UNICEF award comes to Jersey schools

Saturday 14 July 2018

All primary and secondary schools will be offered support to become UNICEF accredited ‘Rights Respecting Schools’, Jersey’s Children’s Commissioner has announced.

The Children’s Commissioner, Deborah McMillan, is working with UNICEF to allow for all Jersey schools to attain their ‘Rights Respecting Schools Award’ (RRSA).

The award, given by UNICEF, aims to put children’s rights at the forefront of schools so that every pupil knows what their rights are and what to do when their rights are not upheld.

Pictured: UNICEF's 'Rights Respecting Schools Award' aims to put children's rights at the centre of schools in a way that is easy for the pupils to understand (UNICEF).

Jersey’s schools will be joining 4,500 other schools across the UK that are working through the award, which uses the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child as a framework.

This news follows the Commissioner’s survey of over 2,000 children which revealed that 125 young people had suffered physical violence at school, with many of them expressing concerns that their bullying fears were not being taken “seriously” by teachers.

Pictured: The Children's Commissioner conducted an island-wide survey of 2,000 children and young people which revealed that many of them felt their bullying fears weren't being taken seriously by their teacher.

The Commissioner said: “I am very excited to be able to offer schools in Jersey this opportunity. Through my recent island-wide consultation, children and young people have told me that some of the main issues they are facing are linked to bullying and emotional and mental health.

“Evaluation of the RRSA has shown that when schools embed children’s rights into the heart of what they do, these are some of the main areas of improvement. The benefits of the RRSA aren’t just felt by the pupils, but by the wider school community as a whole. By supporting all schools in Jersey to go through this programme, there is scope for this to have a profound impact on our island’s children.” 

Pictured: Children's Commissioner, Deborah McMillan, hopes that this UNICEF award will have a "profound impact on our island's children".

Grouville School is the first school in Jersey to apply for the final stage gold award and will be going through their accreditation for this in December of this year.

Commenting on the award’s impact on the school, Grouville’s headteacher, Nichola Turner, said: “Grouville is very proud to be a UNICEF Rights Respecting School. We completed Level 1 in 2014 and are now working towards achieving gold (Level 2) in December 2018."

WATCH: UNICEF's official video about respecting rights in school (Youtube/UNICEF UK).

Mrs Turner continued: “Our children are empowered to have a good understanding of their rights and this is reflected in the ethos of our school. Pupil voice is very important at Grouville and our children play a lead role in advocating their voice and impacting on change.”

The Commissioner will offer all primary and secondary schools in Jersey the opportunity to achieve the award, supported by the on-island UNICEF trained Rights Respecting Schools Officer, Victoria Bisson.