Rights Respecting Schools Award Update

Rights Respecting Schools Award Update

This term, we have started working towards the RRSA Silver Award: Rights Aware. This means ensuring that everyone in the school community is aware of Children’s Rights and embedding Rights into everything we do at school.

The Steering Group met before Christmas, and decided that the three Rights they want to focus on this half term are

• Article 28: Access to Education
• Article 23: Children with Disabilities
• Article 24: Health, water, food, environment

The Steering Group are currently preparing for our RRSA Assembly at the end of this month, when they will be teaching students the difference between Rights Holders (the students) and Duty Bearers (the adults around them, including parents, carers and teachers). They will also be ensuring that everyone understands the ABCDE of Rights. These are the fundamental principles that underpin Children’s Rights.

In addition to our assembly, we are starting to increase awareness of rights in our school community by putting up posters of different rights around the school, in appropriate places. For example, when students are around the playground equipment, they will see that they are enjoying Article 31: The Right to Rest, Play, Relax and when they go to ICT, they will see that they are enjoying Article 17: The Right to Access Information and Media.

We all have lots to learn, but we are excited to ensure that our students do know about, and can enjoy, all their Rights. If you would like to know more about the RRSA Award and the UN Convention of Children’s Rights, you can find out more here https://www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools or contact our RRSA co-ordinator liz.holop@thevalley.herts.sch.uk.