“Restorative justice” in primary

[Quietlife333]

Hi, my children’s schools is implementing a new system called “restorative justice.” I just wanted to get some opinions.
Has your school
Implemented anything like this and do you think behaviour is improving as a result?
Our school seems to be dealing with a lot more violent incidents on the playground.
To be honest I’m of the opinion that older kids know exactly what they are doing when they deliberately go after and hurt smaller kids. They know what the outcome will be. I’m not sure how asking them what they thought would happen or how the other child feels as a result will stop them behaving that way again. In fact I know of several cases where the same kids are acting out violently over and over again and just sit through the restorative justice meeting saying “ I don’t know” to every question.
I also have concerns around children on the receiving end having to miss their play time or break times to help temper the behaviour of the other children. They get little enough down time as it is already. At our school there is endless sats prep. With half hour daily tests since September for my year 6 child. Who wants to sit in at break and discuss why x smacked y after that?
It would be interesting to see if anybody has any experience of this process having a positive impact at their school.

hi OP my DC's primary school has this. I had some of the same concerns as you but I think it depends how it's used. When I raised concerns with the teachers they were clear that it wasn't a substitute for other aspects of the behaviour policy and there would still be the full range of sanctions for bullying etc where appropriate. However my DC did go through the process on one occasion and it actually seemed to be really helpful in getting him and another boy to get past a conflict they had and see each other's point of view. But that was a situation where they'd both behaved badly and there were no major power imbalances or intent to hurt. I can't see how it would be appropriate for a situation where bigger kids are hurting smaller kids. I also don't know how it's impacted on behaviour through the school as a whole.