Keills Primary receives Rights Respecting School – Silver Award!

On the 24^th May, Keills Primary School underwent a Rights Respecting Schools Accreditation for the Silver Award. After almost 3 hours of the Argyll and Bute assessor, Christine Walker, asking questions to staff, parents and children about the teaching, learning and experiences within the school, she finally announced that we had indeed met the standard for UNICEF UK’s Rights Respecting School Award at Silver: Rights Aware. We were all delighted with this recognition – a massive achievement for our small school!

Over the last eighteen months everyone, staff and children, have worked so hard towards achieving the silver award. The process has focussed on teaching and learning about rights; teaching and learning through rights – developing our school ethos and relationships and, teaching and learning for rights – supporting and promoting child participation, empowerment and action.  To be one of the fourteen schools within Argyll and Bute to have achieved Silver is certainly a credit to all within the school.

Special recognition for their efforts goes to our Steering group members – Kara, Ryan, Oonagh, Hamish, Erin, Willow, Robbie, and our additional volunteers – Ellie, Charlie, Keith, Caitlin, who spoke so confidently to Christine about the learning and events undertaken within the school and their personal thoughts and experiences. Afterwards some of the children shared their feelings. Robbie said, ‘I spoke to Christine Walker about our rights. I was a wee bit shy but afterwards I felt amazing.’ Charlie remarked, ‘I felt proud of what I’ve done.’ Hamish added, ‘I felt happy and excited.’ Willow stated she felt ‘amazing and proud’. Keith said, ‘I felt good when we got the Silver.’ While Caitlin announced, ‘I felt good. Then after I felt so amazing. Then when I heard we got Silver I wanted to scream with excitement!’ We were all very happy and delighted when the announcement was made.

We would also like to thank Alyson MacGillivray and Lorna McLellan, our Parent Council members who spoke to Christine at length about their thoughts about the school’s rights respecting journey.

In addition to this, we would also like to acknowledge our former pupils Clara and Scarlett who were in P.7 when we began our Rights Respecting journey. They played a key role in the Steering group and Pupil Council and set such a good example for others to follow.

Our next steps is of course aiming for the Gold Award, which is achieved when children’s rights are embedded throughout the school in polices, practice and the ethos. This is a long term process which will take approximately three years! It is however a journey we are committed to and are looking forward to undertaking!

KEILLS PRIMARY RECEIVES RRS AWARD

We did it! Keills Primary School have achieved their RRS (Rights Respecting Schools) Bronze Award! We have now been recognised as a school committed to placing the UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) at the heart of the school ethos and working towards becoming a Rights Respecting School.

We have already begun the next stage of our journey by working towards the Silver Award. This involves teaching and learning about rights; teaching and learning through rights (by applying rights respecting language and attitudes and encouraging children to share their views and make decisions regarding the life of the school either through group/class/school discussions or our Pupil Council); and teaching and learning for rights (developing as rights respecting citizens). We currently do this through whole school KIT (Keills Improvement Team) meetings, where we participate in various activities.

Mrs Baker has been helping us with learning about children’s rights. On a Wednesday afternoon we all go in the hall and work in groups and talk about rights. It is really fun and a good thing to learn about. (G. Ch. Gp)

We have been learning about the ABCDE of Rights. They are facts that explain the rights of the child. A – Rights are for ALL children; B – Rights are there at BIRTH; C – Rights CANNOT be taken away; D – Rights DO NOT have to be earnt and E – All rights are EQUALLY important. We feel that it is important that everyone and every child should know about the ABCDE of rights. We have managed to learn about the ABCDE of right quickly from our kit meetings with everyone altogether. (G. Gp)

All children have rights. We are rights holders. Rights holders are all children under the age of eighteen. Duty bearers work for the government to protect all children’s rights. Examples of duty bearers are teachers, doctors, nurses and police. We didn’t know this before and now we do. It was interesting to learn. We know teachers, cooks and all the staff in the school are duty bearers. (C.S. Gp)

We have learned that we have rights. We’ve learned about the SHANARRI indicators – Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included and how they link to the articles. There is a lot to learn about the SHANARRI indicators and how they are linked to the articles. We’re feeling good about learning it all. It is fun! (Ch. M. Gp)

In KIT meetings we have lots of teams and we work together. We discuss our rights and how we can improve our school. We all get our say and our rights. We have made posters about issues in school linked to our rights, values and the SHANARRI indicators. They are also linked to taking care of our environment. We also looked at the main rights – Development, Survival, Protection and Participation and created freeze frames for others to guess which one it was. We have a big display all about our rights. We can’t believe how big our display on the wall is. It is cool and it is also really bright and colourful. It is helpful because now we know our rights and we didn’t know that before. (S.B. Gp)
One of the most important articles is article number three – Adults must do what’s best for me. We have fifty-four articles. The first forty-two are for the children, and forty-two up to fifty-four are for the government. There are a lot of articles to learn about, but we are looking forward to it. We like learning about rights because it is fun and interesting. (C. Sk. Gp)

We have been learning that we should respect ourselves, each other, our property, our environment and our rights. We also use the Golden Rule – Treat others the way you want to be treated. It is very important to learn about rights. (G. Ch. Gp)

We have been rebuilding our Pupil Council. The Pupil Council is letting us access one of our rights. The right we are accessing is the right to be listened to and be heard and taken seriously. It is article number 12. We have been having Pupil Council meetings often. People had been asking to get waterproofs. Then we got them! Yay! Now we can go out in the rainy weather! (G. Ch. Gp)

We are all very happy that we’ve received the Bronze Award. We’ve worked really hard for the award. Our next goal is Silver! (Ch. M. Gp)
Well done to all!

Keills March Newsletter

Keills September October Newsletter (1)

Hello,

This Friday we will be taking part in a youth Global Climate Strike to learn more about how to protect our planet, now and in the future.

We will have an ‘offline’ and power free Friday in class (no change to school lunches) and also aim to reduce paper waste and use as well.

https://fridaysforfuture.org/

Thanks, Miss Leys and Mrs Harper

Hello

Here is what P1 – 3 will be learning in school this term.

P.1-3 Learning overview Term 1 2021 2022 session

Hello

Welcome back to the start of Term 1. Here is our P4 – 7 Newsletter, letting you know what is happening in class this term.

P4 to 7 Learning overview Term 1 2021 2022 session Final

Keills August 2021 Newsletter

Hello,

Welcome back to the start of our new term. Here is our August newsletter about return to school, permission slips and Seesaw.

Thank you, Miss Leys

This week were were lucky to interview with staff from Islay Museum and Finlaggan. They shared lots of fascinating information with us about old Islay including artifacts which have been excavated locally.

They were also kind enough to share some older pictures of our local community so we could see how our villages have changed over the years.

The first image also shows what life was like inside an old croft in the past.

A big thank you to the staff for taking the time to speak to us!