UNICEF Rights Respecting School Award

At Mill Green School we are committed to ensuring children’s well-being is at the heart of everything we do. We aim to help our learners grow into confident, caring and responsible young people both in school and within the wider community and realise their potential.

The UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) helps schools to use the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to enhance daily school life and give young people the best chance to lead happy, healthy lives and to be responsible, active citizens.

At Mill Green School, young people’s rights are central to what we do, and that is why our learners and teachers have been working in unison to ensure the rights of our young people are recognised, carried out and valued. We are also working to recognise and understand issues that children face on a global level.

What is the UNCRC?

In 1989 UNICEF established a set of 54 Articles known as the Convention for the Rights of the Child. The convention applies to every child under the age of 18, without discrimination, whatever their ethnicity, gender, religion, language, abilities, whatever they think or say, whatever their family background. Almost every country in the world has signed this convention to uphold the Articles within their country and do all it can to protect children’s rights. The convention underpins everything UNICEF does around the world.

The convention recognises that all children and young people have the right to be treated with dignity and fairness, to be protected, to develop to their full potential and to participate. Every adult is a duty bearer and it is their responsibility to ensure children’s rights are protected.

What is the Rights Respecting School Award (RRSA)?

The RRSA focuses on children’s rights in schools and takes a whole-school approach to child rights and human rights education. A UNICEF Rights Respecting School is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted.

By learning about their rights, our pupils also learn about the importance of respecting the rights of others i.e. their responsibilities. Pupils at Holywell are encouraged to reflect on how their behaviour and actions affect those around them which allows us to build and maintain a positive and safe learning environment for all.

RRSA links with Mill Green School Mission, Vision and Values and British Values as well as the work we do promoting Preparation for Adulthood and Equal Opportunities.

To achieve the UNICEF UK Rights Respecting School Award, schools are required to implement four evidence-based standards:

• Rights-respecting values underpin leadership and management
• The whole-school community learns about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
• The school has a rights-respecting ethos
• Children are empowered to become active citizens and learners

Mill Green is on the journey towards the Silver Award and becoming a ‘Rights Aware’ School. We aim to have this in place during the 2024-2025 academic year, ensuring that we are making good progress in embedding children’s rights throughout out policy, practice and ethos. We believe that our work is helping us to move towards improving our pupils’ educational experiences, and to becoming a more caring and thoughtful school community.

To make our wider school community aware of the UNRC, we ensure we embed appropriate articles within our school policies and procedures and also share a pertinent article each week in the school newsletter, highlighting how we as a school support the outlined right, and how parents and carers can ensure they actively promote the UNRC.

You can learn more about the UNRC by accessing our UNRC Posters in the downloads section of this page.