We are proud to be a GOLD
'Rights respecting' School
Burton Fields School aims to be a school where every aspect of a child is focused on and developed, including the area of well-being. As part of our school’s aims to promote a happy and successful school, we have worked towards recognition as a Unicef ‘Rights Respecting School’. In November 2019, Burton Fields School was awarded the Silver 'Rights Aware' Award in recognition of how much progress we have made on our journey as a ‘Rights Respecting School’. In June 2022, we were awarded the Gold 'Rights Respecting' Award - one of only about 200 schools in the country and one of only three in Staffordshire.
You can read our fabulous Gold accreditation report here.
The ‘Rights Respecting School’ Award strategy (RRSA) helps our pupils to grow into confident, caring and responsible young citizens both in school and within the wider community. By learning about their rights our pupils, your children, also learn about the importance of respecting the rights of others.
As a Rights Respecting School we teach the children that they have rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). From this starting point they also learn their responsibility to respect each other’s rights in the community. Rights are not the same as ‘wants’. Rights are the basic human needs and values that should apply to everyone. As Duty Bearers, we recognise that everyone has a responsibility to ensure that the children in our care have access to their universal rights. We also encourage our children to take responsibility for their actions so that they do not negatively affect the rights of others.
UNICEF outlines the articles which define these rights in more detail; a child-friendly information leaflet is available here.
To help our children learn about and understand the importance of their rights, we are continuing to focus on a number of key Articles which we feel have direct relevance to the lives of the pupils in our school community:
RRS – Article 2: The Convention applies to everyone, whatever their race, religion, abilities; whatever they think or say, whatever type of family they come from.
Health & Wellbeing:-
RRS Article 19: Governments should ensure that children are properly cared for, and protect them from violence, abuse and neglect by their parents, or anyone else who looks after them
RRS Article 22: Children who come into a country as refugees should have the same rights as children born in that country.
RRS Article 24: Children have the right to good quality health care, to clean water, nutritious food, and a clean environment, so that they will stay healthy. Rich countries should help poorer countries achieve this.
Enjoyment & Achievement:-
RRS Article 15: Children have the right to meet together and to join groups and organisations, as long as this does not stop other people from enjoying their rights.
RRS Article 17: Children have the right to reliable information from the mass media. Television, radio, and newspapers should provide information that children can understand, and should not promote materials that could harm children.
RRS Article 28 : All children and young people have a right to a primary education, which should be free. Wealthy countries should help poorer countries achieve this. Discipline in schools should respect children’s human dignity. Young people should be encouraged to reach the highest level of education they are capable of.
RRS Article 31: All children have a right to relax and play, and to join in a wide range of activities.
Children’s Voice:-
RRS Article 12: Children have the right to say what they think should happen, when adults are making decisions that affect them, and to have their opinions taken into account.
RRS Article 13 : Children have the right to get and to share information, as long as the information is not damaging to them or to others.
RRS Article 14: Children have the right to think and believe what they want, and to practise their religion, as long as they are not stopping other people from enjoying their rights.
RRS Article 15: Children have the right to meet together and to join groups and organisations, as long as this does not stop other people from enjoying their rights.
RRS Article 30: Children have a right to learn and use the language and customs of their families, whether these are shared by the majority of people in the country or not.
