Holmston rights respecting ambassadors are campaigning for everyone to get behind Earth Hour 2018!  At 8.30pm on Saturday 24 March 2018, hundreds of millions of people across the world will be switching off their lights and coming together to celebrate Earth Hour!

As part of our work towards the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, our Holmston ambassadors are excited to get as many people as possible ‘switching off’.

Today our planet faces a very uncertain future.  We have a vital role to play in achieving a more sustainable world and, by taking part in WWF’s Earth Hour, we can make a promise to protect it for future generations. WWF

Holmston Hour – Friday 23rd March 1.30 – 2.30pm

Our RRS team have arranged a ‘Holmston Hour’, where every class will switch off all technology and lights!  The RRS ambassadors are preparing activities and ideas for all classes to complete during the hour.  Today,  they have been busy making posters to display around the school.  Caiden and Amy worked hard to create a presentation to share at assembly.  Bailey and Aaron gathered some excellent ideas to share with teachers!

Please spread the word and help us to get as many people as possible joining in during EARTH HOUR 2018!

 

More information can be found at the link below

https://www.wwf.org.uk/get-involved/schools/school-campaigns/earth-hour-schools

 

A ‘snapshot’  of a Rights Respecting Ambassador Meeting.

Here are some notes from our meeting from today! We are so busy and enjoying every minute!

• • Playground Charters Orla, Ariella and Keren volunteered to arrange unveiling of playground charters on Friday 9^th of March. Consult with Mr Hardy to arrange timings. Write note for inclusion in Fairtrade parents afternoon letter (completed, girls to get confirmation of timings on Wednesday from Miss P)
  • Rights Respecting Playground Amy, Poppy and Rubi suggested creating a PowerPoint for Friday assembly about school values and respecting these in the playground (completed and permission given from Mr H to share on Friday)
  • What is Happening Here? Caiden and Toby writing article for newsletter and collecting quotes from pupils and staff. (completed and article to be sent by Mrs T)
• Community Builders Mrs Pinkerton visiting us on 15^th March to talk about raising awareness of rights in our community (shared with group)

Earth Hour Ideas (24^th March 2018)

• Holmston Hour (no lights/ technology in classes for full hour on Friday 23^rd March. Shared
• Posters made by Sophie, Abbie, Isla, Bailey and Arran (completed, will be displayed)
• Group to give presentation to whole school about Earth Hour, taking part and it’s benefits. Keren, Orla and Arianna arranging speaking parts (not finished)
• We are part of a CAMPAIGN! Exciting!
• Dinner Hall Charter – no time

Minutes by Keren and Mrs Taylor

Wow!  What a lot of hard work!  See you all next week.

The Rights Respecting Committee have been working very hard to create a charter for the infant playground. We have met the past two Tuesdays to come up with ideas and designs that would  be eye catching and effective.

We started by reading through all of the rights and articles and voting on what rights and rules that we thought would be best for the infant playground. After we picked our top 6 rules and articles, we all drew our own design ideas onto paper.  Some of these ideas were:

A monkey in a tree throwing fruit with the rules and articles on them , a dog with two bowls, two boats, a swimming pool with splashes with the rules and articles written on them, the planets and stars, a bear with  two paw prints, the school building, a school bus, a Dalmatian, a bow and a pencil and paper, all with the right and rules written on them. We have kept all of the design ideas for our folder because they were all so good!

 

We showcased our ideas and then had a vote for which two design ideas we liked the best. We all agreed on the stars and planets idea. We all drew and designed a planet or stars for our banner.

Here are the reactions of the Rights Respecting Group when the final banner design was revealed to the group.

Bailey:  “It looks amazing!”

Amy:  ” When I first saw it, it looked very bright for the younger ones.”

Rubi: ” It is bigger than the upper playground so that you can see it more clearly.”

Isla;  “It’s amazing.”

Poppy: ” It is very bright and colourful, we can fly to the rights.”

Orla W: ” It meets it’s purpose to have the rights and rules for the infant playground.”

Toby: “It has amazing detail in it.”

Abbie: ” I love it!”

Caiden was very funny when he said, ” it is out of this world!”

William: “Maybe a spaceman could go up there in a rocket and find some stars with rules on them.”

Sophie: “We did a lot of teamwork and at the end, it looked great!”

We even came up with a catchphrase related to our charter – we pretended to be astronauts and shouted ‘SUPER!’

Here are some pictures of our finished charter along with our Rights Respecting Group.  There are also some pictures of us with funny faces too!

 

Today, the whole school had a Rights Respecting Day of Celebration.  In the morning our RRS Ambassadors presented an assembly to all the classes and teachers.  We were quite nervous but excited at the same time, by the time we had finished the assembly we were very proud of ourselves.  Visitors from Alloway Primary kindly came to talk to us about what they had been working on at their school.  We would like to thank Chris, Rachael, Olivia and Miss Currie for sharing your experiences as you worked towards your Gold Award.

We worked with Mrs Hunter to look at photographs and share what we saw, thought and wondered.  We then tried to link the photographs to the correct articles from the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Primary 5, 6 and 7 worked on creating an upper playground charter with Miss Gunning.  We made a diamond nine with the rights we thought were the most important for the playground.  We shared our ideas about how to respect the chosen rights through drawings and designs.  The Primary 7 pupils all designed a charter, and voted to decide which one we should use.  We’re hoping to be able to display our playground charter somewhere outside for everyone to see!

Mrs Shanta and Mrs Messner worked with the Primary 5,6 and 7 to draw illustrations for all the rights.  We will use these to display children’s rights all-over our school!

Written by Sophie, Grace, Katie and our P7 RRS Ambassadors Kerin, Erin and Orla

The whole school rotated around different classrooms to complete activities focussing on the rights of the child.

Dinner Hall Charter

Primary 2, 3 and 4 worked with Miss Dixon and Mrs Messner to talk about the articles from the CRC that were most important in our Dinner Hall. The pupils talked about how we could respect these rights during lunch-time. The Holmston RRS Ambassadors will use all of the ideas gathered to create a Dinner Hall Charter.

SHANARRI

The pupils from Primary 2, 3 and 4 worked with Miss McKenzie to explore the difference between wants and needs. They worked in groups to sort different items into three main categories – Very Important, Not Very Important and Not Important.

After this, the pupils learned a fun new SHANARRI song to help them understand everything that is necessary for children and young people to reach their full potential.

Wants and Needs

The lower school pupils worked with Miss Pollock to explore the difference between wants and needs. The talked about all the essential things children and young people need to survive and reach their full potential. They shared their ideas on an outline of a child, with needs on the inside and wants around the outside

RIGHTS RESPECTING SCHOOL AWARD

UNICEF works with thousands of schools across the UK to put children’s rights at the heart of their practice and ethos. The Rights Respecting Schools Award recognises achievement in putting the UN Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC or CRC) into practice in schools to improve well-being and help all children and young people realise their potential.

At Holmston we have already achieved our Level 1 (Silver) Award. We are now going for our Gold Award!

The Gold Award is the highest level granted by Unicef UK to schools that have fully embedded children’s rights in their policies, practice and ethos as outlined in these four standards.

Standard A: Rights-respecting values underpin leadership and management

Standard B: The whole school community learns about the CRC

Standard C: The school has a rights-respecting ethos

Standard D: Children and young people are empowered to become active citizens and learners

We can’t wait for the year ahead as we work towards achieving our Gold Award!