UNICEF Silver Rights Respecting Award

Rodborough Community Primary School has been accredited as a Silver Rights Respecting School by the UN agency for children, Unicef.

The award reflects the school’s commitment to promoting children’s rights and encouraging adults, children and young people to respect the rights of others.

Unicef said the status is “granted to schools that make good progress towards embedding the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into their ethos and curriculum”

The award recognises the learning and behaviours in our school that raise awareness of the rights for children.

The programme has been led by Deputy Head Gillian Messenger. Mrs Messenger said “We are so proud of our all Rights Ambassadors for working with Katelyn our assessor at UNICEF. They were very keen to share this with the whole school community to raise the profile of rights, fairness and inclusion”.  

Kaitlyn noted during the assessment “Pupils were clear that “duty bearers help children have their rights” and also attributed being safe and “making sure no one is left out” to having these rights. Pupil rights ambassadors, who were very clear on the concepts underpinning their rights, discussed how “lessons always start with rights” and how they “talk about if people know their rights.”

Pupil Ambassadors for each year group were chosen by their peers and they attend regular meetings acting as the voice of their cohort making suggestions and driving change.

“I’m happy to be a Rights Ambassador because it means I’m able to help look after people” said one pupil. Another stated “I knew a little bit about our rights but now I feel more confident talking about our rights to others, I know how to explain them better” Ambassadors feel that since becoming a Rights Respecting School, “Everyone knows more about their rights. We talk about our rights at the beginning of lessons” and “everyone is included”.