy that runs across the whole school.

An examination of the use of oral storytelling as a pedagogical tool for primary age children. The emphasis on oral language that is inherent in the oral re-telling of traditional tales offers ‘non-instrumental’ practice in speaking and listening for primary school age children. It further provides an alternative to hegemonic literacy-based practice in schools which implicitly devalues speaking and listening skills through policy and prescribed practice. A significant focus of the study relates to the ‘intrinsic benefits’ of oral storytelling that impact positively on children’s ‘capacity to perceive, feel and interpret the world’ (McCarthy, 2004; xvi). An important and interrelated empirical strand indicates that certain children with expressive language difficulties and associated behavioural problems would strongly benefit from the structured and non-instrumental speaking and listening opportunities that oral storytelling provides. In addition, the participatory nature of oral storytelling through collaborative classroom practice that combines the skills of artists and teachers has important implications for the development of pedagogy.