Relationships, Community, and the Restorative School: Lessons from Singapore

This book shares our journey with restorative practice and provides insight into how we developed a programme that impacts school culture - the Builders Project. It is a documentation of our experience of bringing restorative practice to primary school settings in Singapore, through a whole-school community building approach, to enable students to have a positive learning experience and to thrive. This contrasts with implementing restorative practice focusing on behavioural management. It is the first non-Western contribution to the field of restorative practices as a whole-school approach.

This book shares Lutheran Community Care Services (LCCS) practice assumptions that underpin the need to build, strengthen, and restore relationships. It also illustrates the application of our restorative practice principles, which are drawn from our experience, values, and research, towards building effective relationships among the individuals in the school community. Stories and perspectives of practitioners, students, parents, teachers, and school leaders are shared to highlight how they experience voice, agency, and belonging through restorative processes. Most importantly, we hope that this book will inspire you to reflect on your journey with restorative practice in schools through the reflection questions posed in each of the substantive chapters.

This book is for educators, school social work and mental health practitioners, educational policymakers, school administrators, principals, academics, researchers, and restorative practice practitioners. This book is also suitable for undergraduates or postgraduate students who desire to understand practice beyond the theories that they have learnt and gain insights on what the journey of practicing and implementing restorative practice looks like.

Seow Ling is a co-Executive Director of LCCS, and a trustee of the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP). Her current research seeks to understand the impact of restorative practices on one’s relational capacity.

James Lim is Assistant Director at Lutheran Community Care Services Ltd (LCCS), overseeing agency programmes and school trainings. He serves on a primary school’s School Advisory Committee and is a committee member of the Singapore Association of Social Workers’ (SASW) School Social Work Chapter.

Tyler Sim is a trainer for Restorative Practice and Restorative Circles. He holds a Master’s in Counselling, specialising in Couples and Family Therapy (M Couns.), from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), and has an Advanced Certificate in Learning and Performance (ACLP) which certifies him to be an Adult Educator in Singapore.

Enci Li is a senior social worker of LCCS. Her current research with the organisation seeks to understand the impact of restorative practices on one’s relational capacity.

Justin Mui is Co-Executive Director at LCCS. He serves as Treasurer of Woodlands Social Centre and is Chairman of SteppingStones Pte Ltd, a social enterprise that facilitates child adoption for children desperately in need of a loving forever family.