Rights Respecting School Award

What is a Rights Respecting School?

Cleveland is a UNICEF Rights Respecting (Silver award) School.

This means that we are committed to children’s rights being at the core of everything we do. This accreditation means that we are a school that champions the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child and have embedded the principles of the Convention into school through our ethos, policies and curriculum. Our Rights Respecting work is at the heart of our ethos and culture to improve well-being and develop every child’s talents and abilities to their full potential.

A rights-respecting school is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted. Young people and the school community learn about children’s rights by putting them into practice every day. The language of rights is used throughout the day between parents, children and members of staff to increase awareness and ensure that everyone is safeguarding and promoting them.

We teach children about the importance of becoming Global Citizens and ensure that they learn about world events. Furthermore, we take time to teach our children about developing their full potential and ensure that they learn about people who don’t have access to their rights. We have always been an inclusive and caring school but this award has helped to link much of the great work that already goes on at Cleveland.

A summary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC):-

• The Convention is made up of 54 articles which explain what children’s rights are
• Articles 1-42 relate explicitly to what children and adults can do to ensure all children’s rights are met. These rights will be learned, taught, practiced, respected and promoted by the whole school community
• Articles 43-54 relate to how the government will ensure these rights are met

UNICEF has shown that when children are taught about their rights they have:

• Improved self-esteem and feelings of being valued and listened to
• Increased levels of respect for each other, leading to improved relationships with other pupils and with staff
• A sense of security as rights-respecting language and behaviour is used consistently throughout the school
• Improved attainment and attendance, and a reduction in exclusions
• An improved understanding and respect of religions, cultures, beliefs and abilities different to their own
• A wider and deeper understanding of the world in which they live

If you would like to learn more about the Rights Respecting School Award or the Convention please speak to a member of the school’s leadership team.

What changes have we made at school since becoming a Rights Respecting School?

We have made a number of positive changes to our school since becoming a RRS:

• Every class has a class charter which demonstrates our commitment to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
• Children’s rights are discussed regularly in all curriculum areas and links to these are made explicit through our teaching
• We have wonderful displays across the school that show off the work of our students and to encourage them to think about being part of a RRS.  All displayed are linked to to the CRC
• We have utilised Pupil Voice to ascertain what our children want us to teach and how they would like us to so this
• We have extended the work of our Pupil Leadership Team (PLT) so that our School Council have a greater say in the way our school works and on what we prioritise. For example the charities that our children care about the most and which are the focus for the academic year
• We have taken part in UNICEF’s OutRight campaign for Climate Change last year and are involved in this year’s campaign for Children’s Mental Health
• We have raised whole school awareness of global issues such the plight of refugees and how this affects refugee children’s rights
• All assemblies have clear link to RRS issues and we have also planned and delivered special assemblies
• We have regular PSHE and Circle Time activities reflecting specific issues of children’s rights
• We have hosted our inaugural Rights Respecting Celebration Week as a culmination of all the work that Cleveland had done over the year and which we linked to our OutRight campaign on climate change