UNICEF Rights Respecting School

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

What is the Rights Respecting School Award?

The Rights Respecting School Award (RRSA) is an initiative run by UNICEF UK, which encourages schools to place the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the heart of its ethos and curriculum.

To achieve this award, staff, parents and pupils need to have an understanding of the Articles which make up the Convention and know how they can use these articles in their daily lives.

For further information, please see

https://www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools/

To enable school to achieve this award, we will be:

Teaching the children the Articles and the meaning of them;
Working with the children to promote the Articles in a way that is meaningful to them;
Displaying the Articles around school and in classrooms to reinforce the meaning;
Talking about the Articles in lessons such as PSHE, Topic, English and whenever they can link to the subject being taught;
Including the aims of the Convention in our policies;
Sharing the values of the Convention through our assemblies.

What are the Articles?

https://www.unicef.org/rightsite/files/uncrcchilldfriendlylanguage.pdf

How can it make a difference?

The Unicef UK Rights Respecting Schools Award supports schools across the UK to embed children’s human rights in their ethos and culture.

The Award recognises achievement in putting the UN Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of a school’s practice to improve well-being and help all children and young people realise their potential.

The award is based on principles of equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination and participation. The initiative started in 2006 and schools involved in the Award have reported a positive impact on relationships and well-being, leading to better learning and behaviour, improved academic standards and less bullying.

What are we doing at Beeches Junior School?

We are reaching for the stars and going for the Gold award. To achieve this gold status, we must:

Explicitly adopt a child rights approach based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and has embed it in school policy, practice and culture.
Have a thorough understanding of child rights, and rights respecting attitudes and languages embedded across the school. Every adult and child has to know this
See that RRSA has had a positive impact on children and young people’s learning and wellbeing.
See ourselves as rights respecting global citizens and are advocates for social justice, fairness and children’s rights at home and abroad.

We currently look at different articles for daily starter and discuss how they impact us and children around the world. The articles will also be incorporated into our PSHE sessions to enable a thorough discussion and understanding. It is also really important for children to discuss these articles with a grown-up at home to promote a deeper knowledge throughout our school community.