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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