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!