The Work of Ofsted - Children, Schools and Families Committee Contents


Memorandum submitted by UNICEF UK

  UNICEF UK is one of 36 UNICEF National Committees based in industrialised countries. UNICEF UK works to champion children's rights and to win support and raise money for our work with children worldwide.

THE RIGHTS RESPECTING SCHOOLS AWARD

  UNICEF UK's Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) is an initiative to help UK primary and secondary schools to put the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of their ethos. The UNCRC is an international human rights treaty that was opened for signature in 1989 and is now agreed on by 193 countries across the world (except the USA and Somalia). The United Kingdom signed the Convention on 19 April 1990, ratified it on 16 December 1991 and it came into force in the UK on 15 January 1992. By ratifying this Convention the UK agreed to fulfil its obligation to implement the rights and values of the UNCRC. Rights Respecting schools are encouraged to introduce the UNCRC to children as a set of fundamental principles and rights for and about children up to the age of 18.

  Over the past three years a number of schools have worked with UNICEF UK to explore ways of realising an initiative with the values of the UNCRC at its heart. The outcome is the Rights Respecting School Award (RRSA).

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE RRSA?

  By putting the teaching of the UNCRC at the heart of schools, children become aware of their rights and responsibilities. They also begin to understand that others have rights too, which they must respect. A Rights Respecting School not only teaches children's rights but also teaches that everyone in the school needs to demonstrate rights respecting behaviour. It is not just in the relationships between pupils and teachers that this behaviour is expected, but also in the relationships between teachers and parents. The children also learn about the need for cooperation and interdependence.

  Schools implementing the RRSA promote and demonstrate rights respecting behaviour in all aspects of school life. Evidence suggests that by year six, children in a Rights Respecting School have become empowered to promote "rights respecting" behaviour in a variety of contexts. This empowerment comes from the language, concepts, skills and experiences they have developed through a school culture in which the UNCRC has been embedded. It seeks change in areas of the curriculum, policy and via the promotion of active citizenship amongst all in the school community.

RIGHTS RESPECTING SCHOOLS AND OFSTED

  UNICEF welcomes this opportunity to comment on the work of Ofsted. We have three main points relating to this inquiry:

    1. Whilst working with schools and local authorities throughout the UK, UNICEF UK has noticed that many inspection reports contain no specific references to the quality of schools' work to challenge racism and other human rights abuses. Schools working with UNICEF's Rights Respecting Schools initiative promote diversity in British society and we believe this should be an area that Ofsted considers.

    2. In our experience to date, Ofsted inspectors do not always recognise and value the positive contribution of a child rights culture in classrooms and the wider to school to pupils' academic progress (in schools working towards RRS). Most references are to the positive contribution to pupils' behaviour.

    3. The continuing overriding influence of school performance data from national tests often leads to insignificant recognition being given to the school's contribution to pupils' personal, moral, social and cultural development and their development as effective global citizens.

May 2008





 
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