Rights Respecting Education (RRE)

UNICEF is the world’s leading organisation for children and their rights. In 1989, governments across the world promised all children the same rights by adopting the UN Convention on the Rights of the child.

What is a Rights Respecting school?                                                          

A rights-respecting school is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted. Young people and the school community learn about children’s rights by putting them into practice every day.

At Oakley Infant School, we put the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of everything we do. It is embedded in the school ethos, aims, values and curriculum. It is evident in the relationships and language of rights and respect between all members of our school’s community. We believe that happy and safe children are better learners. 

School Voice Ambassadors

Article 12 – The right to be listened and to be taken seriously.

Pupil voice is of the upmost importance at Oakley Infant School. The School Voice ambassadors are elected every year following our Democracy week. Our focus group consisting of two children from each class, meet to discuss future school events, class and school issues and focus on areas for whole school improvement.

The School Voice Ambassadors lead an assembly at the start of each school year to ensure that every pupil is aware of the Convention and what their rights are. 

During the year, our ambassadors are involved in special days and events which highlights one or more of those rights.     

This has included our;

* previous School Voice ambassadors visiting YR to talk to them about the role of an ambassador and suitable qualities.

* respect assembly linked to British Values.

* annual Anti-bullying week and what makes a good friend.

* NSPCC assembly 'Speak out, Stay Safe',  acknowledging that they have a right to be safe from harm (Article 19).

* decision making for the design of our new library including furniture and materials.

* involvement in the selection process of the new Oakley learning value symbols following our competition launch.

* decision making for the new friends trail in the school grounds.

* involvement in the selection process of the front cover for our Rights Respecting Education booklet to inform people

   visiting our school that we are a rights respecting school.

* teaching our Rights Respecting RAP song. 

* Oakley Rights and Diversity video, March 2022.

* learning walks to identify our Rights posters around the school and to identify any additional rights that could be added to the environment learning.

* meetings to discuss internet safety and being safe online. 

* attending EARA (Equality and Rights Advocates) meetings to learn more about rights and diversity.

* attending annual School Council themed events including mindfulness and resilience and this year's 'Go Green'

* meeting with our linked Ofsted inspector and sharing our Rights and Diversity journey.

* voting to decide on the pudding for the Christmas lunch.  

Many of our projects have involved fund-raising including;

*      Cake sale to raise funds towards the Australian Bush Fire, 2020

*      Food donations for  food banks following our Harvest celebrations

*      Second hand book sale with profits going to SEPIA charity which works to  improve the lives of people in Africa                               through the development of  educational projects, raising £434 in February 2022

*      Second hand toy collection sending the toys to the Ukrainian Refugee's       

        supporting the work of a member of the local community 

Pupils have the opportunity to have their voices heard through classroom discussion, assemblies, decisions made by our active ‘School Voice ambassadors and subject pupil conferencing.                    

The children have chosen particular rights which they feel are important to them and have formed the school's focus rights;

UNCRC Tree

In our entrance hall, our tree is displayed adorned with ribbons and acorns. At the start of the year during our RRE week, the children each have a ribbon and take it to be tied on the tree to be tied on and to represent that every child has a voice and a right to be heard. There are 42 acorns on the tree and this is to represent the number of articles in the charter.

RRE Woodland Animals                                                                                                                                                           

Each of our focus rights is represented by a different woodland animal. Following our Rights Respecting Education week, the animals take it in turns to visit each of the classrooms and help the children to understand about each of the rights.