Together is an alliance of Scottish children’s charities that works to improve the awareness, understanding and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Category Archives: Participation
Recognising and Realising Children’s Rights
Education Scotland has been commissioned by Aileen Campbell MSP, Minister for Children and Young People, to develop a national professional development resource for adults working with children and young people.
What does the resource aim to do?
The resource aims to develop participants’ knowledge and understanding of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) with the purpose of promoting rights-based values, attitudes, skills and practices among those adults who have a duty of care for children and young people.
What is contained in the resource?
The interactive training resource includes all the relevant materials to deliver a one-day programme. This programme will have the greatest impact when delivered within a single training day, however the materials and the schedule for delivery should be adapted to suit local needs, capacity and contexts.
What will be covered in the training?
The broad components of the training programme include:
- Welcome and introduction to children’s rights
- What are rights, and why are they important today?
- History of children’s rights and the current context
- Familiarisation with the articles of the UNCRC
- Reflection and self-evaluation
- Next steps, implementation and sharing practice
- Supporting resources and further reading
Global Citizenship
Global citizenship brings together education for citizenship, international education and sustainable development education and recognises the common outcomes and principles of these three areas. All curriculum areas can contribute to developing the skills, attributes and knowledge that will create active global citizens.
Visit the Education Scotland pages on:
View the Global Citizenship blog
Learning for Sustainability
A One Planet Schools working group, chaired by Professor Peter Higgins from the University of Edinburgh, was established to provide strategic advice and direction to support the implementation of the manifesto commitment which states that:
“We welcome proposals for the creation of One Planet schools, and will look at ways of developing this concept. This will include action to continue the development of professional standards around sustainability education and leadership within our schools on environmental issues”.Learning for Sustainability – the report of the One Planet Schools Working Group, was published on 17 December 2012. Learning for Sustainability has been defined by the Group as:
A whole school approach that enables the school and its wider community to build the values, attitudes, knowledge, skills and confidence needed to develop practices and take decisions which are compatible with a sustainable and equitable society”.
Scotland has a distinguished history and international reputation recognised by UNESCO and others for sustainable development education, global citizenship and outdoor learning, which are firmly embedded within Curriculum for Excellence. Learning for sustainability encompasses all of these themes and approaches and sets out recommendations to build on successful practice in Scotland. The approach being recommended complements the General Teaching Council Scotland’s new Professional Standards which affirm the importance of values and learning for sustainability.
Visit the SG One Planet Schools page.
Do The Right Thing
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides the principles and values to which we all should aspire. In 2009 we published ‘Do the Right Thing’ – our response to the 2008 concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
This was a clear commitment by the Scottish Government to account for actions to further promote children’s rights. This document reports on the significant progress we have made since then and we will continue to demonstrate the importance we place on rights through future similar reports.
Rights Resource Pack
Aged 12 and over
Rights resource pack
A variety of resources to support young people aged 12 and over to know and understand their rights.
Workshops
Me and My Rights
Me and My Community
Me and My Learning
Me at Home
Me and My Scotland
How Much Do You Know
Creative extras
Improtate
Diary
Whole Group Role Play
Problem Page
Vox Pop
The Rights Factor
Newspaper Front Cover & Article
Monologue & Character Hot-seating
Campaign
Storyboard and Film-making
Additional materials
Resources for Children and Young People
The Commissioner and his team produce lots of reports and documents on issues that are important to children and young people in Scotland.
Some of the most useful can be found below. Get in touch if you are looking for help or information that you can’t find here.
Information leaflet
The Commissioner has made a leaflet to help children and young people discover what he does and how he can help them. Find out more.
Scottish Youth Parliament
The Scottish Youth Parliament is the democratically elected voice of Scotland’s young people. We are a young people’s parliament, designed by young people and led by young people for the benefit of young people. We are committed to ensuring young people are heard by the decision makers of Scotland and we are determined to campaign on the issues which matter most to Scotland’s youth.
Visit the SYP website for uptodate information, campaigns, events and resources.
Me + Us
Me + Us engages children in an exploration of what makes them unique and what connects them to others. Though their personal and group investigation children document their cultural identity, heritage and discover the meaning and experience of sectarianism in Scotland’s communities. Children work together to explore how we might make Scotland an inclusive nation; the best place to grow up. Every child produces a portrait and artist statement which reveals to their audience of peers and adults who they are.
For the past few months children in 6 Local Investigation Teams have been working on their Me + Us project. Check out the map below to see where the teams are based. Examples of their work can be seen in the Me + Us GALLERY
At the beginning of Me + Us workshops, the children shared their initial thoughts by interviewing each other for this video.
Me + Us Resource Pack
You are invited to use this pack to facilitate your own Me + Us project. Click on the Arrows to open panels where you can download the different PDF parts of the Resource Pack.
Participation Workers’ Network for Wales
The PWNW (Participation Workers’ Network for Wales) is a free service for supporting practitioners and organisations to promote participation through their work with children and young people.
The Network has the following core services:
- A public information area which includes essential information on participation and its development in Wales. The area is also updated with policy news and updates from strategic bodies in Wales.
- A private members’ area. The member’s area is free to join and holds contact details for all PWNW members. By joining members can share and search for examples of good practice from other members. Find out more in the PWNW area.
The Network has recently been redesigned and redeveloped to be easier to search and easier for members to add good practice. Find out more about the changes here.
The Children and Young People’s Participation Consortium for Wales, the Participation Unit and the Welsh Assembly Government’s Participation Project are working together to promote the participation of children and young people (0-25) in decision-making in Wales. We have developed a set of National Standards for participation that are relevant for all organisations who work with or have an impact on children and young people. Together we can ensure that all children and young people have a positive and meaningful experience of participation across Wales.
Children in Wales is a joint sponsor in the Reach the Heights project, supporting young people to gain skills for learning and employment through work experience and community based opportunities.
