At The Winns, the children are at the centre of everything we do. To signify this, we are pursuing the UNICEF Rights Respecting School Silver Award. This accreditation means that we are a school that champions the United Nations’ Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and have embedded the principles of the Convention into school through our ethos, policies and curriculum.

Earlier in the year, we were successful in gaining the Bronze Award of UNICEF’s Rights Respecting Schools. This means that the Three Strands of the award have been introduced into school and we are beginning to embed the Rights Respecting program into what we do every day at The Winns.

As part of working towards the Silver Award, we will continue to raise awareness of the program by focusing on an “Article of the Month”. This Article will be taken from the UNCRC and will allow us to explore what the Article means in school with the children. We will publish work that links to the Article of the Month, both on our website and in the newsletter. The Article of the Month for Aprilis:

Article 29: Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment.

Latest Rights Respecting News

The United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child

The Convention is made up of 54 articles which explain what children’s rights are.

Articles 1-42 relate specifically 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 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.