Rights Respecting Schools
Phoenix School is a Rights Respecting School. We have been developing our rights respecting ethos, curriculum and practice and put the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of everything we do. We were awarded Level 1 of the Rights Respecting Schools Award in April and we are very pleased that UNICEF has recognised our commitment to teaching our pupils about their rights. A rights-respecting school not only teaches about children’s rights but also models rights and respect in all its relationships between teachers, adults and pupils.
Our rights respecting schools award report shows that Phoenix School is dedicated to teaching children about their rights through a number of ways. We have included RRS in our school development plan as a clear focus on helping to develop teaching and learning according to the convention. We have included articles from the convention on a number of our school policies to ensure that staff are always aware of the rights of the child, and we include updates on our work through the school website, parent newsletters and staff bulletins. The report also states that UNICEF was very impressed with how our pupils are encouraged to communicate, express their likes and dislikes and gain a greater understanding of self. The expressive arts department was a clear strength in ensuring that pupils were able to exercise their rights in a variety of ways. We have hosted parents' breakfasts which has informed parents of the work around rights in school, and encouraged them to empower their children in a home setting.1
Every year we have four articles that we are going to focus on. These focuses will be shown in classrooms through classroom charters, on our school display and incorporated into lesson plans. We are going to link our golden rules to the rights children have as well as the responsibility adults have as duty bearers. We are also going to work on becoming ambassadors for children's rights and communicating our knowledge about the rights of the child throughout our local community.
This year, the steering group have chosen to focus on:
1. You have the right to choose your friends.
2. You have the right to be as independent as possible in the community.
3. You have the right to develop your talents and ablities in school.
4. You have the right to have an opinion.
If you have any questions about RRSA, or would like to be involved with RRSA at Phoenix School please contact Kirsty through the school office.
Please click here for the link to the UNICEF RRSA website- http://www.unicef.org.uk/Education/Rights-Respecting-Schools-Award/
Please click here for the link to the report.