Auchinleck Academy received the excellent news last week that we have been accredited as a Gold Rights Respecting School! This is an absolutely outstanding achievement for all of our pupils and staff, who have worked really hard together over the past four years to ensure that children’s rights are fully embedded throughout the school in our policies, practice and ethos.
Achieving Gold Rights Respecting status means there is strong evidence in a school that:
- A child rights approach based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is embedded in all school policy, practice and culture
- Children, young people and adults in the school have a thorough understanding of child rights, and rights respecting attitudes and language are embedded across the school
- RRSA has had a positive impact on children and young people’s learning and wellbeing
- tudents see themselves as rights respecting global citizens and are advocates for social justice, fairness and children’s rights at home and abroad
On 30th September we were visited by Steven Kidd from UNICEF UK who spent the day at Auchinleck Academy meeting with pupils, parents and staff, and finding out about our school. He was extremely impressed by his visit and commented on how clear it was that rights are very much part of the school environment, and in fact underpin every facet of school life.
He compiled a report in which the following have been highlighted as particular strengths of our school:
- Confident, articulate students who have an excellent knowledge of rights and a strong belief in their ability to make a difference
- Commitment to and passion for embedding children’s rights from the school’s senior leadership team and from staff.
- Strong focus on wellbeing and inclusion with a huge variety of support available to pupils.
- An extensive record of fundraising achievement, for causes such as Mary’s Meals and Unicef
- Some excellent individual examples of practice e.g. PLP learning, Rights awareness video, LGBT rainbow wall.
Mr Kidd also commented in his report on how relationships between pupils and between pupils and staff were noticeably positive and indicative of a culture based on mutual respect. He stated that students on the learning walk were confident and enthusiastic, listening carefully to any questions and replying informatively. In focus groups, students were polite and respectful, happy to offer their views and keen to hear those of others, whilst the Steering Group spoke passionately of their work to drive forward rights practice in the school. It was also clear to the assessor that the young people of Auchinleck Academy see themselves as agents for change, confident in taking action on the issues that matter to them and often inspired by children’s rights.
Well done Auchinleck Academy!
