Rights Respecting Learning Community

As part of the Sharing Education Programme, all schools in the Roe Valley Learning Community have agreed to move forward with a shared vision towards becoming a UNICEF ‘Rights Respecting Learning Community’.

UNICEF’s Rights Respecting School Award (RRSA) is based on the rights and responsibilities enshrined in the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Each of the schools involved must demonstrate a commitment to “equal rights, mutual respect and shared responsibility in their school, their community, our country and in the world.”

For a school to be accredited as rights-respecting it must show evidence that it has reached all four of the following standards:

• Standard A: Rights-respecting values underpin leadership and management
  The best interests of the child are a top priority in all actions. Leaders are committed to placing the values and principles of the CRC at the heart of all policies and practice.
• Standard B: The whole school community learns about the CRC
  The Convention is made known to children and adults. Young people and adults use this shared understanding to work for global justice and sustainable living.
• Standard C: The school has a rights-respecting ethos
  Young people and adults collaborate to develop and maintain a rights-respecting school community, based on the CRC, in all areas and in all aspects of school life.
• Standard D: Children are empowered to become active citizens and learners
  Every child has the right to say what they think in all matters affecting them and to have their views taken seriously. Young people develop the confidence, through their experience of an inclusive rights-respecting school community, to play an active role in their own learning and to speak and act for the rights of all to be respected locally and globally.