In August 2019, St Michael’s Primary and Nursery School in Kingsteignton were granted the Bronze Rights Respecting School award by Unicef. The award has been running for 30 years this year with nearly 1.6 million children currently attending a Rights Respecting school and over 5000 schools across the UK are currently working towards the award.

 

The RR School award was set up to help promote the United Nations Convention for the child, a world wide agreement to ensure that children are treated in a safe, fair and nurturing environment. This award demonstrates St Michael’s ambition to place the UN convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of their ethos.

 

To be awarded the Bronze certificate the school has to set up a children’s steering group from Years 2 to Year 6. At St Michael’s there are 7 children on the Group representing each of the 4 year groups. Their job is to promote children’s’ rights through assemblies, leading to a whole school launch day before the Christmas break.

 

The RR Ambassadors have been busy since the Summer Term writing the school action plan, planning assemblies and meeting with the Governors and Head of School, discussing how to work towards establishing a solid foundation from which new initiatives will spring. This term they are planning multiple assemblies, a parent drop in event and fundraising activities to raise awareness of those children around the world who can not access their rights.

 

Miss Murray, a Year Four Teacher, has taken the role of RR Lead and has worked hard with her Steering Group to win the Bronze award.

“I am incredibly proud of all the work the children have done and impressed by their thoughtfulness and maturity in handling their new responsibilities in the Steering Group. Their ideas and effort have far exceeded our expectations. I am very excited to see what the future has in store for St Michael’s as a RR school.”

 

‘Before I became a Rights Ambassador, I didn’t know what rights were. Now I understand how important they are and I am really enjoying promoting them to the rest of the school.’ William, year 4 Rights Ambassador.

 

‘I am really enjoying being a part of the Rights Ambassadors and am looking forward to helping with organising events and promotions across the school. I love the responsibility it has given me.’ Lily, Year Four Rights Ambassador.

 

Working with the whole school community from children, all staff, parents and Governors, the RR Ambassadors’ next step is to work towards the Silver Award, which is focussed on ensuring that the UN Children’s’ rights are embedded in the school ethos.

“We are working across the Federation to support our children as they grow through their school lives. I am incredibly impressed by the creativity and responsibility they have shown so far. It is a wonderful opportunity to allow the children to have their opinions heard and involve them in the running of the school. Kate Arnold, Head Teacher of St Michael’s Primary and Nursery.

 

We are listening to article 12 (every child has the right to express their views and have them taken seriously) by making our lessons more exciting this morning. We are testing out our maths skills this morning by turning Beech classroom into an escape room. Clues are hidden around the classroom and we are trying to solve the clues to earn extra break time. We are finding it very tricky so far! 

    
 

Children in ks2 were asked by our rights team what they would like to improve school life. Friends of St Michael’s responded by buying us a fire ball game! Year Four have been testing it out with Rohan and Jasmine from our Rights Ambassadors team.

Thank you Friends of St Michael’s 🙂 

   

St Michael’s is now reaching to become a Rights Respecting school. This is a global award available to schools and provided by UNICEF. It means that all children and adults are working to become more aware of the rights of the child which are set out by the UN in the convention of the child. Rights Respecting schools work together with the children to ensure a happy, safe and nurturing work environment in which the children understand the decisions made and have a say in the making of many decisions. 

To help us to get started with this process we have formed a Rights Ambassadors group. The group is made up of two representatives from each year group (three in year five to lead us in September). They have already introduced themselves to the school by running a KS2 assembly which went very successfully and you can look out for them in fundraisers and awareness sessions throughout the coming year. Next week they are meeting with the first ever ethos group to discuss their action plan with Mrs Arnold.

Keep visiting this site for updates and further information about what they are working on and what they have achieved.