In the Spring term, Mrs Howarth and the Rights Ambassadors took part in an accreditation day with UNICEF UK where they looked at the whole school's rights respecting work and the impact it has made through embedding children's rights into school life.

We are very pleased to announce that we are now a Gold:Rights Respecting School, one of less than 500 in the country and only 3 in Buckinghamshire.

Achieving Gold:Rights Respecting means there is evidence that our school has explicitly adopted a child rights approach based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and has embedded it in school policy, practice and culture and that children and adults in our school have a thorough understanding of child rights, and rights respecting attitudes and language are embedded across the school. 

The assessment took place virtually with the Rights Ambassadors talking with the assessors and also submitting a video tour of our school. Their report stated, 

'It was evident that children's rights are embedded across the school and underpin every facet of school life. Particular strengths of the school include:

• A commitment by senior leaders to providing a learning environment and a strategic view in which rights play a key part.
• Positive relationships and happy children who love their school and know about rights.
• The caring and nurturing ethos of the school, where the values of dignity and respect are lived and valued by the children and their parents.
• A commitment to the environment.'

They also praised the way the children spoke about their rights under the UN Convention for the Rights of a Child and why they are important stating that:

'one child explained that it was important to, "Include everyone." They knew that rights were for, "All children around the world," that children have their rights "When you are born." They understood that not all children have access to all their rights with one child saying, "Some children don't get their rights - water is not always fresh." The RRSA Lead said how proud she was of the children's knowledge and passion for rights.'

They also praised the way children at our school are

'empowered to have a voice in school, for example, by voting on the many pupil voice groups including Rights Ambassadors, School Council, Science Council, Arts Council and Eco Warriors. One Rights Ambassador explained, "We make sure that our classmates know what their rights are." Another child commented that, "It's important for children to have rights so that they can be protected, safe and happy...and to get the stuff they deserve."

We will receive a new banner to show our Gold status in the next few weeks.