Pupils and staff celebrate Silver Award
Pupils and staff from Oakwood Learning Centre were delighted to learn that they have been awarded the Rights Respecting School Silver Award from Unicef. The award puts children’s right at the heart of schools in the UK and recognises a school’s achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into practice within the school and beyond.
Unicef works with schools in the UK to create safe and inspiring places to learn, where children are respected, their talents are nurtured and they can thrive. The Rights Respecting Schools Award embeds these values in daily school life and gives children the best chance to lead happy, healthy lives and to be responsible, active citizens.
Caroline Fraser, Deputy Head Teacher, commented:
We started our journey in November 2019 and have been embedding the key strands: Introducing Rights; Teaching and Learning about Rights and Global Citizenship into our everyday practice and ethos. Much of the work that we do supports many of the 42 Articles in the UNCRC. This award is testament to the joint efforts of pupils and staff who have worked hard throughout this process.
She continues:
Special mention needs to go to members of our Rights Respecting Steering Group, pupils, Chloe and James, who spoke to the Unicef Assessor for 30 minutes via Zoom describing their own experience of learning about rights and of living at Oakwood. They were brilliant – I am so proud of them! The pupils have enjoyed exploring the different articles in the UNCRC as a key part of our journey to achieving Silver. Our goal has been that they are aware of their rights and responsibilities as global citizens. I am delighted to see how empowered our pupils have become and of their confidence in explaining their rights. We look forward to advancing towards Gold.
Well done everyone!