Feedback comments from training courses we have delivered include…
Primary school staff:
Excellent trainer and great ideas for schools and society as a whole
Great training – really useful, easy to access and made fun!
Very useful – really enjoyed the deep learning and thinking we undertook in regards to harm.
Special school staff:
Very good training package, and very sensitive trainer.
Very well delivered. Engaging speakers. Interesting activities. Relevant and useful.
Brilliant! Thank you for helping to start our recovery process.
A big thank you! Well planned, well-structured day.
Secondary school staff:
Fabulous – I have had this training before but this was much clearer and better delivered.
I’ve been super impressed with how the content is delivered and how it has been genuinely deep learning - some good teaching and learning tools as well as RJ!
Very informative and well facilitated, liked the multisensory approach to the training.
Trainee Head Teachers:
Very interesting and intense day. It made me think about my own behaviour.
Feedback received from senior leaders with whom we have worked include…
Conexus have an excellent reputation and they were keen to offer something that was bespoke for our needs rather than a one size fits all approach. The pricing was extremely competitive and represented excellent value for money. They offer some of the most well rounded, practical, academically rooted training that is currently on offer.
Gloucestershire County Council (November 2018)
Here at Meadowfield Primary, a large inner city school with over 70% free school meals entitlement, we knew we had to make a strong and bold change to our behaviour processes within school to address the unrest and poor behaviour choices which were being made on a daily basis. We lacked consistency and, more importantly, courage to implement our vision and values when faced with poor behaviour. Colleagues at all levels have benefitted enormously from working alongside Terence whilst he has uncovered that which really matters to us. He has shown us how we can marry our child centre vision and implement our values whilst not accepting poor behaviour; he gave us the tools to put the vision into practice and to challenge ourselves and each other so that our school became one where we wanted to come to work and where we would send our own children.
Achieving the vision alongside the consistency and challenging those who didn't follow our processes has become 'the way we do things around here' and the benefits in terms of positive staff morale and reduction in behaviour incidents has been incredible. For Terence to come back to see us on a regular basis has kept our school moving forward on our restorative practice ethos and it is now well embedded and continuing to evolve at all levels.
Helen Stout, Headteacher, Meadowfield Primary School, Leeds (April 2018)
I have worked with Terence Bevington since 2007 when we embarked upon the restorative journey at Queensbridge within a very unsettled inner city school where immediate work was needed to resolve conflict amongst the school children as well as parents and carers. Terence helped to initially train staff and then worked with the children- class conferencing was an effective way forward for certain year groups. The school staff team reviewed our behaviour policy and surveyed the parents regularly with Terence's support. Queensbridge went from an unsatisfactory Ofsted judgement to an outstanding one.
Terence also supported us in a partner school where the Good Ofsted report states:
The recently introduced system of restorative justice, which encourages pupils to discuss issues where there have been disagreements or conflict, is a formidable tool for ensuring that there is no discrimination and that pupils make carefully considered moral choices and develop the range of social skills needed to move on to the next phase of their education.
I would whole heartedly recommend Terence for his positive support for restorative practices.
Sarah Bailey, Headteacher, Queensbridge Primary School, London (January 2017)
Embedding restorative practices is not an easy thing to achieve, even when the values ‘chime’ closely with your own and therefore those you promote within your school. I needed to work closely with someone I could trust implicitly; a grounded expert who could appropriately guide, support and challenge rather than just dazzle me; someone who ‘gets’ the fears and hopes of both staff and students, who’s in it for the right reasons and the long journey. To put it simply, we wouldn’t be where we are without Terence’s skills, drive and commitment over many years. I couldn’t recommend him more highly to colleagues interested in developing restorative practices.
Kevin McDonnell, Headteacher, Stormont House Special School, London (March 2017)
We were introduced to Terence about six years ago as we had heard of his good work in developing restorative practice in Hackney schools. At the time we were experiencing high levels of student behavioural problems, exclusions and there was a general low confidence by teaching staff in managing these concerns. Terence provided us with training, consultancy and support so we could shift our organisation away from a negative, disciplinary management culture, to a positive restorative culture, where conflict was seen as a learning opportunity. We are still on the journey but have seen a significant decline in our exclusions, improvements in attitudes to learning and an increased confidence by staff in dealing with behavioural concerns.
As a result of Terence's support our restorative practice was highly commended in our Ofsted visit in 2015: Learners’ behaviour at the college is exceptionally good. Staff at all levels are highly skilled in modelling and managing good behaviour and, as a result, learners demonstrate high levels of respect for staff and peers. The exceedingly effective ‘restorative justice’ approach to conflict resolution complements the college disciplinary process well. As a result, learners develop very good strategies for managing and dealing with conflict; they adopt and share these strategies within their own families and communities.
Sylvan Dewing, Assistant Principal - Student Experience, Hackney Community College, London (April 2016)
