Rights Respecting School

Dallas Primary School: Rights Respecting School Award

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What is the Rights Respecting Schools initiative?

UNICEF UK’s Rights Respecting Schools initiative helps a school community to use the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to help develop a clear set of values that are actively upheld by pupils.

What does the award involve?

Schools involved in the Rights Respecting Schools Award work towards recognition that they have embedded children’s rights in their school’s practice and ethos.  Schools are required to implement four evidence-based standards that cover the leadership of the school, knowledge and understanding of children’s rights, ethos and relationships and the empowerment of children.  There are three levels to the Award:

  • Bronze: Rights Committed
  • Silver: Rights Aware
  • Gold: Rights Respecting

We have now achieved the Silver Award at Dallas Primary.

What are children’s rights?

All human beings – adults and children alike – are entitled to basic human rights.  Children have a particular set of rights due to their vulnerability and need for protection.  The UNCRC sets out the rights that must be realised for children to develop to their full potential, free from hunger and want, neglect and abuse.  These rights are not something that children need to earn or that adults and governments can take away as a punishment.  They contain the basic protection and support that all children are entitled to.  All children have the same rights, no matter what their background or where they live.  You can view the Parent Club Guide to Children’s Rights here.

What does the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child say?

The UNCRC consists of 54 articles that set out children’s rights and how governments should work together to make them available to all children.

Under the terms of the convention, governments are required to meet children’s basic needs and help them reach their full potential. Central to this is the acknowledgment that every child has basic fundamental rights. These include the right to:

  • Life, survival and development
  • Protection from violence, abuse or neglect
  • An education that enables children to fulfil their potential
  • Be raised by, or have a relationship with, their parents
  • Express their opinions and be listened to.

Articles 29 is particularly important for schools:

Article 29: Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.  It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment. We have designed our curriculum to ensure that this right is embedded in all we learn at Dallas Primary School.

How did we start our journey?

First of all we put the Rights Respecting Schools initiative onto our School Improvement Plan.  Then our teachers were taught about Rights Respecting Schools and talked about what we would have to do to become one.  We let parents know by sending information home in newsletters.

We gained our Recognition of Commitment (Bronze Award) in 2016.  We then achieved the Silver Rights Respecting School Award in 2018 and are working towards achieving our Gold Rights Respecting School Award to fully embed children’s rights throughout the school in our policies, practice and ethos.

Our rights Steering Group, consisting of pupils from P1-7, staff and parents, are working on the feedback from our Silver visit to make our school a Rights Respecting School.

How are things going?

We are having assemblies which teach about rights and the UNCRC. In class, children learn about rights and global goals linked to their learning.  Children are fully involved in creating a class agreement (charter) which establishes an agreed set of rights based principles for the classroom environment.

These are our current class charters.

To help all children understand that every child has these rights we wrote a song, which we recorded and posted on YouTube for others to hear. You will find this link here.

Children of the world, we should all be heard,
We should have the right, to sleep safe every night
Children everywhere, have the right to good health care
Be looked after and kept safe, believe in their own faith

We all have rights
We all have rights
We all have rights
These are our rights!

Children of our Earth, should have identity from birth
The right to go to school, be protected from all things cruel
Internationally, we have the right to be free
Clean water and food for all, no poverty at all

We all have rights
We all have rights
We all have rights
These are our rights!

Children every day, have the right to rest and play
The right to a safe home, nobody left alone
Children near and far, should be provided for
Their country should decide, these rights they must abide

We all have rights
We all have rights
We all have rights
These are our rights

These are our rights
These are our rights
These are our rights
These are our rights

We have also written a song about the Global Goals for Sustainable Development which can be viewed here.

To inspire a greater awareness and understanding of the power of children’s rights and the importance of having their voice heard, Learning for Sustainability (LfS) principles are intertwined in everything we do at Dallas Primary School.  P4-7 have annotated Education Scotland’s LfS Sketchnote to illustrate our LfS learning at Dallas, you can view this here.  We were also involved in supporting an Education Scotland learning resource on LfS, click here to view the video.

We already have lots of ‘Pupil Voice’ at our school, so our Pupil Councils are carrying on their good work, coming up with even more ideas to make our school a better place.

Our Rights Respecting School Steering Group is currently busy campaigning for a safer Dallas by speaking to Councillors and Moray Council about reducing the speed limit in the village.  They are also raising awareness of the importance of disposing of dog waste and keeping our play area clean and safe.  They are also planning an event for later in the school year to share our Rights Respecting journey with neighbouring schools.

All staff have been trained in restorative approaches to resolving issues and P6/7s have been trained as peer mediators to help maintain a safe and happy school where children understand and access their rights.

With staff, parents and pupils we have created an effective positive relationships policy which ensures our school is a lovely place to learn.  You will find the link here.

Where are we now?

We achieved our Silver Rights Respecting School award in 2018 and are ready to be assessed at Gold!

Rights are fully integrated into planning, learning and teaching and we hold parent and community events with a Rights or Global goals twist to spread the word.

Our pupils are very aware that some children in the world are being denied their basic rights and this has helped develop empathy, understanding and has begun to transform the way that children see themselves as global citizens.  As a school, we select a local, national and international causes to support each year.  More recently, we have expanded on this by taking action for change.

We hope to achieve our Gold Rights Respecting Schools status later this school year.

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