Pupils at the North Rhins and West Rhins Schools are delighted to share that they have been awarded the Gold Rights Respecting School Award from UNICEF. Having already achieved their Bronze and Silver awards, Leswalt, Kirkcolm and Portpatrick Primaries have been working hard over the last 18 months to achieve their Gold award, with our Pupil Council reps leading on this. Although the 3 schools are no longer partnered together (with Portpatrick now being part of the West Rhins Schools), we started our journey towards the Gold award together, so it seemed fitting that we finished it together!
The award is split into 3 strands – it aims to teach children about their rights; they learn through their rights by demonstrating positive relationships and attitudes, and respecting others’ rights; and finally they learn to take action through their rights to become responsible global citizens.
The UNICEF Rights Respecting School assessor visited all 3 schools at the end of May and pupils were able to share with her the many activities that we’ve worked on in our journey towards gold, including: Children’s Right’s Tuesday; learning about rights at assemblies; our class charters; linking rights to our school events such as House Captain elections, Children’s Mental Health Week and Children in Need; our worry boxes in class; learning about Child Line; our climate change protest; and all of our various pupil voice groups, such as our Eco Schools work.
The schools were provided with a report, sharing strengths and some next steps for when we work towards the Sustaining Gold award. The report stated that, “It was evident that children’s rights are embedded across the school and underpin every facet of school life.” The assessor felt that we have, “Very articulate children who knew a wide range of articles and were confident in the concept of rights.” She was impressed with the extent to which rights are embedded in the day-to-day life of all three schools and the strong commitment of passionate staff as champions of children’s rights. Finally, the assessor highlighted that pupil voice is valued highly across the schools with visible actions arising from pupil suggestions and an understanding from children that they can influence positive change.
We are thrilled that our hard work has been recognised and we have been awarded this accolade. We are looking forward to continuing our Rights journey as we work towards the Sustaining Gold award.
