Sheffield Girls’ achieves Unicef Rights Respecting Schools Silver Award: Rights Aware School

We were delighted to host a representative from Unicef last week who met with a number of our Junior and Senior pupils to learn more about our ongoing work to embed awareness of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) across our curriculum and extra-curricular activities. 

Since we achieved our Bronze award last year we have been working together to further develop our knowledge and understanding of the articles within the Convention and reflect on how they affect us within School and our wider community. 

Our girls were able to provide examples of lessons, assemblies and activities they have been taking part in which have covered topics related to the ‘Article of the Week’ and we were also able to explore how the rights in the Convention are covered within our day to day curriculum as well. 

Ensuring an inclusive and open environment for discussion and sharing views is a core priority at Sheffield Girls’ and during our meeting with Unicef, students were able to share their experiences and talk about the strong relationships they have built with peers and teachers and how this enables them to communicate clearly, consider others, and feel they are safe to raise any concerns or challenge thinking.  Senior pupils also discussed increased opportunities over the last year for discussion about current affairs, including inclusion, safety and wellbeing for older pupils.

Here at Sheffield Girls’ our pupils are empowered to enjoy and exercise their rights and to promote the rights of others locally and globally. Our ‘Rights Respecting Champions’ meet regularly, deliver assemblies and promote the UNCRC. A range of other committees allow pupils to take on leadership roles in relation to areas such as teaching and learning, sustainability, charities and school meals.

We’re incredibly proud of what our pupils and staff have achieved this year and look forward to continuing our journey to becoming a Gold Award Rights Respecting School in the near future. 

For more information about the UNCRC visit their website.