Art & Restorative Approaches
After meeting pupils and staff from Shirehampton Primary School at a Restorative Bristol workshop in 2014, I was asked to deliver a series of graffiti art workshops, where we would design and paint murals in the playground that explored Restorative Approaches to conflict. I worked with students from Years 3, 4 and 5, who worked brilliantly to produce the following pieces of artwork. Nick Halahan, Olas Art
Students from Year 5 wanted to focus on how to express empathy can be used to understand and improve friendships where someone was getting hurt.
This mural was designed by Year 6 students who wanted to use the weather to symbolise the emotions that they felt during and after a conflict. One student described the anger that she felt when she first heard that her friend had insulted her behind her back, likening this anger to a violent storm, and the dark cloud that she felt after they had argued. After a fellow pupil intervened they both expressed their understanding of the situation, and realised that the rumour had exaggerated what had actually been said. In light of this, they both made up by shaking hands, and said sorry to each other, which was when the sun came out and they felt happy again.
These boards were designed and produced by Years 3 and 4, where they thought about where they would place particular emotions on a scale of negative to positive.”
To find out more visit Nick’s website
