We are proud to celebrate that we are a 
Rights Respecting School!
In May 2022, we received our Gold Rights Respecting School Accreditation. For our Gold Award, we have successfully evidenced that Rights Respecting is embedded throughout our school and wider community.
At St Aidan’s Primary School, we value working with our families and community to improve our children’s access to activities and involve everyone in their child’s education.
At present (May 2022), we are currently involved in our ‘Respect our Community’ Campaign which aims to help break the cycle of littering in our school and community, and also car idling in and around our school. The aim of our campaign is in response to Climate Change and we hope to encourage children and adults to reflect on their attitudes. Since young people’s attitudes and behaviours are shaped by those around them, it’s important to expose them to positive influences where they live, work, learn and socialise. As adults, we need to recognise and reconcile our role as important influencers of the younger generation.
Our next steps on our Rights Respecting journey are to :
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Involve parents and carers more in understanding children’s rights and
helping children to access their rights.
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Continue with pupil voice, especially in teaching, learning, and assessment.
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Develop more work around global citizenship
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Continue with our ‘Respect our Community’ Campaign.
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Initiate our ‘Perk up our Playground’ Campaign.
We will be sharing our journey to sustain gold and work on the above development points to continue to support our children and families. Please keep checking on our Twitter and School App for regular updates!
At St Aidan’s Primary School, we do lots of different activities to teach children about Rights and ensure that their Rights are realised by duty bearers (adults in school).
Within every nursery and primary class, the Dutybearers (Adults) and Rights Holders (Children), develop their own Class Charters. The children vote for a few Articles that they want to focus on respecting the Rights for. Here are some examples of Class Charters:
Children have learnt about the ABCDE of Rights. ABCDE of Rights mean that :
All children have Rights, children are born with their Rights, Rights cannot be taken away, they do not have to be earnt and all Rights are equal. Have a look at some posters the children have made :
The children of St Aidan’s Primary School have worked really hard to promote recycling of plastic waste in our dining hall, our school and within our local community. We wrote to Clare Adamson, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Motherwell and Wishaw Constituency to ask her to support us with our Campaign. Ms Adamson raised our campaign and parliament congratulated us on our success. Ms Adamson is keen to work closely with our school and be involved in our future campaigns.
St Aidan’s Primary children and staff have worked together to create an Ethos, Vision and Values which bring together a desire to understand and work with all the members of our community through and for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
We created a Rights Respecting Relationships Policy to replace our School’s Behaviour Policy. Our reason for this is that evidence gathered from schools participating in the RRSA suggests that when the values of the UNCRC underpin the ethos and curriculum of a school, they have a significant, positive impact on important aspects of child well-being and school improvement.
They also have a positive effect on the relationships, teaching approaches, attitudes and behaviour of everyone involved. UNICEF reports that teachers, children and parents have :
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Improved pupil self-esteem Pupils’ enhanced moral development
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Improved behaviour and relationships(reductions in bullying, exclusions and improved attendance)
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More positive attitudes towards diversity in society and the reduction of prejudice Pupils’ development as global citizens
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Overall school improvement (including learning environment and academic standards)
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Enhanced job satisfaction for teachers
(Taken from the Unicef briefing paper)
We aim to provide an enriching diverse curriculum that develops Global Citizens. We use assemblies, theme weeks/months and a variety of visits and visitors to support this curriculum offer. We evidence this on a ‘Rights Respecting’ Monthly wall, that all classes participate in.
Through the School Council, all children have the opportunity to express their views and be heard. Classrooms display charters, devised by the children, which explain the articles the children are working on that term.
All our displays are directly related to Rights Respecting Articles and through the children’s input, are bespoke to each class.
The Rights that the pupils have chosen as our School Charter, through pupil voice are:
Article 12
You have the right to give your opinion, and for adults to listen and take it seriously.
Article 19
You have the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated, in body and mind.
Article 23
You have the right to special education and care if you have a disability, as well as all the rights in the Convention, so that you can live a full life.
Article 24
You have the right to the best health care possible, safe water to drink, nutritious food, a clean and safe environment, and information to help you stay well.
Article 28
You have the right to a good quality education. You should be encouraged to go to school to the highest level you can.
Article 29
Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities. It should also help you learn to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people.
Article 31
You have the right to play and rest.
Article 37
No one is allowed to punish you in a cruel and harmful way.
Useful Links to learn more about Rights Respecting:
A Child’s Introduction To The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child
http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/sites/default/files/documents/coloring_book-1.pdf
UNICEF Child Friendly Summary on the Convention On The Rights Of The Child
http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publications/Child_friendly_CRC_summary_final.pdf
UNICEF Rights Respecting School Award Information
http://http://www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools/about-the-award/about-unicef/
