Auchinleck Academy is a Rights Respecting School!
The Unicef UK Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) supports schools to embed children’s human rights in their ethos and culture. The award recognises achievement in putting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of a school’s practice to improve wellbeing and help all children and young people realise their potential. Auchinleck Academy was awarded Silver: Rights Aware status in March 2018. This is the second stage of the Rights Respecting School award which is granted to schools that make good progress towards embedding the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into their ethos and curriculum. It was awarded Gold Rights Respecting School status in October 2019.
You can find out more about the RRSA award on their website:
www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools
Our Rights Respecting School steering group meets monthly and works hard to raise awareness of children’s rights through assemblies, RME, PLP and PSE lessons, and by focusing on a ‘right of the month’ and ‘rights fact of the month’ in our daily bulletin. There are regular activities in PLP to learn about and promote our right of the month- you can find out about these on our website, Twitter and Newsline. Our School Improvement Plan shows the commitment of all departments to teach about rights whenever possible and make links to the United Convention on the Rights of the Child in their subject courses. A good example of this is our Interdisciplinary Project on the theme of children’s rights which has been incorporated into the S1 curriculum. Pupils learn about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in several subjects, and have a chance to study certain rights in depth and explore what these rights mean for their own lives and for the lives of children in other parts of the world. Our S2 pupils also take part in the World’s largest Lesson Interdisciplinary Project which involves learning about children’s rights and the Global Goals for Sustainable Development in all of their subjects. They are then given the challenge of coming up with an ‘idea for change’ project which they can lead in the school or local community to help contribute to one of the Global Goals, such as Climate Change, No Poverty or Gender Equality. This is a great opportunity for pupils to see that they can lead changes in their school and local community which support children’s rights and contribute to important causes such as tackling climate change.
Respect is one of Auchinleck Academy’s core values, and we firmly believe in the importance of building positive relationships based on trust and respect for one another’s rights amongst all members of the school community. The implementation of our ‘Relationship Framework’ has supported us to promote rights respecting attitudes further, and put the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into practice within our school. Our Rights Respecting Classroom Charter is an important part of our Relationship Framework and serves as a guide to action and behaviour on a daily basis. All staff and pupils in our school had a say in deciding the terms of the Charter. Together we identified the rights from the Convention which we considered to be most important and relevant to our lives in school. We then agreed on the actions which all members of the school community would need to take to ensure that everyone respects one another’s rights. You can click on the following links to see our Relationship Framework and Classroom Charter:
Relationship-Framework-Revised-Aug-19
Pupils and staff at Auchinleck Academy have demonstrated a real commitment to promoting children’s rights not just in our school, but globally too, by taking action to help children in poorer countries who are not always able to access their rights. For three years in a row we have been involved in several fundraising events to raise money to sponsor Jebbeh Kiazolu school in Liberia, Africa, so that children there can enjoy their basic rights to nutritious food and water, and to education. It costs just over £13 to support the Mary’s Meals charity to feed a child in Liberia for one year. We have now raised almost £10 000 towards our ‘Mary’s Meals Sponsor a School’ campaign- this has allowed us to pay for all of the pupils in Jebbeh Kiazolu school to have a daily nutritious meal for a full year. Thanks to all of the pupils and staff who have taken part in our sponsored activities over the past few years and to the parents, carers, relatives and friends who have sponsored us or provided donations- what an amazing achievement and team effort! Click on the link below to read a copy of the report sent to us from Mary’s Meals about the difference that our donations are making to the lives of the young people at Jebbeh Kiazolu school in Liberia:
SAS Report Jebbeh Kiazolu_Auchinleck Academy 2017
Our staff and pupils also believe in the importance of promoting children’s rights and improving children’s lives within our own communities. The Rights Respecting School Group has organized various coffee mornings and craft fayres to raise money for local children’s charity Cash for Kids. With support from our School and Community Support Worker, Mary Gladwell, pupils in the school have also started up a food bank, a uniform recycling scheme and a swap and shop clothing initiative. Pupils can donate items of uniform or clothing which they have outgrown or no longer need so that other pupils can benefit from them. If you would like to donate items of uniform or items for our food bank please bring them into the school or contact the school office and we will arrange to have them collected.
The Big Children’s Rights Quiz
