We are very proud to announce that Fern Hill has joined many other schools across the country taking part in the UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Award accreditation. Our whole school community - children, parents, staff and governors – will be involved in this exciting opportunity.  

There are four key areas of impact for children at a Rights Respecting school; wellbeing, participation, relationships and self-esteem. The difference that a Rights Respecting School makes goes beyond the school gates, making a positive impact on the whole community.   

To achieve the Rights Respecting Schools Award, we will be working towards the recognition that we have embedded children’s rights into our school practice and ethos. The Award involves three distinct steps:

Bronze – Rights Committed

Silver – Rights Aware

Gold – Rights Respecting

‘There are three stages to the Rights Respecting Schools Award. Its transformative and rigorous approach means the journey to the highest stage can take up to four years.

Together young people and the school community learn about children’s rights, putting them into practice every day.  The Award is not just about what children do but also, importantly, what adults do. In Rights Respecting Schools children’s rights are promoted and realised, adults and children work towards this goal together.’                                                                                             

 - UNICEF                   

To launch the start of our journey to becoming a Rights Respecting School, Mr Scott will be delivering an assembly to the pupils next week which will coincide with Universal Children’s Day on Tuesday 20^th November. The United Nations Universal Children’s Day was established in 1954 to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare. Some of the children have already begun to explore the subject of ‘rights’, their understanding of these rights and how an individual’s access to them can vary so much both locally and globally. We’re in the process of establishing a steering party of pupils, with each class nominating an ‘ambassador’ to represent them and Year 6 will be visiting our children in Reception to explain to them what ‘rights’ are and how everyone can get involved.

We’ll be keeping you updated on our progress towards the Rights Respecting Schools Award so please look out for our news stories; we are very much looking forwarded to involving everyone in our journey. 

You can find out more about the Rights Respecting School Award here.

- Mrs Tipping, Year 3 Class Teacher and PSHE Lead