First Scottish School to get UNICEF Award

Home > News and Events > News - release archive > 2006 > May

St Catherine’s Primary School in Paisley will be awarded with the certificate to mark their achievement by the Bruce Wilkinson, the Education Officer for UNICEF UK in Scotland on Tuesday 23 May.

By being the first school in Scotland, St Catherine’s, will now share this distinction with only a handful of schools in England. The fact that the Rights Respecting School Award has not been officially launched yet by UNICEF and is still only being piloted through the UK, makes St Catherine’s award an even greater achievement.

UNICEF UK has identified four qualities that a rights respecting school must demonstrate to gain the Rights Respecting School award. These are:

• knowledge and understanding of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child amongst the teachers and pupils and its relevance to the school ethos and curriculum;
• teaching and learning styles that are commensurate with knowledge and understanding of children’s rights;
• pupils actively participating in decision making throughout the school;and
• professional development to support rights as part of the school ethos, curriculum, culture and knowledge of global interdependence.

Bruce Wilkinson, Education Office for UNICEF UK in Scotland, explained: “The Rights Respecting award is a new nation-wide scheme to promote the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Currently it is being piloted in over 30 schools across the UK ready for its official launch in Spring 2007.

“I would like to offer my congratulations again to St Catherine’s Primary who truly deserve this award . They have worked hard as a school to maintain the spirit of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child with their strong work on bullying and have proved very influential in helping us create the benchmark for this new award.”

The Head teacher at St Catherine's, Eileen Low, explained how the children were excited to be getting this award. She said: “We have been involved with the Rights of the Child for the last three years. As soon as our pupils heard about UNICEF and understood the role they play in society they wanted to be part of it. It has proved a great learning experience, as along with their understanding of their rights, they also learnt that with rights comes responsibility. Respect has played a major part of their learning and is a main ethos of our school..”

Indeed the way that the pupils, teachers and parents handle school issues has totally transformed. Eileen Low explains: “If you have the right to a safe playground then you have the responsibility to keep it safe for others. If you have the right to be taught well then you have the responsibility to allow teachers to teach. And if teachers have the right to be respected by their pupils then they have the responsibility to respect their pupils.”

A whole school approach to this has resulted in a shift of emphasis for including children in the way the school is run. Older pupils are now consulted on many of the discipline issues of the schools and asked to contribute to solutions.

Councillor Roy Glen, Convener of Renfrewshire Council’s Lifelong Learning and Work Policy Board, was impressed with the schools efforts. He said: “I would like to offer my congratulations on behalf of the whole Council to the pupils, parents and teachers of St Catherine’s. They have proved to be inspirational with their approach and understanding of the rights of the child. It is great to see the whole school community become so involved and passionate in how the school is run. Renfrewshire Council is committed to providing the best educational start in life and getting the whole community involved, so I am sure this will be the first of many of UNICEF awards to be awarded to our schools.”

Press Release: Monday 23 May 2006