Rights Respecting School
We are a Rights Respecting School and have recently received the Silver Award from Unicef UK for our work in this area – we are now working towards the Gold award! Children’s rights are at the heart of our ethos and culture and we continuously work to ensure that our school is a happy, kind, caring and respectful environment where children can achieve success in all aspects of school life.
In 1989, governments across the world agreed that all children have the same rights by adopting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). These rights are based on what a child needs to survive, grow, participate and fulfil their potential. Please see the poster below which explains all of the different rights.
In school we have weekly Rights Respecting Schools Assemblies where we look closely at a different Article/Right each week. Our School Council and Respecting Schools Team work with their classmates to ensure that their views and suggestions relating to these Articles/Rights are heard and actioned.
School Council & Rights Respecting Team
We have an active School Council/Rights Respecting School Team, elected by their classmates who meet regularly with the Headteacher Mrs Lavelle, bringing feedback, questions and suggestions from their classes. Actions are agreed and reviewed throughout the year. They very much enjoy this responsibility and take great pride in the role.
Please see below some examples of our team’s activities during the last year. They have been busy!
In our meetings last year, the team discussed ideas and suggestions with Mrs Lavelle that their classmates had come up with during class discussions. These were focussing on three Children’s Rights/Articles:
Article 19 Every child has the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated
Article 24 Every child has the right to the best possible health
Article 31 Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities
They then suggested and agreed a number of action points. These were as follows:
Actions linked to Article 19 Every child has the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated
The team told Mrs Lavelle that no-one had any worries about this in their classes and everyone felt safe and well looked after in school. Mrs Lavelle was really pleased about this and asked the Team members in each class to remind everyone that if they have any worries they should always talk to a staff member so we can help them.
A suggestion was also made to add worry boxes to each class as a safe way for pupils to share worries if they need to. These are now placed in all classrooms.
Actions linked to Article 24 Every child has the right to the best possible health
The team suggested that reminders were given about healthy packed lunches as some people were not following the guidance on this. The packed lunch policy has now been updated and will be shared with parents/carers.
The weekly Golden Table award will include pupils who always have healthy packed lunches
We will bring back the Healthy Tuck Shop once we are able to do so safely. We will also look into re-introducing the Daily Mile.
Actions linked to Article 31 Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities
The team suggested a range of after school clubs following discussions with their classmates. We were able to offer the majority of these during the Summer Term. They included: Art and Craft, Football, Cooking, School Newspaper, Tennis. Mrs Lavelle also took on board their ideas for visits and visitors and will action these during 2021-22.
Actions linked to Article 12 You have the right to give your opinion, and for adults to listen and take it seriously
At our first meeting of the academic year in October 2021, we decided we would work together to create change within our school and community. The first thing we are working on is to put Ouston Primary ‘on the map’ by asking for a sign on the main road to show people the way to our school! The team sent a letter to Durham County Council about this.
Once we have hopefully got our new sign, we will work on some projects linked to Climate Change. More on this to follow!
