:: Mediation

What school mediation means
 
School mediation resolves conflicts which arise in the school environment with the help of a school mediator. The school mediator facilitates the parties in holding a focused conversation and reaching an agreement which is satisfactory to each of the parties separately and to both of them together. The mediator creates structured environment for a conversation to help parties understand their underlying interests and the true reasons for what has occurred. Mediation allows the parties to negotiate the best for both of them and to gain understanding about their own standpoint as well as that of the other party. 
 
What you have to know about the main principles of mediation
 
The parties resort to mediation voluntarily and state that they are willing to search together the best possible solution. Each of the parties is free to leave mediation at any point and go back to it whenever it considers that necessary. The participants in this procedure are equal irrespective of their roles and positions with regard to the educational process. The mediator never takes sides and never attempts to clarify which party is right or not, and to what extent; instead, the mediator is impartial, and the whole information obtained and presented during the mediation procedure is confidential.
 
What we offer
 
• Case mediation. Resolving a conflict which occurred between participants in the learning process.
 
• Peer mediation training for pupils. This training helps pupils become intermediaries in a conflict which occurred between their classmates. This type of mediation is oftentimes extremely effective and requires no additional resources by the school at a later stage. It develops key competences such as empathy, tolerance, initiative, mutual assistance, leadership, responsibility, civic-mindedness, and it also changes the school setting.
 
• Training for teaching and non-teaching staff. It develops skills and strategies for constructive dialogue and conflict resolution. Prevention of violence. Responses to aggressive behavior. 
 
• Rules for Democratic Communication – if a school wishes so, Rules for Democratic Communication may be developed as a result of the joint work on a particular case. In this way, rules and good practice may be recorded, multiplied and used in other similar cases in the future.