By Travis Watson

 

The Rights Respecting School Award is an initiative run by UNICEF UK which encourages schools to place the UNCRC at the heart of its ethos and curriculum. A Rights Respecting School not only teaches about children’s rights; it also models rights and respect in all its relationships, whether between children or between children and adults. 

In the UK, there are nearly 4,800 schools that are involved in the Rights Respecting School Award, which ensures that all children are entitled to rights and know what is right and wrong, in that school. One of these schools is mine – Notre Dame High School in Greenock. 

Our school has rules to ensure that adults must respect our rights and vice versa, as well as kids should also be caring about each other. We all agree that we must respect everyone’s rights equally. 

We learn that we should not only respect the rights of our classmates but also the rights of the teachers too. We signed to agree that everyone’s rights will be respected, and we accept our responsibilities in School. 

I feel that Rights respecting School is very interesting because pupils can voice their opinion. I am grateful that I can speak my mind as I know that there are other parts of the world where children and adults don’t have these rights.