On the 20th November 1989 the world made a set of promises for every child on earth. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international statement of all of those promises.

UNICEF protects and promotes those rights and the Rights Respecting Schools Award seeks to put the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of a school’s ethos and culture to make sure that every child is healthy, educated, treated fairly and listened to. They also make sure that all children are protected from violence, abuse and exploitation.

The Award recognises achievement in incorporating the Convention into a school’s planning, policies and practice. A Rights Respecting School teaches child rights and models rights and respect in all its relationships – between teacher / adults and pupils, between adults and between pupils.

Being a Rights Respecting school has become part of our everyday school life and we are proud to have achieved our Recognition of Commitment Award.

How can parents support their child to learn about the Convention at home?

  • Take the time to ask your child what he/she has learnt recently regarding children’s rights and how they may show respect for those rights.
  • Discuss the ideas learned in class, and try to think of examples from your own experiences, or from the media, of rights being respected or denied.
  • Discuss how your child or your family can promote respect for rights, or help those whose rights have been violated.
  • Model using rights and respect language with your children.
  • Ask your child’s opinion on children’s rights.

Classroom Charters

As part of our commitment to being a Rights Respecting School, we design and create our own classroom charters.

After discussing all of the articles, we pick those which were most important to us. Each class then creates their own charter based on the rights of a child and how we, as responsible citizens, can respect those rights. Both staff and children understand their roles in following the charters and have all signed them in agreement.

Our School Charter is an agreement between children and adults in our school. They are shared values and principles based on the CRC. The children chose UNCRC articles which they felt was important to us. We then have agreed actions between all of the children and adults to ensure the rights can be realised and enjoyed by everyone.

Who is our RRSA team?

Our RRS lead is Miss Tyerman and she works with the School Council to gather opinions, thoughts and suggestions from all pupils so that appropriate action may be taken to improve our school, and to organise events and fundraising to support our local, national and international communities and charities.

This year we have taken part in:

  • Children in Need
  • Poppy Appeal
  • Red Nose Day
  • Macmillan coffee mornings