What is the Rights Respecting Schools Award?
The charity UNICEF has an initiative, which it runs based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This is the Rights Respecting School Award (RRSA). This award is aimed at developing awareness, within the school community, of the articles within the UNCRC and ensure all pupils within the school and community are receiving these rights. The award scheme started in 2004 and runs throughout Early Years Centres and Primary and Secondary schools throughout the UK.
“The Rights Respecting Schools Award puts children’s rights at the heart of schools in the UK.” (https://www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools/the-rrsa/about-the-rrsa/)
The RRSA is made up of 3 levels of achievement – Bronze, Silver and Gold. It is with great pride we announce that we have been awarded our Silver Level Rights Respecting School Award! Thank you to all our pupils, staff and community who helped us get here, especially Mrs McBirnie for spearheading our journey.
What Is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?
The UNCRC sets out statements of children’s rights. There are 54 articles which cover all areas of children’s lives and sets out the rights that all children are entitled to. The Convention came into force in the UK in 1992.
What do schools have to do to become a Rights Respecting School?
In order to achieve the levels of the Rights Respecting School Award we have to show we are committed to placing the rights of the child at the centre of everything we do. Together with the children and school community we need to learn about rights and plan the best ways to put them into practice.
When ready to go for each level of the award UNICEF UK will assess the school and provide feedback on their progress. We use the feedback we receive along with out own audit and steering group feedback to plan and implement Action Plans of work to ensure the embedding of rights within the school community.
Mrs McBirnie leads our Rights Respecting School work, however, all pupils and staff are involved in the process and contribute to the decisions and actions taken.
Why do we want to be a Rights Respecting School?
- Better Relationships – Through striving to achieve the award pupils, staff and the school community develop relationships of mutual respect and everyone’s opinion has equal value.
- Happier Children – Children develop their self-esteem and wellbeing through promoting the values identified in the UNCRC.
- Active Participants in School – Through embedding the UNCRC, children are involved in the decision making progress and are part of the decisions made about their learning and wellbeing.
- Promotes Global Citizenship – Children learn about issues affecting children around the world and are able to raise awareness at home and in their community. They discover ways they can help others get the rights with which they are entitled and bring about change.
What are we doing to embed the UNCRC in our school?
As part of our work towards receiving the different levels of this award Mrs McBirnie worked with her RRS committee to create an Action Plan detailing the work that they would do to embed the rights within the school. Each room has their own class charter with the rights they felt were most important to them displayed and referred to. We have also linked the rights to our school values to show they are a core part of our school community. We have assemblies with Mrs Murphy where she includes work on the rights and also it is covered during our classwork. The teachers have the articles linked to their Health and Wellbeing planners and so can link their teaching to rights.
Wear What Makes You Happy
On the 10th of October 2022 we celebrated World Mental Health Day by wearing what makes us happy. This coincided with our first Whole School Play day and allowed us to celebrate and promote the importance of play in the mental wellbeing of children.
We are continuously working to promote the UNCRC in the school and hope to continue our work through further training for staff and pupils and implementing the rest of our action plan.
Please support us in our journey to becoming a Rights Respecting School. Talk to your children about what they know and are learning about the UNCRC. Ask how you can help and be part of our school community as we work together to achieve our Rights Respecting Award.
Further information can be found on UNICEF UK’s website which can be found by clicking the image below:
