Rights Respecting Schools Award
Assessment Report
Level One
Gilwern Primary School, Monmouthshire, Wales.
Introduction
I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone involved in the assessment visit and for ensuring my welcome was a warm one. It was pleasing to meet with a range of adults and children who were able to talk about Rights Respecting Schools, how it has been implemented and the impact it has made. During the visit there was ample time to tour the school and observed many examples of good practise. Thanks should be given to Joanna Broad who has led on the development of the award in school, organised the assessment day and has ensured implementation of Unicef’s Rights Respecting Schools framework in a systemic manner.
Standards A, B, C and D have all been met.
As a result of the visit and evidence provided we would like to recommend to the Accreditation and Standards committee that the school has attained Rights Respecting School Award Level 1.
The school context
Gilwern Primary is an averaged size school of 171 pupils for 4-11 year olds situated in the heart of the Gilwern village community. The school describes the area it serves as predominantly neither prosperous nor economically disadvantaged but includes a significant minority of relatively prosperous homes. being socially and economically advantaged. Around 11% of pupils are identified as having additional needs including 6 statemented pupils. Around 15% are eligible for free school meals.The school began on their RRSA journey in September 2011 undertaking the Unicef training ‘101 ways to Implement’ and focused their effort to meeting the Level 1 standards by the end of the current school year. Mr Roger Guy has been Head Teacher at the school for many years and strives to ensure his school is inclusive and understanding of all pupils and families.
Assessment information
Self-evaluation form received / YesImpact evaluation form received / Yes
Attendees at SLT meeting / Head Teacher, RRSA Co-ordinator, Deputy Head Teacher, School Council Lead.
Number of children and young people interviewed / 12 pupil on Rights Team plus many children during classroom visits.
Number of staff interviewed / Head Teacher
RRSA Co-ordinator, 5 Classroom teachers
Evidence provided / Learning walk
Written evidence - portfolio
Meeting with Parent Governor
Steering group meeting with Rights Leaders
Assembly
The assessment process focused on the four aspects of the action plan and allowed the school to demonstrate the following:
Standard A: Rights-respecting values underpin leadership and management.
There is a strong commitment from the senior management team to achieving the award. The head teacher shares the values of the UNCRC and describes the reason for embedding the Rights Respecting Framework as a fitting mechanism to introduce a structured approach within schoolsin whichto create a rights respecting ethos.Mr Guy further explained that it is not the award (RRSA) itself that is important to the school but the values, principles and ethos that will become instilled in the children and staff and how this will change the culture within local and global communities.
RRSA has a clear commitment in the school improvementplan and the school has made a commitment to continue to embed the Articles of the UNCRC in policies as they come up for review. They have already updated the Abergavenny Cluster policy for ESDGC, Behaviour Policy, P.S.E. policy and the Bullying prevention policy with an additional paragraph added to each stating the schools commitment to the UNCRC and RRSA, to gain more weight to the commitment already given the school may consider highlighting their commitment under the vision for the schoolin the policies and identifying which Articles fit with that particular policy. Discussions with the head teacher and RRSA Co-ordinator evidenced clearly that RRSA is seen as a “structured framework” within school that provides a means to build upon the child centred ethos the school currently offers.
The school effectively promotes the values and principles of the UNCRC through class charters, display boards, assemblies and complimentary programmes such as SEAL, ESDGC, Eco-Committee and school council. The school will build on their early examples of charters and displays by explicitly linking articles wherever possible to ensure all work is reinforced around the UNCRC.
The school engaged Cathi Bolster from a neighbouring RRSA level 2 school to deliver training to staff on the RRSA and UNCRC. Continued training and learning visits to successful RRSA will benefit teaching staff, enthusing ideas and developing rights language and practice.
The school has received International School Award Status in recognition of its work in global citizenship (one of only a few schools in Wales) and enjoys long standing relations with six schools in Jamshedpur India through the United Kingdom India Educational Research Initiative (UKIERI). Further work undertaken through Comenius and arights based agenda to World Week where pupils participate through learning and activities such as ‘passports to country themed classrooms’ to learn more about cultures and identity.
Standard B: The whole school community learns about the CRC.
Reception children produced a charming assembly for parents, pupils, governors and myself. The assembly demonstrated a subtle and effective introduction to children rights. The focus was on friendship and the right to choose your friends and groups (Article 15) and that the children had made not only class friends but whole school friends since coming to school – demonstrating the inclusive nature of this school. Displays in the hall showcased the work of the school council, eco-committee and highlighted the relative Articles with each. An impromptu chat with a parent governor who was attending her son’s assembly affirmed the commitment the school has to the RRSA and how the head teacherhad introduced the board to the Award.
In the foyer the is a large Rights Respecting School board that draws your attention to the Right of the Month from the Rights Calender – this month ‘To be the Best that We can Be’ linked to Article 29 and themed to the Olympics. Most other school displays and message boards have a visual reference to the articles of the UNCRC with the pupil designedrights logoof the globe with children hand in hand and ‘children everywhere have right’ around it. All pupils of the school had the opportunity to design a logo to represent the Rights Respecting work with the Rights Team voting on which was the best.
Parents and carers are encouraged to learn about the UNCRC and RRSA through letters, class assemblies, rights book and annual report sent home for information. More recent parent letters sent home reinforces the approach with a statement at the top of each letter ‘Gilwern is a Rights Respecting School’. New to the school in September 2012 will be the Home School Agreement that clearly states that Gilwern Primary is a Rights Respecting School and parents, head teacher, class teacher and pupils will be expected to sign up to the agreement. The agreement at present is based on rights and responsibilities. The school has also produced a Rights Respecting Schools Newsletter using the Unicef resource as a template, it would be good to see this as an ongoing publication available to all staff, visitors, parents and pupils of the school.
The school has achieved Phase 5 of the Healthy Schools Initiative which has an emphasis on SEAL and links are made to the UNCRC in planning and delivery. The Eco-committee and school council access their right to be listened to and link their work to the Rights Team and Articles of the convention. The pupils run a successful fruit tuck shop, understand and exhibits healthy school practices such as composting, water recycling and re-cycling. During a discussion with class teacher on ‘Going Green’ children voiced the importance of the right to a clean environment where children expressed strong views on dog mess and owners’ responsibilities to clean it up, relating it to Article 24. The planning in a number of curriculum areas is recorded in weekly lesson planning with Articles identified against many areas e.g. science, R.E., topic, P.S.E. With time, adopting a more varied selection of Articles through wider curriculum areas will strengthen understanding and application of rights based language and practise.
Standard C: The school has a rights-respecting ethos.
This school has a warm and friendly environment and the children from the Rights Team represented b children from Reception to year 6. During our time together the children were keen to share their feelings about how safe they felt at school. They explained that teachers, staff and pupils were all treated respectfully and that the school is inclusive. One year 6 boy said “This school is open to everyone, disabled, learning needs it doesn’t matter what – all are welcome here”, this becomes even poignant when later I’m told that this child is a looked after child and I felt that he feels he has a place, a safe place of acceptance at this school. To help raise awareness of rights and to reinforce positive behaviour the school has introduced Green and Yellow Cards at playtime and lunchtime. Green cards for ‘We have a right to play Article 31 and We have a right to be safe Article 19’ and Yellow cards for ‘We have a right to be healthy Article 6’.There is also a Red Card for when children don’t follow the Playground Charter. The children say that the cards work really well and have noticed that behaviour at playtimes has improved as “everyone is more social”. Another valuable source to the children is the newly introduced Peer Mediation Group. Peer mediators provide support when there are moral dilemmas and differences in opinions, all children I spoke to commented on how incidents are dealt with in a fair way.
When asked what difference it’s made learning about rights there were many positive comments including, “They are important to us”, “Help you and other people understand each other” (Year 6 girl)>and “helps us to understand that everyone has a right to live their life and be cared for” (Year 2 boy).
During a tour of the classroomsit was evident that all classes have class charters that are based on rights and linked responsibilities/roles which individual classes have devised and agreed. All the charters had been developed by the whole class and older children had signed up to them and adhere to them. The best examples were in the infants section of the school where charters were more prominent and colourful.
When meeting with a group of teachers and whilst visiting the classes it was evident that staff model rights respecting behaviour and language, in time, as the framework becomes embedded within the lesson planning of curriculum areas, a wider variety of Articles will be introduced and staff and children will become more confident in the use of the UNCRC language
The ethos of the school is encapsulated by a comment made during the Rights Team discussion. When asked how they felt about their school Ryan said:
“It feels like we’re in a family”
Standard D: Children are empowered to become active citizens and learners.
Pupil participation is an important aspect of life at Gilwern Primary. The Head Teacher is a firm believer of pupil voice and has encouraged this for many years thus there are numerous ways that the school promotes participation; pupil questionnaires, head boy/girl, sports captain, pupil led assembly, class weekly award, pupil led learning in topic sessions. At year 6 all pupils adopt a role and responsibilities and there is a photo display of each child and their title within the school.
As mentioned, the school has a very active eco club, school council and Rights Team that plays an important role within the school. Pupils interviewed were very clear that their rights were being met in school, citing such articles as their right to a name, to be safe and to be heard and were very keen to confirm that they felt very much part of the school and were able to contribute and be listened to. One child said, “In Victorian days children should have been seen and not heard – in this school we are listened to.” Mrs Conway is the participation lead and supports the School Council. Since introducing Children’s Rights into their work more fully Mrs Conway claims that, “There is now a calmer class, who know their rights, self regulate – it’s had a positive effect, children are well rounded and improved social skills.”
It was pleasing to hear from the Rights Team about how they include the whole of the school in making decisions. There are Pupil Voice Boxes available and the steering group retrieves these regularly to take to meetings and discuss the ideas and issues put forward. Feedback is always given to each class on why some ideas were accepted and others were declined. They have made some informed decisions based on moral learning. A recent decision, when there was a choice of how to spend a sum of money, was to install a water dispenser in the hall as they appreciated their right to clean water and recognise that other children don’t get this right. The school council are very involved in decision making about school equipment and have been encouraged to make careful, thought through decisions using Thinking Hats: Colour coded hats that represent a thought process that encourages children to explore and reflect on their decisions.
Children at Gilwern are able to access information through a number of ways; school website which includes a link to the Rights Respecting Schools website and Children’s Rights, target setting, topic webs, posters and displays around the school, healthy schools work, eco work and visitors to school which enables them to make informed decisions about their learning, health and well being.
Recommendations:
The self evaluation form has identified some key priorities to take forward the school in the future to achieve RRSA Level 2. Some recommendations are:-
- Displays in school: Strengthen displays around school with articles and article numbers. When reviewing and revising classroom charters reflect the articles avoiding possible misinterpretation of them and giving them prominence in class.
- To continue to embed the UNCRC into curriculum planning, policies and all aspects of teaching citing Articles to reinforce learning and confidence in rights respecting language and practice.
- The school takes the message of the UNCRC and RRSA out to the wider community, for example by linking into community groups,local shops and fundraising for local charities whilst introducing rights. Introducing the local nursery to the RRSA would be an initial step, offering to accompany them to a school visit.
- Make good use of other RRSA schools, taking staff members from across the whole school to learning visits – showcase your work and support your Rights Team to become ambassadors for the RRSA sharing their work with other schools.
- Introducing the school to the Children’s Commissioner and his Office and the work they support and also consider Participation Standards for Children and Young People.
This report was compiled by Sarah Thomas (RRSA Partner)
Date: 17th July 2012
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