Called restorative practice, it aims to bring each party of a conflict together, whether it's two students or a student and teacher, to work through the problem and avoid matters ending up in the court system.

Yesterday the education body and police signed a new five- year memorandum of understanding, taking it to 2017.

Since 2009 the number of incidents requiring intervention from the police has dropped dramatically from close to 70 reported serious assaults a year, to eight so far this year.

Police Commander Richard Cowling said the figures demonstrated that it worked.

"It works because it gives the school the direct opportunity to work through the issues, not only do they get to talk with those involved, they get to learn about what they have done wrong," Mr Cowling said.

"Rather than straight into the policing system."

He said avoiding the court system, which can take months for a case to be heard, also alleviated some of the pressure there.

Learning Services North general manager Laurie Andrew said the program put a lot more back on the perpetrator and they got to hear how their actions affected the victim, rather than only being punished.

"The value of the agencies working together is that we can get a better outcome for those involved when all the key stakeholders are on the job," Mr Andrew said.

Learning Services North school support leader Rose Parker described the program as proactive not reactive and said all schools had an understanding of restorative practice and about 80 per cent in the North were using it in some way.