⭐ Our Progress Towards Gold
A growing record of our journey as we learn about rights, live our rights and take action for rights.
📖 Our Journey So Far
August
🌟 Our Journey Towards Gold Begins
📜 Creating Our Class Charters
September
🎨 Designing Our Rights Respecting Mascot
🙏 Creating Our Rights Prayer
🔎 Checking Our Understanding of Rights
🏆 Meet Our Rights Respecting Mascot!
October
🌍 Wildfires, Children’s Rights and the Global Goals
🎶 St Francis’ Comes Alive with Music!
💻 Connected by Code: P6 Goes Global!
🗣️ You Asked… We Listened! Our Pupil Voice Box Is Here!
🌟 Our Journey Towards Gold Begins
A new school year brought an exciting new chapter in our Rights Respecting journey at St Francis’.
Having achieved our Silver: Rights Aware Award, we are proud of how far we have come, but we know our journey does not stop there.
This year, we are setting our sights on Gold: Rights Respecting! ⭐
💙 Building on Our Silver Success
Our Silver Award recognised the progress we have already made in developing our understanding of children’s rights.
As we move towards Gold, we want to build on these foundations and make sure that rights are not only something our pupils know about, but something they can recognise and experience throughout everyday school life.
Know It. Live It. Act On It.
Our journey towards Gold will focus on three simple ideas:
- KNOW IT
Developing our knowledge and understanding of the UNCRC and the rights of every child. - LIVE IT
Making sure rights can be seen and experienced through our learning, relationships and everyday life at St Francis’. - ACT ON IT
Using our understanding of rights to speak up, take action and make a positive difference for ourselves and others.
⭐ Our Next Step: Gold
Over the months ahead, our pupils and staff will work together to deepen our understanding of rights, strengthen participation and find meaningful ways to put children’s rights into action.
This page will follow our journey, celebrating the steps we take, the voices of our pupils and the difference our Rights Respecting work makes along the way.
August marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for St Francis’. Our journey towards Gold starts here! 💙⭐
⭐ Creating Our Class Charter
Putting rights at the heart of every classroom
September marked an important first step in our continued journey towards becoming a Gold: Rights Respecting School.
Across St Francis’, pupils and staff worked together to design and create their Class Charters. Each class explored articles from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), discussing what these rights mean and how they can be experienced in everyday school life.
Pupil voice was central to the process. Children shared their ideas, listened to one another and helped decide which rights were particularly meaningful within their class. Together, they considered the rights-respecting actions that can help ensure everyone feels safe, included, respected and able to learn.
🗣️ Our Rights Link: Article 12
Every child has the right to express their views on matters that affect them and to have those views taken seriously.
Creating our charters gave pupils a meaningful opportunity to contribute to decisions about their classroom and helped develop their understanding that rights belong to every child.
Also Linking to Article 29: Goals of Education and Article 28: Right to Education
Article 29 tells us that education should help children develop their abilities and encourage respect for human rights and for others.
By creating and using our Class Charters, pupils are developing their understanding of rights, respect and how their actions can help create a positive, rights-respecting classroom.
Every child has the right to an education. Our Class Charters help us think about how we can create rights-respecting classrooms where everyone feels included, respected and able to learn.
More Than a Display
Our Class Charters are not simply something we create in September and place on the wall.
Throughout the year, we will return to them regularly during learning, discussions and reflection. They will help us talk about rights, recognise when rights are being respected and consider how our own actions can respect the rights of others.
As pupils’ understanding of the UNCRC continues to grow, our charters will remain a visible reminder that at St Francis’, children’s rights are something we learn about, talk about and experience every day.
This is just the beginning. Our Class Charters will grow with us as we continue our journey towards Gold. ⭐
📸 Class Charters in Action
Below are some snapshots of our pupils discussing, designing and creating their Class Charters.
🎨 Designing Our Rights Respecting Mascot
An Exciting New Challenge!
There was lots of excitement at our recent whole-school assembly when we launched our Rights Respecting Mascot Design Competition!
Pupils were introduced to the challenge of creating a mascot that will represent children’s rights and our journey towards Gold at St Francis’.
The children were full of enthusiasm and already had lots of creative ideas about what our mascot could look like and what it could represent.
We can’t wait to see their ideas come to life!
🗣️ Pupil Voice in Action
This is much more than a design competition. It is another opportunity for our pupils to have a voice in our Rights Respecting journey.
Our mascot will be designed by our pupils and will reflect their ideas about rights, respect, fairness and inclusion.
📖 Rights Link: Article 12
Article 12 of the UNCRC tells us that children have the right to express their views on matters that affect them and for those views to be taken seriously.
From creating the designs to helping choose our new mascot, pupil voice will be at the heart of the process.
🎨 Also Linking to Article 13: Freedom of Expression
Article 13 recognises children’s right to express their thoughts and ideas in different ways.
Through drawing, designing and explaining their mascot ideas, our pupils are using creativity to express what children’s rights, fairness and respect mean to them.
⭐ What Happens Next?
The competition is now underway and our pupils are busy getting creative!
Once all the entries are in, pupils will help choose the mascot that will represent our Rights Respecting journey across St Francis’.
We can’t wait to meet our new mascot! 🌟
🙏 Creating Our Rights Prayer
Bringing together our faith and our understanding of rights
As we continue our journey towards Gold, we want children’s rights to become part of everyday life at St Francis’.
During discussions with our Rights Ambassadors, we talked about different ways we could make rights more visible and meaningful across our school. Together, we felt that having our own Rights Prayer would give us a special opportunity to reflect on children’s rights through our Catholic faith and pray together as a school community.
💬 From Pupil Ideas to Our School Prayer
Primary 6 took on the challenge of helping to create our Rights Prayer.
The pupils discussed what they felt was most important to include and shared their own thoughts about respect, listening to others, equality, feeling loved and making sure the rights of every child are recognised.
Their ideas helped shape a prayer that belongs to our school and reflects what being Rights Respecting means to us at St Francis’.
🌟 Growing Our Understanding of Rights
Creating our prayer also gave pupils an opportunity to explore some important ideas about the UNCRC.
We are learning that rights are:
Universal
They belong to every child.
Unconditional
Children do not have to earn their rights.
Inalienable
Rights cannot simply be taken away.
Indivisible
All rights are important and work together.
We are also learning about duty bearers, the adults who have a responsibility to respect, protect and uphold children’s rights.
📖 Our Rights Link: Article 12
Article 12 tells us that children have the right to express their views on matters that affect them and for those views to be taken seriously.
From the initial conversations with our Rights Ambassadors to the ideas contributed by Primary 6, pupil voice played an important part in creating a prayer that can now be shared across St Francis’.
🙏 Our Rights Prayer
Our finished Rights Prayer will now be shared across the school, giving pupils and staff an opportunity to reflect together on our shared commitment to respecting the rights of every child.
💙 Making Rights Part of Who We Are
Our Rights Prayer is another step in making sure that children’s rights are not simply something we learn about. They are becoming part of the language, values and everyday life of St Francis’.
Every child. Every right. Every day. 🌟
🔎 Checking Our Understanding of Rights
Where are we now and where do we want to go?
As we begin our journey towards Gold, our Rights Ambassadors wanted to find out how well children across St Francis’ understand their rights.
Classes took part in a short Rights Check-In, exploring what pupils already know about the UNCRC and some of the important ideas that sit behind children’s rights.
We explored whether pupils could identify their rights, explain who has rights and begin to understand that rights are universal, unconditional, inalienable and indivisible. We also introduced the important role of adults as duty bearers.
🗣️ What Will We Do With What We Find Out?
Our Rights Ambassadors will use what we learn to help identify areas where we are already confident and areas where we need to develop our understanding.
Later in our journey, we will revisit the same questions to see how our knowledge and understanding have grown.
Learning, Growing and Moving Towards Gold
Our journey towards Gold is not about knowing everything at the beginning. It is about learning, reflecting and being able to show the difference our Rights Respecting work is making.
We are excited to see just how much our understanding will grow! ⭐
🏆 Meet Our Rights Respecting Mascot!
From Pupil Ideas to Our Winning Design
What an incredible response we had to our Rights Respecting Mascot Design Competition!
We were so impressed by the creativity, imagination and thought that went into the entries from across St Francis’. Our pupils really embraced the challenge, creating fantastic designs that reflected their ideas about children’s rights, respect, fairness and inclusion.
Choosing just one was certainly not easy!
🌟 And the Winner Is…
After the mascots considering all of the wonderful entries, we are delighted to reveal that our winning mascot was designed by one of our talented Primary 6 pupils!
Our winning design will now become the official Rights Respecting mascot for St Francis’ and will have a very special role to play as we continue our journey towards Gold.
A huge well done to our Primary 6 winner and to every pupil who took part. We were incredibly proud of the creativity and enthusiasm shown by everyone.
🗣️ Pupil Voice Made It Happen
From creating the designs to helping choose our winner, pupils have been at the heart of the process.
Our new mascot has been created by our pupils, for our school, and will help represent what children’s rights mean to us at St Francis’.
📖 Our Rights Links
Article 12: Respect for Children’s Views
Article 12 tells us that children have the right to express their views on matters that affect them and for those views to be taken seriously.
Our pupils had the opportunity to contribute their ideas and help choose the mascot that will represent our Rights Respecting journey.
Article 13: Freedom of Expression
Article 13 recognises children’s right to express their thoughts and ideas in different ways.
Through drawing and design, pupils were able to use their creativity to show what rights, respect, fairness and inclusion mean to them.
💙 What Happens Next?
This is only the beginning for our new mascot!
You will soon start to see our mascot appearing around St Francis’, helping us explore different UNCRC articles, share Rights Respecting messages and continue developing our understanding of children’s rights.
Keep your eyes open. Our new Rights Respecting friend might be popping up somewhere near you very soon! 👀⭐
🌍 Wildfires, Children’s Rights and the Global Goals
🔥 Primary 6 Exploring a Global Issue
Primary 6 have been learning about wildfires and exploring their causes, their impact and how they can affect people, communities and the environment.
Working in groups, pupils researched different aspects of wildfires and used their findings to create presentations. They then shared their presentations with others, developing their confidence while raising awareness of an important global issue.
🌍 Making Global Connections
As our learning developed, we began to explore how wildfires connect to issues affecting our wider world.
Pupils made connections to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly:
🌍 Global Goal 13: Climate Action
Taking action to tackle climate change and its impacts.
🌳 Global Goal 15: Life on Land
Protecting forests, ecosystems and biodiversity.
This helped pupils recognise that environmental issues can have an impact on people and communities across the world.
📖 Connecting Our Learning to Children’s Rights
Primary 6 also explored how wildfires can affect children and their rights.
We made connections to
Article 6: Life, Survival and Development
Wildfires can put lives, safety and children’s development at risk.
Article 24: Health
Smoke, extreme heat and unsafe conditions can affect children’s health and wellbeing.
Article 27: Adequate Standard of Living
Wildfires can affect homes, food, water and the places where children live.
Article 28: Education
Wildfires can damage schools, cause closures and disrupt children’s education.
Rather than simply identifying different articles, pupils were encouraged to think about how and why children’s rights might be affected.
🎤 Sharing Our Learning
After completing their research, Primary 6 presented their findings and shared what they had discovered about wildfires.
Through their presentations, pupils were able to explain the environmental impact of wildfires while also considering the effect they can have on children, their communities and their rights.
It was wonderful to see pupils confidently sharing their knowledge and helping others to learn more about this important global issue.
Primary 6 sharing their research and explaining how wildfires can affect people, communities and children’s rights.
💭 Thinking as Global Citizens
Our wildfire learning encouraged Primary 6 to look beyond our own school and consider the experiences of children and communities around the world.
By connecting their learning to the UNCRC and the Global Goals, pupils are developing their understanding that children’s rights are universal and that global issues can affect whether children are able to fully enjoy their rights.
💬 Pupil Voice
“Wildfires don’t just affect trees and animals. They can affect children’s homes, health and schools too.”
“We learned that children have the same rights wherever they live, but things like wildfires can make it harder for some children to enjoy those rights.”
“I didn’t realise climate change and children’s rights were connected before we did this topic.”
⭐ Know It. Live It. Act On It.
- Know It: We developed our knowledge of wildfires, the Global Goals and children’s rights.
- Live It: We considered why these rights matter to every child, everywhere.
- Act On It: We used our research and presentations to share our learning and raise awareness of an important global issue.
🎶St Francis’ Comes Alive with Music!
What a fantastic day of music at St Francis’!
Our whole school had the opportunity to take part in an exciting Create Music experience, filling our school with music, energy and creativity. Pupils had the chance to get involved, develop their musical skills, express themselves and, most importantly, enjoy making music together.
This was children’s rights in action! 🌟
🎵 Article 29 – Developing Talents and Abilities
Every child should have opportunities to develop their personality, talents and abilities. Our music sessions gave pupils across the school the chance to discover, develop and celebrate their musical talents.
🎭 Article 31 – Culture and the Arts
Every child has the right to take part in cultural and creative activities. From our youngest pupils to our oldest, everyone had the opportunity to experience the joy of music.
💬 Pupil Voice
“I liked getting to have a go and make music with everyone.”
🌍 Global Goal 4 – Quality Education
Quality education is about more than the classroom. Experiences like this give our pupils opportunities to be creative, build confidence, learn new skills and discover what they can do.
A brilliant whole-school experience and a wonderful example of rights and the Global Goals coming alive at St Francis’!
🌍💻 Connected by Code: P6 Goes Global!
Primary 6A and Primary 6B had a brilliant time taking part in the live micro: bit Big Birthday Code-Along.
We joined schools from across the world, including Australia, Spain and Hungary, all coding together at the same time. It was exciting to see just how many children from different countries were taking part in the same learning experience as us.
The challenge certainly put our coding skills to the test! Some parts were easier than others and there were definitely a few tricky moments, but pupils kept going, helped each other and enjoyed seeing their code come to life.
💬 What P6 Thought
“I loved it, but some bits were really hard!”
“I liked seeing all the other countries joining in.”
“It was really good when we finally got it to work!”
“The coding was tricky but fun!”
📖 Connecting Our Learning to Our Rights
We also discussed how our Code-Along linked to children’s rights.
We made a strong connection to Article 29: Goals of Education.
This tells us that education should help children develop their talents and abilities.
Through the Code-Along, we were developing our coding and digital skills, but we were also problem-solving, thinking creatively, persevering when things became difficult and helping one another.
Seeing children joining the same live event from so many different countries also helped us think about something we have been learning on our Journey to Gold: children’s rights are UNIVERSAL.
No matter where children live in the world, their rights belong to them.
🌍 Connecting to the Global Goals
We also discussed how our learning connected to the United Nations Global Goals.
Goal 4: Quality Education
Our Code-Along gave us an opportunity to learn new skills and develop our abilities. We talked about how children around the world should have opportunities to learn and experience a quality education.
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Coding and using our micro:bits also linked to technology and innovation. We developed skills that can help us create, design, solve problems and think about the technology of the future.
🌎 Learning Together
From St Francis’ to classrooms thousands of miles away, children around the world were learning together through code.
It was a fantastic way for P6A and P6B to develop their skills while also making connections between our learning, our rights and the wider world.
🗣️✨ You Asked… We Listened! Our Pupil Voice Box Is Here!
A Pupil Idea Brought to Life at St Francis’
Something exciting is happening at St Francis’, and it all started with an idea from our pupils! 🌟
During one of our Rights Respecting assemblies, we were talking about pupil voice and how children can share their views and ideas in school.
Our pupils came up with a brilliant suggestion:
💡 “Could we have a Pupil Voice Box?”
We thought it was a fantastic idea!
Our Rights Ambassadors then got to work, thinking about how the idea could become a reality and how the box could be used by pupils across St Francis’.
And now we are delighted to introduce…
🗣️ OUR PUPIL VOICE BOX!
💬 Got Something to Say? We Want to Hear It!
The Pupil Voice Box gives everyone another way to have their say.
Have you got a great idea?
Is there something you think could make our school even better?
Is there something you would like to change?
Or is there something happening at St Francis’ that you think is brilliant?
📖 Article 12 in Action
Our Pupil Voice Box is a great example of Article 12: Respect for Children’s Views coming to life at St Francis’.
Article 12 tells us that children have the right to express their views about matters that affect them and for those views to be taken seriously.
What makes our new Pupil Voice Box even more special is that the idea itself came from our pupils.
They shared their idea.
We listened.
Our Rights Ambassadors helped take the idea forward.
And now it is becoming part of our school! ⭐
👀 What Happens Next?
Our Rights Ambassadors will regularly check the Pupil Voice Box and look at the ideas and suggestions pupils have shared.
They will discuss the ideas and help us think about what we can take forward.
We might not be able to make every suggestion happen, but every idea can be listened to and considered.
We also want pupils to know what happens after they share their ideas, so look out for our updates:
🗣️ YOU SAID → 👂 WE LISTENED → ⭐ WE ACTED → 💙 THIS CHANGED
🌍 From Our Rights to the Global Goals
Our Pupil Voice Box also connects our Rights Respecting work to the United Nations Global Goals.
🌍 Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Goal 16 encourages inclusive and participatory decision-making, where people have opportunities to contribute and have their voices heard.
Our Pupil Voice Box is a great example of this in action at St Francis’.
The idea came directly from pupils during a Rights Respecting assembly. Their suggestion was listened to, our Rights Ambassadors helped turn their idea into action, and now pupils across the school will have another way to share their views and contribute to school life.
🗣️ Article 12 + 🌍 Goal 16
Pupils had an idea → We listened → Our Rights Ambassadors took action → Now even more pupil voices can be heard!
It is a fantastic example of how children’s rights and the Global Goals can work together to make a difference. 🌟
🌟 Now It’s Over to You!
Our pupils had the idea for the Pupil Voice Box.
Our Rights Ambassadors helped make it happen.
Now we need YOU to fill it with your ideas!
Keep an eye out for our new Pupil Voice Box in school and start thinking…
💭 What would you like to make even better at St Francis’?
Every Child. Every Right. Every Day. 💙
💙 Thank you for following our journey towards Gold!
The Rights Ambassadors 😊
