Rights Respecting Schools Award
Dungannon Primary School is on a journey to become a UNICEF UK Rights Respecting School. We are currently a Bronze – Rights Committed school. We are striving to achieve silver in Autumn 22.
At Dungannon Primary School we are committed to ensuring children’s well-being is at the heart of everything we do. We aim to help our pupils grow into confident, caring and responsible young people both in school and within the wider community.
What is the Rights Respecting Schools Award?
The Unicef UK Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) supports schools across the UK to embed children's human rights in their ethos and culture.
UNICEF is the world’s leading organisation working for children and their rights. Every child, no matter who they are or where they live, has the right to grow up safe, happy and healthy.
The award recognises achievement in putting the UN Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of a school’s practice to improve well-being and help all children realise their potential.
How Dungannon Primary School already promotes pupil’ rights:
- Anti-Bullying policy – Article 19: the right to be safe and to be protected from violence and/or neglect.
- Extra-curricular activities – Article 15: the right to meet with other pupils and join groups that you choose.
- Our School Ethos – Article 28: the right to education.
- We are an Eco school – Article 6/24/27: the right to live, survive and have the right to healthy food and water.
- Our Pastoral Care team – Article 12/19/36 – the right to be heard and respected, to be protected from violence, abuse and neglect.
- Our School Council and Eco Council – Article 12 – the right to have our pupil voice heard.
- Daily Mile - Article 24 - the right to the best possible health.
- Celebration of international events:
- Safer Internet Day - Article 19/31 - the right to protection from violence/to leisure, play and culture.
- International Mother Language Day – Article 2/30 – the right to speak their mother language
- Superhero week (AutismNI) - Article 23 - the right to live a full and decent life with dignity and, as far as possible, independence and play an active part in the community.
Steering Group
The Rights Respecting Steering Group are 16 children from P3-P7 who are passionate about children's rights. They work with Miss Leitch and Mrs Alexander to ensure that the whole school community knows about the rights that every child is born with and to ensure that these rights are being respected. This year they will lead assemblies amd Rights Respecting Days for the whole school.
International Mother Language Day
On Monday 21st February, the pupils in Dungannon Primary School had the opportunity to celebrate Mother Language Day. At DPS we currently have 12 different languages spoken across our school community and we felt it was important to recognise and celebrate this. Mr Baker, from CSSC (Controlled Schools Support Council), also visited our school to see some of the activities we were engaged in. The children enjoyed engaging in a range of activities in their classroom which celebrated the diversity in our school. Some of the pupils dressed in national costumes or colours from their flag to represent their home country. Each Key Stage held a special assembly where they got to share with their peers a variety of different performances. Foundation Stage sang ‘God is so Good’ in 5 different languages: Tetum, Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanian and English. KS1 sang in Russian, read a poem, and were taught how to say hello in various languages. KS2 performed a traditional Lithuanian dance, showcased fact files and an art display of various flags from around the world.
Everyone in DPS loved using our Padlet wall to showcase the different languages which we can speak in our school. Click to see!
(Article Link: Article 30 - the right to speak their own mother language)
Class Charters
At the start of each new school year, each class works with their teacher to create a class charter. They choose focused Articles from the UNCRC to explore and include in their charter, however they do investigate all rights through various lessons throughout the year. The class charter is a way of ensuring that we work together to ensure everyone is able to enjoy their rights.
School Mascot
Our school has a mascot that is synonymous with children’s rights and will help to bring us closer to our goal of making sure that children’s rights are at the heart of our school. All classes participated in the design and our steering group chose the overall winner. Well done to Sophia Quinn (P6/7) from Mr Young’s class! You will find it on the UNCRC articles around our school – be sure to look out for it to see how many rights you can find!
How can parents/carers support what children are learning about rights at school?
- Take the time to ask your child what he/she has learned recently about children’s rights.
- Chat about the ideas learned in class, and try to think of examples from your own experiences, or from the media, of rights being respected or denied.
- Discuss how your child or your family can promote respect for rights, or help those whose rights have been violated.
- Ask your child’s opinion on children’s rights.
Some typical ways of using Rights Respecting language at home
- You have the right to play but you must respect the family’s right to a tidy house and must tidy up your toys afterwards.
- You have the right to watch the TV but your right to be fed is more important right now and you need to turn the TV off.
- You have the right to an opinion and I will listen but you need to respect my right to express an opinion as well.
- You have the right to be healthy and my job is to make you healthy by giving you healthy foods.
- You have the right to a clean world to live in and so does everyone else. Therefore you need to respect that right and put your rubbish in the bin.
