Rights Respecting School Team
Our Vision:
"We believe that having a rights respecting ethos helps children to understand respect for themselves, others and the world around them. We want children to know their rights and feel empowered to make a difference to their local community and the wider world."
Whisper The Wolf
We are a Rights Respecting School Level 2
We are dedicated to promoting the rights of every child.
"All children have rights," Article 2.
What is it all about?
We are extremely proud at becoming one of the few schools to achieve the prestigious Level 2 of the Rights Respecting Schools Award in Durham.
“The UNICEF UK Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) supports schools across the UK to embed children’s human rights in their ethos and culture. 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. The award is based on principles of equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination and participation. The initiative started in 2006 and schools involved in the Award have reported a positive impact on relationships and well-being, leading to better learning and behaviour, improved academic standards and less bullying.”
At Wheatley Hill Primary School we want every child to understand that all children have rights and they can not be taken away from them. On a Wednesday Key Stage two have an assembly (World News Wednesday) to find out and discuss what is happening in the world. Children develop empthany for others and identify what rights are/are not being full-filled. In school there is a Rights Team who help support children learn about their rights. Below are a few points of view on rights posted by staff and pupils . Please free free to post your thoughts and feeling below.
"All children have these rights, no matter who they are, where they live, what their parents do, what language they speak, what their religion is, whether they are a boy or girl, what their culture is, whether they have a disability, whether they are rich or poor. No child should be treated unfairly on any basis" Article 2.
Read Our Level 2 Assessment Report Find Out More About Children's Rights
Meet the Team:
Some of our amazing work!
Wheatley Hill Primary has a group of UNICEF Ambassadors, who often meet to discuss the workings of the school, and how things can be improved or run better. Additionally, we organise a number of theme days to bring together all our learning about children’s rights around the world.
We also collect evidence and photos of our work on a monthly basis to show our children, parents and visitors all the fantastic work that we do!
Outright Campaign
In October, Year 6 took part in the Outright campaign. The children designed postcards about the importance of having clean air. They then sent these cards to UNICEF who were going to send them to Parliament.
Right to a clean and safe environment. Article 24
Reverse Food Bank
This December, Year 6 took part in a reverse advent calendar. Once their name was pulled out of the calendar the children brought an item of food or toiletry to donate to the local food bank.
Right to nutritious food. Article 24
Harvest Festival
For the fourth year in a row, we have supported our local food bank by donating all our harvest produce to them. During our harvest celebration parents and carers came into school to look at our mini topic work about Harvest. For example, Year 5 looked at what is Fair Trade and Y6 looked at how the food bank makes a difference to people lives. They even had a visit from two food bank volunteers.
Every class was open to share their work and the parents/ carers and children enjoyed visiting different year groups.
‘A sense of closeness within the school.’ A comment from a parent.
‘The right to nutritious food’ (Article 24)
The Junior Ed Group
School helps us to make informed decisions about how to keep ourselves safe. We had a visit from Clare and Jet form Durham Police to talk to us about staying safe and making the right choices with our behaviour. Y6 took part in the Junior Education Programme delivered by Durham Police and learned a lot from the different visitors.
‘Right to be safe and protected.’ Article 19
Rights event at St. Josephs Blackhall
In July 2017 , the Rights Respecting Ambassadors went to St Josephs Primary School in Blackhall. We were invited to attend a sharing event of rights. The First Aid club members attended this event and created different activities for the other schools to complete. They choose the right, ‘Right to help if you are hurt’ (Article 39) as their right to share. The members of the first aid club demonstrated how to do CPR on the dummy and created help cards on how to carry out basic first aid. The other schools were very impressed with the children’s first aid knowledge.
Harvest Festival
October 2016
We are supporting our local Food Bank at the Greenhills Center in Wheatley Hill by donating all the produce we have collected from our Harvest Festival celebrations. Thank you to everybody who has helped. Together we are making a difference to our community.
"Right to nutritious food," Article 24.
Out-Right Campaign
The whole school part in the Out-Right Campaign. We all wrote letters to the Minister of Education asking why children's rights were important to them. We received a video message from him in reply. We feel it is important to take part in national as well as local campaigning.
Day For Change
Children from across the year groups worked with Mrs.Levington during golden time to organise their own 'Do you know your rights event?' We created activities and games for the whole school to play and learn about children's rights. We asked for the children to bring a donation to school on this day. All the money we raised went to Unicef to support Day For Change. We also invited the Rights Ambassadors from Wingate Infants and Blackhall St.Joesphs. We were very grateful that they accepted our invitation and came along to share our event with us.
Local Charity Support
Every class took part in a sponsored event for the NSPCC. Each class carried out some work on the issues that children might face. We thought about how we all have the right to be protected and wanted to help children who may be finding things in life difficult. Year 5 received a certificate for raising the most amount of money.
"Children need to know their rights and how they fit into everyday life, in and outside of school. As a class we regular refer to our rights." Miss Dobson, Y4.
"We learn about our rights during SEAL, I refer to them during my life and tell others about them." Charlie , 9 years old.
"It is important for children to know their rights and feel empowered to be active global citizens." Mrs Devine, Y6.
"I think it is a good thing that we have rights and are taught about them in school because it helps you become a better person." Connor , 8 years old.
"All children have a right to a good education and I believe Wheatley Hill Primary School provides this for all our children." Mrs Levington, Y1.
"Me and my friend, Chloe, set up a Syria club at lunch time to help other children learn about what is happening in Syria. The children at Syria have rights but some of them are not being met." Megan, 10 years old.
" You have a right to a good education and if you are late for school you will get behind in your work." Lennon, 9 years old.
"Rights are important to the children of the world." Riley, 9 years old.
Why are rights important to us?