We are extremely proud to announce that St Brendan’s RC Primary School has been awarded the prestigious UNICEF GOLD Rights Respecting Schools Award and is currently (Sep 2022) the only school in the North West of England to do so.This Award recognises achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of a school’s planning, policies and practice. A Rights Respecting School is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted.Well done and thank you to all of the pupils, parents, governors and staff who have supported us in our journey to attaining gold!
What is an RRSA 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.
These rights try 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.
“Rights” are things every child should have or be able to do. All children have the same rights. These rights are listed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
A Rights Respecting ethos is at the heart of everything we do at St Brendan’s helping us to ‘be the best we can be’. The Gold Award is the highest stage of the Rights Respecting Schools Award. It is granted by Unicef UK to schools that have fully embedded children’s rights throughout the school in its policies, practise and ethos.
RRSA School Steering Group
We have a Rights Respecting School Steering Group that work to ensure every member of our school community is aware of children’s rights. As a Rights Respecting School we are able to place the rights of each child at the heart of our school ethos.
Our Steering Group is represented by each year group across school. The purpose of the Steering Group is to provide a voice for the children of St Brendan’s School. They meet regularly and are proactive in improving life for children in the school by raising concerns that have arisen from discussions within their class. We respect the views and contributions made by our school Steering Group and aim to use these to make improvements to the school whenever possible. The School Steering Group are excellent at identifying local, national and global issues that are important to them and tackling them.
RRSA Class Charters
Each class also has their own class charter which has been drawn up by the children to state their rights and how they can be respected by pupils (rights-holders) and adults (duty-bearers). Here are some examples of our class charters:
Learning about Rights
Article 42: You have the right to know your rights!
The Rights Respecters have been taking an active role in ensuring the whole school have a good understanding of their rights. During a recent assembly, they presented a PowerPoint to the whole school.
Please click here to view their assembly power point
Road Safety Awareness
Article 24: You have the right to a safe environment and information to help you stay well.
As part of Road Safety week, each class discussed the importance of road safety and what we need to do to make sure we stay safe when near roads. We designed posters and ……
Online Safety Event
Article 19: You have the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated, in body or mind.
A big thank you to all our parents, relatives and carers who took the time to attend our Online Safety drop in the last half term. Many found the information available via https://info.nationalonlinesafety.com/ very helpful when supervising their child online.
Friendships – Super Hero Day
Article 15: You have the right to choose your own friends.
Our Rights Respecters presented an amazing assembly about the true meaning of friendship and what it means to be a good friend. Each class created their own Super Hero friend, selecting all the special “powers” that are needed to be a good friend. Each class worked throughout the day on different activities and thought about the qualities needed as well as different emotions and feelings our actions can cause.
Article Art Work
Our Rights Respecters organised for all classes to have an article focus to promote children’s rights across the school. Each class created a piece of artwork based on one of the 54 articles
Article 42 – Everyone must know children’s rights
Our Children enjoyed creating posters at home to celebrate their rights. It was lovely for the children to work with their families and talk about their rights.
Article 24 – Health and health services
Every child has the right to the best possible health. Governments must provide good quality health care, clean water, nutritious food, and a clean environment and education on health and well-being so that children can stay healthy. Our children created “eyes” using recycled materials to let our Government know that our eyes are on them when making important decisions about their future at the climate conference COP 26.
