Rights Respecting School: Gold Level
We are thrilled to announce that Shotton Hall Primary School has recently achieved Gold Level in the Unicef Rights Respecting Schools programme.
This prestigious award is granted by Unicef UK to schools that have fully embedded children’s rights in their policies, practices and ethos.
Gold is the highest accolade awarded by Unicef UK and shows a deep commitment to ensuring children’s rights are respected in all aspects of school life. There are just over 500 schools in the UK who have achieved this standard.
This incredible achievement means that Shotton Hall Primary School has:
· Adopted a child rights approach based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
· Ensured all our children and adults have a thorough understanding of child rights and that these rights underpin every aspect of school life
· Encouraged our pupils to see themselves as global citizens who are advocates for social justice, fairness and children’s rights at home and abroad.
Rights Respecting School
On the 20th November 1989 the world made a set of promises for every child on earth. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international statement of all of those promises.
UNICEF protects and promotes those rights and the Rights Respecting Schools Award seeks to put the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of a school’s ethos and culture to make sure that every child is healthy, educated, treated fairly and listened to. They also make sure that all children are protected from violence, abuse and exploitation.
The Award recognises achievement in incorporating the Convention into a school’s planning, policies and practice. A Rights Respecting School teaches children’s rights and models rights and respect in all its relationships – between teacher / adults and pupils.
Being a Rights Respecting school has become part of our everyday school life and we are proud to have achieved Level 1 in July 2016, level 2 July 2018 and Gold level in July 2021.
How can parents support their child to learn about the Convention at home?
- Take the time to ask your child what he/she has learnt each week regarding children’s rights and how they may show respect for those rights.
- Discuss the ideas learned in class linked to the focus of the week, and try to think of examples from your own experiences, or from the media, of rights being respected or denied.
- Discuss how your child or your family can promote respect for rights, or help those whose rights have been violated.
- Model using rights and respect language with your children.
- Ask your child’s opinion on children’s rights.
- Enjoy working with your child and their Rights Respecting Teddy.
Classroom Charters
As part of our commitment to being a Rights Respecting School, we design and create our own classroom and playground charters at the beginning of each School academic year.
After discussing all of the articles, we pick those which were most important to us. Each class then creates their own charter based on the rights of a child and how we, as responsible citizens, can respect those rights. Both staff (duty bearers) and children understand their roles in following the charters.
Our School Charter is an agreement between children and adults (duty bearers) in our school. They are shared values and principles based on the CRC. The children chose UNCRC articles which they felt was important to us. We then have agreed actions between all of the children and adults to ensure the rights can be realised and enjoyed by everyone.
The Rights Respecting Rangers, led by Mrs Habicht
Our wonderful Rights Respecting Rangers meet every half-term with Mrs Habicht to talk about how children’s rights are taught and respected in school. They have a huge job to do! They provide feedback on how discussions about rights are woven through every aspect of school life: from the books we read and the subjects we study in class to the way we play together outside. This year, our Rights Respecting Rangers helped the school achieve Gold Level in the Unicef Rights Respecting Schools Programme. There are fewer than 600 schools in the whole of the UK who have achieved this standard, so this was a fantastic achievement. The assessor was amazed at the knowledge, commitment and enthusiasm of our Rights Respecting Rangers.
