Birkbeck Primary School

Rights Respecting

 

What is a Rights Respecting School?

A Rights Respecting School is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted.

In September 2017, we started our mission to become a Rights Respecting School. Since then we have gone from strength to strength. We have achieved silver level in January 2020 and are working towards gold level. Silver: Rights Aware Achieved - Rights Respecting Schools Award

We have worked with the whole school community; staff, children, parents, and visitors to develop a shared understanding of United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

What is the Award?

The Unicef UK Rights Respecting School Award (RRSA) is based on principles of equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination and participation. These work alongside our school values: Respect, Equality and Resilience. UNICEF UK

The RRSA seeks to put the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of a school’s ethos and culture; to improve well-being and develop every child’s talents and abilities to their full potential.

Young people and the school community learn about children’s rights by putting them into practice every day.

A rights-respecting school not only teaches about children’s rights but also models rights and respect in all its relationships across the school community.

Why teach about rights?

Children develop a sense of self-respect and self-worth whilst also learning how to respect the rights of others. They learn that adults have a duty towards upholding children’s rights.

What do we mean by rights?

These are not the same as ‘wants’. The children are encouraged to learn the difference between a want and a need and develop an understanding of how the UNCRC enables children and young people to gain access to all the things they need to help them develop into happy and healthy adults and that they have rights to protect them.

Click on the link below to find out more about RRSA:

Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA)

The link below provides a fact sheet detailing all the Articles in the UNCRC:

UNCRC Articles

What are we doing to promote rights at Birkbeck?

Every child and every adult is aware of the UNCRC and of our work towards achieved RRSA. Rights run through the ethos of everything we do in every part of the school.

We have an elected group of school ambassadors. The ambassadors help to uphold and  School ambassadors ensure that children’s views are listened to and that children have a role in decisions that affect their daily lives in school.promote children’s rights across the school. They ensure that children’s views are listened to and that children have a role in decisions that affect their daily lives in school. The Year 6 Ambassadors meet every week and sometimes attend staff and governors meetings.

Every class has a class charter which outlines the rights which are being reflected in the classrooms and in other places such as the hall, Breakfast and After school clubs, Nurture room, playground. The charters show what children and adults will do to ensure these rights are upheld.

Every week we have a dedicated rights assembly during which the UNCRC is promoted in terms of local, national, global, historical and cultural events and news items.

Our school curriculum has been designed to reflect UNCRC and teachers strive to find opportunities to teach through rights in lessons for all subjects including, specifically, through literacy, history, RE, PE and PSHE.

We pride ourselves on our work to raise funds to support local, national and global charities and are beginning our journey to become global citizens.As a school, we have close links within our community, such as with local care homes, places of worship, retailers and regularly take part in community events. We also pride ourselves on our work to raise funds to support local, national and global charities and are beginning our journey to become global citizens.

Our governing body and parent groups support our work towards UNCRC and become actively involved in promoting rights during meetings and events.