By FairfaxMedia
There is no such thing as detention at Westbourne Grammar School.
It was scrapped eight years ago after the same students ended up in detention every Friday.
“We found it didn’t really help,” says Divine Emezie, an impressively articulate year 11 student.
“It just fuelled their animosity towards the school and their peers.”
Instead Westbourne, in the booming suburb of Truganina, introduced a strategy also used in the criminal justice system known as “restorative practice”, which repairs relationships rather than punishes.
Senior students are part of the mediation process. “At Westbourne the student looks up to the year 11 and 12s and they are more likely to respect that,” Divine says.
Year 12 student Ruby Tripodi already has a title that is a mouthful: she is a “restorative practice facilitator”.
Qualifying for this role is no mean feat. All year 10 students complete the first stage of restorative practice but stages two and three are voluntary in year 11.
Ruby says she might be called upon to help resolve – for example – turf disputes between year 7s and 8s squabbling over space to play downball, a game also known as four square that is a cultural tradition at Westbourne.
“We might try to set up an agreement that some [year levels] play some lunches,” Ruby says.
Principal Meg Hansen says restorative practice has made a “massive difference” at the school, which has students from more than 40 nationalities.
It’s one of the reasons she believes student performance has improved. Westbourne Grammar is the independent school winner of
The Age’s inaugural Schools that Excel award for Melbourne’s west.
For the past two years in a row, students have obtained a median study score of 34, a first for the school. This puts Westbourne several points above the statewide median of 30.
The students
The Age spoke to attribute the schools’ improved VCE performance to a culture of celebrating success and teachers going “the extra mile”.
“When someone is doing well they don’t get backlash from friends,” says Year 11 student Shakeel Manuel. “I feel that’s slightly different in some places.”
– The Age
