At Strangford Integrated College we are delighted to have achieved our Gold UNICEF’s Rights Respecting Schools Award.

A Rights Respecting School is a place where students feel safe and confident in the fact that their rights are being advocated for. We are a school that has fully embedded children’s rights into our school ethos. We believe that students and staff working together and respecting each other’s rights will result in the following being improved:

• Learning
• Self-esteem
• Well-being
• Confidence
• Appreciation of community

By achieving our Gold Award, we are acknowledging that across the world, some people do not have access to their rights. We are using our voices to help the wider community and beyond;working towards the Global Goals as seen below.

 

Education is a key social and cultural right and plays an important role in reducing poverty and child labour. Furthermore, education promotes democracy, peace, tolerance, development and economic growth. There are a number of articles in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that focus on a child’s right to education.

Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Articles 28 and 29 focus on a child’s right to an education and on the quality and content of education.  Article 28 says that “State Parties recognise the right of children to education” and “should take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child’s human dignity.” Article 29 focuses on the aims of education and says that governments agree that “the education of the child shall be directed to:

• The development of the child’s personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential.
• The development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.
• The development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate and for civilisations different from his or her own.
• The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin.
• The development of respect for the natural environment.

 

We were delighted to be awarded our Gold Rights Respecting School status in March 2022.  Gold Rights Respecting is the highest level of the Award and is granted to schools that have fully embedded the principles of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child into their ethos and curriculum.  We are one of only three post primary schools in Northern Ireland that currently hold the Gold accreditation and the only integrated post primary to currently have the Gold Award.

Our assessors made the following observations about the College and our wonderful students:

⭐️Students were very articulate and demonstrated a good knowledge and understanding of rights. They knew a wide range of articles and were confident in the concept of rights.

⭐️Learning about rights is embedded across all faculty areas, ensuring all students receive a rich curriculum linked to articles of the CRC.

⭐️ A strong commitment to children's rights and to RRSA is evident from leaders at all levels and is tied into the
vision and values of the school. Quality training and support for staff has been sustained.

⭐️An ethos that places positive relationships based on mutual respect and trust at the heart of  school life.

⭐️A school with inclusion at its heart, where pupils feel safe and secure and are articulate about the importance of knowing about children's rights, the difference this makes to their livesand their desire and determination to help realise these rights for others.

⭐️Very confident students who know that their views are taken seriously.