Children getting to know their rights

Monday 01 April 2019

Three of Guernsey's schools have achieved bronze level on UNICEF's Rights Respecting Schools programme - which aims to teach children what rights they have in the classroom, and help them use that knowledge to have a better education.

Haute Capelles, the Grammar School and Les Beaucamps have already achieved the bronze level, but under the Children and Young People's Plan, it is the States' aim to have every school at silver level.

UNICEF's Jilly Hillier was in the island last week, talking about what exactly it is that the programme offers to the children themselves: "the award aims to have schools put the convention on the rights of the child and those rights at the heart of its ethos, which means children learn about their rights and respect.

"In turn, that means relationships in the school environment are stronger, and it also means the children are more engaged with what they are doing. They feel listened to when they can contribute something, and they know they are not just going in to a school council meeting for no reason. It is about having that say - that is what is important and is valued by the children." 

The check list for a bronze tier rights respecting school - which was essentially a planning stage for silver tier - included:

• Becoming familiar with the UN convention
• Completing a silver tier plan
• Working with a professional advisor 
• reviewing your schools practice against the programme's 'descriptors'

Speaking to Express, some of the children at Haute Capelles have been in a steering group learning about the rights they have, and also coming up with ways to teach the rest of the school. 

Monty Desforges, 11, said that each right could be linked to a topic, for example, the right to a clean environment could be linked to Climate Change. 

Amelie Watts, 10, added: "We have planned to do some assemblies and activities to help teach everyone else about the rights. Last week we got a sheet of all of the rights and we had to choose the ones which were the most important to us." 

Mathhilde Flouquet, 10, said: "I believe that the UNICEF RRS is so very important because it teaches children about their rights and hat they deserve. It also shows them that no matter who they are they're as important as everyone else." 

Pictured: Nick Hynes and Jilly Hillier. 

At the Grammar School, sixth former Elliott Coutu, 17, said they had used the bill of rights to rewrite the entire school's behavioural policy, Callum Russell, 12, said the idea was that when the children had written it, they were more likely to listen to it. 

Nick Hynes, the States lead for the Young People's Plan, said the reason they had chosen to push for this UNICEF project was because it put the child and the child's thoughts at the centre of everything. 

He also explained that Mrs Hillier was on island to teach staff about what exactly the Rights Respecting Schools Programme was and why it was important, along with how it implement it into their teaching. 

While the rest of the island's schools are aiming to have Bronze in place by Easter, the next goal will be to have silver recognition. 

Pictured top: L-R Lily Trebert, Niamh Polson, Amelie Watts, Monty Desforges, Pacience Lemoinge, Mathilde Flouquet.