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Rights Respecting Schools Award
Valley Invicta Primary School at Leybourne Chase is a Rights Respecting School.
At Leybourne Chase, we are proud to have been re-accredited this year (October 2022) as being a Gold Rights Respecting School. Only a handful of schools in the Kent area have been awarded this level and it emphasises the school’s work towards teaching about, through and being ambassadors for the convention and children’s rights. At Leybourne Chase we provide opportunities for children to exercise their rights and to campaign both locally and globally. Being a rights respecting school has positively impacted the whole school community by encouraging a respectful, inclusive, safe and nurturing environment and has allowed the children to become wider thinkers, inspiring them to be passionate about promoting positive change.
A copy of our re-accreditation report can be found here: VIPS at Leybourne Chase Gold Re-accreditation 2022A copy of our previous assessment report can be found here: Valley Invicta Primary School at Leybourne Chase RRSA Gold report November 2019
What is the Rights Respecting Schools Award?
The Rights Respecting Schools Award programme supports schools to embed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in their practice to improve well-being and help all children and realise their potential.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out the human rights of every person under the age of 18. The Convention is an international human rights treaty which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989 and ratified by the UK in 1991.
Here are the Rights.
The Unicef UK Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) supports schools across the UK to embed children’s human rights in their ethos and culture. Schools can achieve a special award. The award recognises achievement in putting the UN Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of a school’s practice to improve well-being and help all children realise their potential.
The award is based on principles of equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination and participation. The initiative started in 2006 and schools involved in the Award have reported a positive impact on relationships and well-being, leading to better learning and behaviour, improved academic standards and less bullying. The Award is aimed at schools across the UK.
Schools involved in the Rights Respecting Schools Award work towards recognition that they have embedded children’s rights in their school’s practice and ethos. Schools are required to implement four evidence-based standards that cover:
- the leadership of the school,
- knowledge and understanding of children’s rights,
- ethos and relationships,
- the empowerment of children
More information about the award and the convention can be found here:
What is a Rights Respecting School?
Watch our School Video about what we think it means to be a Rights Respecting School!
Supporting rights around the world:
After watching Newsround and hearing about India’s rapidly increasing COVID-19 crisis, our youngest children in Panda Class wanted to raise some money to get them more oxygen. The children will be taking part in a sponsored 3-mile walk around our school playground on Friday May 21st, and have placed donation buckets in the local Costcutter, to raise money to support Unicef UK in providing aid to those who need it.
https://twitter.com/VIPSLeybourne/status/1392821830445146113?s=20
Anti-Bullying Ambassadors:
In March (2021), a group of 20 of our children were trained to become Anti-Bullying Ambassadors. Their training was conducted by the Dianna Award, where they were taught how to educte their peers on bullying behaviour.
https://twitter.com/VIPSLeybourne/status/1376882493551443971?s=20
Community Links:
In March 2021, Mrs Craig got the very special job of opening the long-awaited Cost Cutter shop at Leybourne Chase. She took some Panda Class children with her for the event and they were all able to choose a free drink from the lovely new shop!
Anti-Bullying Week 2020
This year, the whole school took part in Odd Socks Day to spread the message that we are United Against Bullying at Leybourne Chase. Throughout the week, the children discussed what bullying was and ways that we can help to prevent bullying in our school.
Watch our Odd Socks Day school video: https://youtu.be/_yZ07_43mMA
Learning About Our Rights:
Look at our fantastic artwork surrounding our rights and the Sustainable Development Goals - Rights Respecting Art Afternoons 25/1/19 and 1/2/2019.pdf
Tom Tugendhat at Leybourne Chase!
The children of Leybourne Chase wrote to Tom Tugendhat (MP) to voice their concerns regarding road safety on the estate. In response to their letters, he came to our school and spent an hour with the children in Year 3 discussing this issue. Following this discussion, members of Year Three walked the estate with him and noted down any areas where safety features such as zebra crossings could be put in place. Following this visit, Tom has expressed his support on social media and has contacted Kent County Council to address these issues.
Click the following link for the article on Kent Online: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/malling/news/pupils-show-mp-traffic-woes-200792/
Neighbourly:
The school have signed up the scheme 'Neighbourly' in an effort to help to further support the local community and ensure that the children in our school have access to healthy, nutritious food (Article 24 - children have the right to the best possible health). Through the scheme, the school have access to weekly food surplus donations from local supermarket Aldi (Aylesford) which will be used to ensure that children have healthy snacks. Follow this link to read more about our aims and what we have been doing: https://www.neighbourly.com/project/5d1df510c7ac8e17ec10761a/information
Donations of fruit from Aldi (Aylesford) which were shared amongst children in KS2.
Christmas 2019:
This Christmas the children at Leybourne Chase gave donations of presents for the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal. These presents were donated to give to children who are in need and who might otherwise not receive a Christmas present.
https://twitter.com/VIPSLeybourne/status/1205102965796868096
Useful Downloads:
RRSA-features-of-rights-respecting-classroom
ABCDE of Rights - this document outlines the nature of children's rights. It explains child rights as being universal, inherent, inalienable, unconditional and indivisible in child friendly language.
