Right of the Month
Our Right of the Month for April and May was Article 12: Young people have the right to be listened to and taken seriously.
All pupils in SLC have been using this right by expressing their views about SLC and letting staff know what they think is going well, but also what could be better. They took part in a consultation exercise and offered some really good suggestions as to how we can further improve learning and teaching in the Supported Learning Centre.
These views will be taken into consideration as we begin to work on our Improvement Plan for next session.
In March all classes in SLC took part in an Interdisciplinary Project to help us learn about the Global Goals. The Global Goals are goals that leaders across the world have agreed to work towards in order to help tackle important issues such as climate change, world hunger and poverty.
We learned that the Global Goals are closely linked to our rights and we focused in particular on the following rights:
Article 24- Right to good health, clean water, nutritious food and a clean environment
Article 27- Right to an adequate standard of living
Article 6- Right to life, survival and development
Each class took part in a project and came up with ideas to help contribute to the achievement of the Global Goals, which in turn will help people to access their right to food, a clean environment and an adequate standard of living.
Some of the Global Goals projects we have been running in SLC include:
- ‘Stop the Drop’ anti- litter campaign
- Battery recycling project
- Beach clean
- Creation of a compost bin and a campaign to highlight and tackle the issue of food waste in the school
- A clothing recycling project
- A ‘switch off’ campaign to conserve energy in the school.
- Regular litter picks around the campus and in the local community
Here are some great examples of pupils in SLC speaking out and taking action in support of children’s rights and the Global Goals!
In addition to this, pupils in the Rights Respecting School Group are going to start a Clothing Bank and will start collecting donations of used clothing and uniform items next term, to help families who are facing hardship this year.
Right of the Month for October was Article 24- the right to health care, clean water and nutritious food. We learned about the importance of good food and nutrition for health and wellbeing.
For the second year in a row we took part in a sponsored walk to Dumfries House estate in order to raise money for our partner school in Liberia, Jebbeh Kiazolu. Pupils in SLC raised over £700 for the charity Mary’s Meals to keep funding a school feeding programme there which ensures that every pupil at Jebbeh Kiazolu school gets a nutritious meal every day at school. This is not only helping children there to access their right to good health and wellbeing, but it is also supporting them to access their right to education, as attendance at the school has increased significantly since the feeding programme began.
Click on the following links below to read the report from Jebbeh Kiazolu which shows how the funds we have raised have benefitted the young people and their families. This is an excellent example of pupils in SLC standing up for rights and taking action to help other children to access their rights.
SAS Liberia Report – Jebbeh Kiazolu Public School
Right of the Month for August and September 22 was Article 42- all children, young people and adults should know about the Convention and their rights. We started the new term by revisiting the terms of our Rights Respecting Classroom Charter and by doing activities in class to help remind us of our rights. At our first assembly in September, Liam Thomson (S5), Caitlyne Alison (S6) and Vicki McIlroy (S4) prepared a short presentation to teach pupils about the nature of their rights. They shared important information about the UNCRC, the role of Duty Bearers and the fact that we are born with our rights, everyone has them and they cannot be taken away. Click on the link below to see their excellent presentation on ‘Understanding Rights’.
Our Right of the Month for June is Article 22 – You have the right to special protection and help if you are a refugee. A refugee is someone who has had to leave their country because it is not safe for them to live there. This is very significant right now given the current war in Ukraine and it also follows on well from last month’s right about protection from war.
Below is some of the work that pupils in S3 have been doing to learn about Article 22. Pupils have been discussing the effect of war on young people and thinking about ways in which they could help child refugees who have had to flee from their own country. They decided to make up little communication leaflets with greetings and phrases alongside Ukrainian translations and pictures to help communicate with a Ukrainian child if they were to join our class. They used Google Translate for this and they really enjoyed learning a new language.
February was LGBT History Month and so in SLC we chose to focus on Article 13: the right to Freedom of Expression.
Members of our Rights Respecting School group created an excellent display to celebrate LGBTQ rights, and in particular to highlight the right to express our identity freely and to live our lives without being discriminated against.
S3 pupils also did some great work for LGBT History Month. They looked at the rainbow pride flag and created their own colourful flags inspired by it. Their flags had to represent things about themselves and each colour used in their flag had a meaning behind it.
They also completed a ‘Proud to be Me’ fact-file celebrating themselves and explaining what makes them each unique. They accompanied their fact file with a self-portrait drawing.
January’s right of the month was Article 14 – Freedom of Thought, Belief and Religion. Pupils in the SLC learned that every child has the right to think and believe what they choose and also to practise their religion, as long as they are not stopping other people from enjoying their rights. We discussed some of the thoughts and beliefs that are really important to us. We also learned about examples of when groups of people have been discriminated against because of their beliefs, and prevented from practising their faith. We were reminded of Article 2, the right to Non-Discrimination.
On the 27th January some of our pupils marked Holocaust Memorial Day. S4 pupils took part in a live webcast with Eva Clarke, a Holocaust survivor who combats modern day instances of racism and prejudice through sharing her family’s experiences in the Holocaust. S4 pupils also read “I never saw another Butterfly”, a book of poems and diary entries from survivors of the Holocaust, and from those who were taken to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. They found out that all of the children who wrote the poems and diary entries were the same or similar ages to S4. They then took the template of the butterfly as a sign of hope and are creating a display in SLC as a memorial. Information about the butterfly project holocaust memorial can be found by clicking here.
S3 pupils watched the BBC’s ‘Six Stories of Children who Survived the Holocaust’. Suzanne’s story – hiding from the Nazis in occupied France, created a great debate between pupils about truth and lies. Suzanne’s family was Jewish and was captured by the Nazis. Suzanne’s next-door neighbour lied and told the Nazis that Suzanne was her own child to save her life. Suzanne never saw her family again. Some children thought it was wrong to lie. They were upset that the family got separated. However, they understood that the lie was to save a child’s life.
S3 have since been interested to learn more about Judaism. They have been comparing the similarities between the beliefs and values of Jewish people with the visions, values and aims of the staff and pupils at Robert Burns Academy. Pupils were very pleasantly surprised to discover how alike our values are.
The Rights of the Month for October are:
The Right of the Month for August and September is Article 2 – Non-discrimination.
Pupils have been learning that nobody should be discriminated against because of their ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, language, ability, family background, or any other reason. This right is extremely important to us in the SLC and we place a lot of importance on celebrating each other’s differences and treating each other with kindness and respect at all times.
Non-discrimination is one of our four rights that we have chosen as the basis of our Rights Respecting Classroom Charter. Our charter is our guide to action and behaviour on a daily basis in SLC and it is displayed in every classroom and referred to regularly. All pupils and staff in the SLC created the charter together and agreed on the actions that everyone in the department needs to take to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and with respect at all times.
Shown below is the Supported Learning Centre’s Rights Respecting Classroom Charter.
We finish the term by concentrating on Article 19, the right to be safe and protected from violence and abuse. We have been learning about inappropriate and appropriate behaviours and have focused on promoting behaviour in SLC that is safe, kind and respectful. Pupils have created ‘Kindness Checklists’ for their classes and posters to encourage kindness towards others.
In March and April we focused on learning about Article 12, the right to have a say in matters that affect us and be listened to and taken seriously. Pupils in SLC used this right by taking part in a consultation exercise to give their views on what is working well in SLC and what could be improved. Staff have been listening carefully to their opinions and suggestions and will take these into consideration when formulating our Improvement Plan for next session.
Pupils also used their right to express their views and opinions by discussing the rights and actions that should form the basis of our Classroom Charter. Our Rights Respecting Classroom Charter will be used as our guide to action and behaviour on a daily basis within SLC, therefore it is important that all pupils and staff have a say in it. We are currently working with the staff and pupils in both the primary and secondary SLC to formulate our Charter.
In February we moved on to learning about Article 42, the right to know about your rights. Mrs Devine posted a lesson about the nature of our rights and we learned important information, like the fact that rights are UNIVERSAL (for everyone) and INHERENT (you are born with them). We also learned that all adults are DUTY BEARERS, and have a responsibility to ensure that children’s rights are fulfilled. Pupils were set the challenge of completing a quiz to test their knowledge of rights.
Well done to everyone in SLC who attempted the quiz and in particular to Liam Thomson (S3), Hannah Cumming (S2), Honey Savage (S4), Caitlyne Allison (S4), Amy Harris (S5) and Ewan Morgan (S1) who all got full marks and won a prize for being knowledgeable about their rights!
How much do you know about rights? Why not try the quiz for yourself:
We started the year by focusing on Article 24, the Right to Health Care. Pupils in SLC learned about the importance of maintaining good mental health as well as physical health, particularly during the Lockdown period. Mr Maclean set up a weekly wellbeing meeting on Teams so that all pupils and staff in SLC could get together for a virtual chat and share their news and tips on how to stay mentally and physically fit and healthy.
Well done to Honey Savage who completed a task for Mental Health Week that involved sharing some of the things that make her happy and help her to express herself.
