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: Culture, Values & Ethos
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.
UNCRC: The foundation of Getting It Right For Every Child
Scottish Ministers are committed to promoting the GIRFEC approach and way of working. Legislation is proposed for introduction to parliament this year to ensure that the key elements of the approach have a statutory foundation. The attached paper has been produced with the aim of helping to understand better the relationship with UNCRC and how the application of GIRFEC will progress respect for the rights of each individual child and young person across Scotland.We want children and young people to experience public services that place them at the centre of what they do. Scotland has a proud track record in promoting
the welfare of children and young people. The establishment and development of the children’s hearings system is a clear testimony to that. Extending the new way of working across all services and for all children and young people with a focus on improving wellbeing takes that commitment– and challenges – to a new level. Achieving such change will take time but we have taken some of the first big steps on the journey.
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
Rights Resource Pack
Aged 11 and under
Rights resource pack
A variety of resources to support children under 11 years old to know and understand their rights. Continue reading Rights Resource Pack
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.
