Key Note Speakers

About Shelagh……

Shelagh Legrave was appointed Further Education Commissioner in March 2021 and took up the role on 1st October.  Prior to that, Shelagh was Chief Executive of Chichester College group for eleven and a half years  and during that time merged with Crawley and Worthing colleges and opened Haywards Heath College.  The College achieved Outstanding from Ofsted in 2014 and Outstanding for the Group in 2020.   She was appointed an OBE in 2015, a Deputy Lieutenant in the same year and a CBE in 2021.  She also chairs Stonepillow, a charity for homeless people in West Sussex.

Following University, Shelagh joined the Army and completed six years as an officer.  She then joined the investment banking arm of NatWest and qualified there as an accountant.  Her last appointment there was Deputy Chief Financial Officer for Global Financial Markets.  Following this, she spent five years as the Finance Director for the University of Roehampton.  She then moved to Chichester College as their Chief Financial Officer.

Shelagh is married with a son. She enjoys running, tennis, watching sport and listening to music.

Mark Finnis - Building Restorative and Relational Based Practice

Culture exists in every classroom, school, and college, but is yours by design or default? 

Restorative practice is about elevating the culture of a school or college so students are pulled in, not pushed out, about fostering a greater sense of community and about encouraging a willingness to act in the right way for the right reasons. 

Although its roots are clearly in restorative justice – as a way of repairing the harm done to the community and relationships within it – restorative practice has the bolder ambition of proactively developing the sense of community and seeking to increase the quality of the relationships across the school or college and, from there, into the wider community.
 

This practice moves us towards a much more interpersonal process: a culture of shared responsibility and problem solving. The voices and needs of all those involved are clearly outlined and addressed, and – whilst some sort of consequence may well be necessary – the focus is on restoring trust and connection, on putting things right, making things better and moving forward.

Put simply, restorative justice is what you do; restorative practice is what you are. 

So, how do you change the culture of a school or college? One classroom at a time. Where do you start? In the one you’re in now.

About Mark….

Mark Finnis is the founder and director of L30 Relational Systems and has more than twenty years’ experience of working with schools, organisations large and small, both nationally and internationally. Mark has been involved in the national development of restorative practices since the late 1990s.

Mark is the author of Independent Thinking On Restorative Practice: Building relationships, improving behaviours and creating stronger communities, which is a number 1 best seller on Amazon. In 2019 he received the Chris Donovan Trust’s Restorative Practice Champion award in recognition of his work nationally.

Mark has advised on national policy and practice development since 2005 and was part of a small group who rewrote the national best practice guidance for restorative practitioners in 2012.

Mark is also proud to be an associate for Research in Practice (RIP) and Independent Thinking Limited (ITL).

Mark is also trained as an FGC coordinator and is a licensed NLP Master Practitioner trained and certified under Dr Richard Bandler.

He is also a dad of five children, a proud scouser and loves his dog called Dexter. Connect with via twitter @markfinnis and his website is L30Relationalsystems.co.uk