UNICEF Rights Respecting School

What is a UNICEF Rights Respecting School?

Unicef works with schools in the UK to create safe and inspiring places to learn, where children are respected, their talents are nurtured and they are able to thrive. The Rights Respecting Schools Award embeds these values in daily school life and gives children the best chance to lead happy, healthy lives and to be responsible, active citizens. The Award recognises a school’s achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into practice within the school and beyond.

There are four key areas of impact for children at a Rights Respecting school; wellbeing, participation, relationships and self-esteem. The difference that a Rights Respecting School makes goes beyond the school gates, making a positive impact on the whole community.

There are three levels to the Award:

Bronze: Rights Committed

Silver: Rights Aware

Gold: Rights Respecting

“Ozzie Owl” supports our UNICEF work

2019 - Bronze Award - Rights Committed

In 2019 we began our journey towards becoming a Rights Respecting School. December 2019 saw us achieve the first of the 3 awards – Bronze: Rights Committed.

Our Junior Leadership Team (JLT) of 20 members worked very hard to establish the opinions of pupils within school, and to make sure that those opinions were listened to by the adults in school.

2021 - Silver Award - Rights Aware

Our work towards Silver has seen our JLT focus on kindness in school and looking at how we can help people who have worries. As a school we have looked at many of the rights in the UN convention in our classes to help with our understanding of children’s rights.

We met with our Assessor in June 2021 and were successful in achieving our Silver award.

We are now a 'Rights Aware' school!

What's next?

In September 2021 we began our challenge to achieve Gold – Rights Respecting. We are learning about Duty Bearers and Rights Holders in the form of class charters.

We hope to have achieved our Gold award by the end of the Summer term in 2023.