Rights Respecting Schools
UNICEF Rights Respecting School Award
At Hurst Knoll, children’s well-being is at the heart of everything we do. We aim to help our children grow into confident, caring, and responsible young people- both in school and in the wider world.
We’re proud to be working towards our Silver Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA), which recognises schools that put the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the core of their values and everyday life.
A Rights Respecting School is a community where children's rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted.
If you have any questions about the Rights Respecting School Award, or the UNCRC Articles our children are learning about, please feel free to get in touch. I'm always happy to talk about the work we’re doing! Mrs Caffrey
More information on the Rights Respecting School Award can be found through the link below.
What is the UNCRC?
The UNCRC stands for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It’s an international agreement that protects the rights of all children, everywhere in the world. It was created in 1989 and has been signed by almost every country. UNICEF played a huge role in shaping and promoting the UNCRC.
The UNCRC includes 54 articles that set out the basic rights all children should have - such as the right to be safe, to learn, to be healthy, and to have their voices heard.
Here are the resources we use and refer to with the children at school.
ABCDE of Rights
When children and young people learn about their rights it is important that deeper connections are also made in their understanding about the nature of rights.
Rights are for all children and young people throughout the world (universal), are there at birth (inherent), cannot be taken away (inalienable), do not come with any conditions attached to them (unconditional) and are all equally important (indivisible).
Whilst there is not an expectation that children and young people necessarily know the actual words that define these features of rights, it is important that they understand the meaning of them. ABCDE of Children’s rights’ is one way that can help children learn about the nature of rights.
Our Rights Ambassadors
We are extremely proud of our Rights Ambassadors here at Hurst Knoll. This dedicated group of children play a key role in leading our Rights Respecting Schools work, with support from adults across the school.
They volunteer their time to attend half-termly meetings, where they help make sure we are doing all we can to promote and protect children’s rights across school life. Their work includes:
- Helping to plan and deliver assemblies
- Being part of pupil voice in decision-making
- Contributing to our school action plan
- Encouraging other pupils to understand and respect rights