At Uphall Primary, empowering children with a voice to enable positive change is very important. The skills of collaboration and leadership, self-reflection, critical thinking and successful action planning are key in creating young citizens who are confident they can thrive when faced with a challenge.
What is a Rights Respecting School?
A few years ago we joined the Rights Respecting School initiative and the 42 articles included in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
A Rights Respecting School puts the UNCRC at the heart of their planning, policies, practice and ethos, to enable all children to develop their talents and abilities in order to achieve their potential as global citizens.
We believe that the UNCRC reflects the beliefs of our school community, that our children receive their right to a wonderful education and understand the responsibilities that they have to their communities as they grow into confident, active and responsible citizens.
Our children will continue to learn about their rights and responsibilities as well as the work of UNICEF in helping to build a better world for children.
We currently hold a silver award and are working towards achieving the Gold Award.
Rights Respecting School values
We have 7 Rights respecting school values that are at the core of our ethos.
Friendship- We hold friendship and peer support as key aspects to the development and fulfilment of ourselves and the whole school community.
Kindness- We show care and concern for all, and exercise kindness towards others.
Empathy- We express warmth and understanding to others, including their thoughts and feelings which may differ from our own.
Respect- Develop self-respect, and respect for others. We promote and develop an inclusive
community, where we will appreciate and value the diversity of individual’s circumstances and
backgrounds.
Perseverance- We maintain a positive attitude and do our best in all aspects of our learning and
development.
Resilience- We strive to be the best versions of ourselves, even when faced with challenge and adversity. We seek support from those around us in order to develop.
Justice- We give each person what he or she deserves. We are fair to each other at all times.
At the end of each half term a child from each class is awarded the Rights Respecting citizen of the term award. This is an opportunity for children to gain recognition for displaying one or more of the RRS values. It is important to show children, parents and the wider school community that Uphall values the growth and development of the whole child, academically, socially, physically and emotionally.
Our journey this year
At the beginning of September 2020 we began our journey to gaining the GOLD award. All set with a new team of Rights Respecting Ambassadors, voted for by their peers to represent the school, the first task was to vote on which articles were most important to the Uphall community. The chosen articles created the school charter.
- Article 12- Children have the right to give their opinions freely on issues that affect them. Adults should listen and take children seriously.
- Article 19- Governments must protect children from violence, abuse and being neglected by anyone who looks after them.
- Article 28- Every child has the right to an education.
- Article 31- Every child has the right to rest, relax, play and to take part in cultural and creative activities.
Since then we have adapted the way in which the Ambassadors meet using online digital platforms to host the weekly meetings. This has enabled the children to continue to contribute as ambassadors for the school.
In the spring term the ambassadors created E-safety resources to promote the importance of online safety and cyber bullying; created wellbeing tool kits for their peers to tackle the stress of lockdown; and met with key members of the school community such as the head teacher
In the Summer term, our main aim is to promote the core values throughout the whole school, with a key focus on diversity and equity.
