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: Respecting Views of CYP
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
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.
Children’s Parliament
Children’s Parliament gives children the opportunity to voice their ideas, thoughts and feelings so that their concerns and opinions can be listened to and included in our social and political landscape.
Children’s Parliament gives ideas a voice.
The Children’s Parliament works with children from birth to 14 years old. This also means engaging with their families, schools and communities.
We use the creative arts and have developed a thematic and holistic approach. We develop open and honest relationships with children; valuing their worth
and their views.
We create opportunities for children to feel safe, challenged and trusted.
By offering children the tools with which to develop and communicate their own opinions we also provide adults with a unique, valuable insight into the concerns and hopes of today’s children.
Their passions and concerns are important. Children are experts in their own lives and we can use the information they share with us to help make Scotland a great country to grow up in.
Visit the Children’s Parliament website.
View Children’s Parliament’s ‘Seen+Heard’ brochure.
Email: info@childrensparliament.org.uk | Tel: 0131 558 9030
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.
PWNW – Measuring Children and Young People’s Participation
The National Children and Young People’s Participation Standards for Wales have been developed to improve the process of children and young people’s participation in decision-making. The Participation Standards measure the ‘quality’ of the process of children and young people’s participation against key agreed indicators.
In addition to measuring the process, it is important to assess the outcomes and the changes that have occurred as a result of children or young people’s participation.
Visit the PWNW Standards website.
Continue reading PWNW – Measuring Children and Young People’s Participation
Children’s Rights in Wales
Huge resource to support local practitioners, policy makers, managers and strategists develop their understanding of children’s rights and how to adopt a children’s rights perspective to their work.
Full training presentations with guidance for CYP, professionals from many multi-agency partners, parents and elected members.
