An incident which occurred at Mynydd Cynffig Infants School, Kenfig Hill in January has been dealt with my means of ‘Restorative Justice’.

A storage shed was broken into at the school and property was removed.  Following a successful Police investigation four local culprits were apprehended and the stolen property was later returned to the school.

After admitting to what they had done and on the request of the school a ‘Restorative Justice’ meeting was held which involving the Police, the school, the boys and their parents.  It was agreed that the boys would carry out some work at the school as recompense for their actions.

They apologised to the Head Teacher of the school and set about carrying out chores on the school grounds over two days during the half-term holidays.
These included digging over and fertilizing the vegetable patch, cleaning drains, picking up litter and sweeping up leaves.

They were supervised by the local Pyle and Cornelly PCSOs who made sure that all the work was carried out properly and that the boys took their responsibilities seriously.

Head Teacher Amanda Stanford said “I was very pleased with the work the boys did over the half term and I feel ‘restorative justice’ is a good approach to use with young offenders.

“This is the second time that we as a school have chosen this route and we hope that we are continuing to ‘educate’ these youths to make the right choices in life and helping them to make the best of themselves”.

PC Steve Carpenter, the Porthcawl sector Schools Liaison Police Officer added:  “This is the second occasion that restorative justice has been used to address criminal activity by young people in the school.  It has been found to have a greater impact than putting offenders though the criminal justice system.

“The number of incidents reported to police by the school has dropped significantly since the start of the process and it is hoped that these young people will be able to repay their debt to the school during their own time under supervision of the local neighbourhood policing team and the schools caretaker.

“It certainly seemed like these boys had learned their lesson and they all said that they would not be repeating their behavior in future.”

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