Back Home

So, the Restorative Practices Study Trip is over. I am back at Rosehill College and painfully aware of how much work there still is to do here to keep RPs ‘on the agenda’ and progressing.

In the brief moments that I have had to reflect, I recognise fully how many people it took to make this trip possible. Although I am clearly not able to specify each and every person, I will attempt to pay tribute to the people who were in the middle of it all .

Firstly, my sincere thanks goes to Graeme Macann (Principal) and the Senior Management Team of Rosehill College. Their support of the trip was to me an endorsement of Restorative Practice itself, or at least, the potential of RPs. And within the SMT, two people probably deserve particular mention:

Dave Ormandy (Associate Principal) is rapidly becoming an authority on RPs and has lent his total backing to this project. Beyond that, Dave has been actively looking after the depleted Student Support team during my absence. Thanks Dave – your support has been very important to me.

Secondly, James Clarke (Deputy Principal) has Professional Development as a significant part of his portfolio and has ‘walked the talk’ by getting behind this project. Thanks, James. In the same breath, thanks goes to the members of the PD Committee who also provided their approval for the concept of the research trip.

‘My’ Student Support Department is still standing tall despite the staffing challenges of late. The ever capable Heidi Morgan (Student Support Admin) has been a power of strength as usual – Thanks, Heidi - I knew that things were safe in your hands. Paula Crisinel has stepped courageously out of her counsellor training programme to take on the work of two counsellors – Paula, by all accounts you have excelled yourself. My counselling colleague Janet Milne has recently re-entered the fray at work after some much required convalescence time - sorry for my timing, Janet. Bonny le Grice (Resource Teacher – Learning and Behaviour), Matua Charles Hohaia (Kaimanaaki) and Anna Ngawharau (School Nurse) have also shouldered extra burdens in my absence – thanks to you all.

And, of course - thanks go to all the wonderful people in Australia who shared so much of their time and energy with me in the midst of their busy days. It is probably unnecessary to pay tribute again to each of you for your efforts because your stories are all recorded in earlier sections of this web log but I wish to once more say thanks to Marg Thorsborne who helped me get this trip ‘off the ground’.

In finishing, I suppose the above tributes are a reminder that some things matter more than others. In the words of a Maori proverb,

He aha te mea nui o te ao?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
What is the most important thing in the world?
It is people, it is people, it is people.