As a forerunner to the new P.S.H.E. scheme, Jigsaw, the children have been looking at the United Nations rights for children that apply to their environment at school. As a result, they now have their ‘Class Charter’, for which they have selected three rights they deem particularly relevant. These rights have then been interpreted specifically for school, so that everyone can be clear about their entitlement. The charter, moreover, also includes a set of behaviours that link to the class rules. These have been chosen to help to maintain a harmonious environment, and all children are expected to try to demonstrate these at all times.

This week we explored the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child looking at all the rights children have. We then used the articles as a base to create a class charter to guide us each day in how we can support each other’s rights. 

We write how we would suppoort each other on paper hands before decorating them.  

   

Next year you may see our Rights Ambassadors sporting these brilliant t-shirts! The logo was designed by Rohan before he left for Secondary School and the current team came up with the idea of putting it on t-shirts. They will be wearing them at various events next year to raise awareness of children’s rights.

Article 2: No discrimination
In our weekly assembly Holly and Oak class were thinking about how we are all
different and how important it is to accept and celebrate our differences. We
spoke about how we can look different, believe in different things, have different
families, come from different countries and even have different pets! We then
listened to the story ‘All Are Welcome’, a book about a school in which everyone
is welcome to join in and be part of the community, just like our school. We also
thought about some of the ways we are different from our friends and how lovely
it is to find out about each other’s differences.

One of our COP27 targets as a school was to recycle more and our tin foil collection is still growing! If you have any tin foil at home that could be added to our collection we can make sure it goes to a good cause 😀

Today we are celebrating article 24- the right to a clean and healthy environment and article 12- the right to a say in issues that affect you. Year 4 wrote letters to Kingsteignton Council asking for support in encouraging more swifts to our area as part of our COP27 campaign. Here is the response from the council…

In Reception we learn about how to look after ourselves and ways of being healthy. One way of doing this is to clean our teeth at least twice a day. In Holly and Oak class we clean our teeth after lunch in school.

In Year 5 we have been discussing our rights. 

 
We chose three United Nations articles at the beginning of the year as a part of our class charter. These articles are:

Article 12: You have the right to give your opinion, and for adults to listen and take it seriously.

 
Article 15: You have the right to choose your own friend and join or set up groups, as long as it isn’t harmful to others. 

  
Article 31: You have the right to play and rest.

  
We use these rights to make sure we have a kind classroom where everyone feels welcome and respected.

Thank you to the children for modelling our rights.

Today we thought about who was in our family and how all families are different!

We linked this to Article 9 ‘ The right to be with a family who cares for us.’

Pupils then drew members their family who lived with them.

Press release for week beginning 8th April

Throughout the week beginning 4^th April 2022 St Michael’s Primary School have been conducting activities to make our school a more eco-friendly place to learn. The activities are leading on from ‘COP27’ which was held at St Michael’s on 9^th March. The Rights Ambassadors and Eco-Council children took over the staff meeting and led the teachers in understanding why climate change is so important and what we can do to help as a school (Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children have the right to a say in issues that affect them). Because of this meeting, all teachers across the school made climate change promises with their classes which are being upheld throughout the rest of the year.

This week, the children across the school have been working on climate change based activities to help spread the message of COP27 and continue to improve the eco message of our school with the aim of working with the local community on this matter. Year 4 have written letters to Kingsteignton Council asking for support for the swifts living in our area, KS1 have been planting lots of seeds to encourage more insects in our school, all classes have been collecting tin foil for recycling (we have currently collected £260 worth and are now running competitions across classes to see who can collect the most), Year 3 have been making bug hotels and Year 1 have designed ecofriendly reusable bags. There is also a campaign across school using the hash tag #TOTL (turn off the lights) to encourage classes to stop using as much electricity when it is not needed.

All of these ideas have been initiated by the children of our school starting with the Rights Ambassadors and Eco council and working down to individual children who have been inspired by the campaign. We will continue to work on this project over the coming months and years; Oli in Year 6 said ‘If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem’. Thank you to Otter Nurseries, Jack’s Patch, for supplying the seeds.

Head of School, Kate Arnold says ‘the children have inspired us to turn off our lights in the office, use less electricity and cut back on our bills in the process. We are very proud of their enthusiasm and maturity in leading our school with this project.’