Today we had so much fun in our class.  Our class teacher set us a task to experience what it would be like to be a palaeontologist.

Task: Using a cocktail stick and a chocolate chip cookie (the chocolate chips being the dinosaur fossils), we had to dig out every fossil without breaking the cookie otherwise we weren’t allowed to eat the cookie. Everyone in the class managed to dig out their fossils without breaking the cookie.

Lucy said ‘it was the best day ever’

Cristian & Joseph said ‘we loved it’

Aaron Mc, Finlay and Jamie gave it a thumbs up!

At Bankton Primary School, we have achieved our Level 1 UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Accreditation (RRSA) and are working hard to gain our Level 2 Status.

At Bankton, we have put the values and principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the heart of our school ethos and within the curriculum.  We aim for the children to demonstrate an awareness of their rights, show how they can respect each other’s rights, and show awareness of the the world around them.  We hope that they can make informed decisions about their learning, health and well-being and become rights-respecting global citizens.

We aim to achieve this by embedding these ‘Rights’ into the curriculum in different ways …

For example …

• by children working in vertical learning groups (lessons based on different articles from the Rights of the Child)
• teaching the children about global issues
• linking the learning with a particular article
• fundraising
• working on special learning ‘weeks’ such as Eco schools and fair trade fornight

Here is a short video explaining more about the rights that children have!

Here is some information explaining more about UNICEF and the Convention for the Rights of the Child.

What is a Rights Respecting School?

UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Fund, is the world’s leading organisation for children. Their work is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which outlines the rights of every child regardless of who they are and where they live, to grow up safe, happy and healthy.

The Convention

The Convention has 54 articles that cover all aspects of a child’s life and set out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that all children everywhere are entitled to. It also explains how adults and governments must work together to make sure all children can enjoy all their rights.

Here is a link to the articles – http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publications/Child_friendly_CRC_summary_final.pdf

http://www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools/about-the-award/what-is-rrsa/

Classroom Charters/ displays and vertical learning groups

At the beginning of year each class decided on the rights which they felt were important within their own classroom and created their own class charter. The charter helped the children to understand the role they play in upholding their rights and those of others.  Classrooms and corridor displays have got the linking articles displayed next to them. This helps the children to become familiar to the language of the Rights. Our vertical learning groups aim to teach the children about the rights directly and they get the chance to work with children from other classes.

I hope this gives you more information about the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and we do have leaflets in reception which give more information which you can take away with you.

Thank you,

Miss Amy Rodford