Posted on: Thursday 14 December 2023
New Inn Primary School has been awarded the highly acclaimed Gold Rights Respecting School Award by UNICEF UK.
The award recognises the school’s commitment to promoting and realising the rights of children and young people, as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
New Inn Primary becomes the first school in Torfaen to receive the award, and one of only four schools in the EAS consortia area.
The school has been working towards the award for five years, having already acquired bronze, silver for embedding the rights of the child across the whole school curriculum, ethos, and culture.
In that time the whole school community have worked together on many rights-based projects, including creating a bespoke ‘Rights of the Months’ calendar, newsletters shared with the community and organising fundraising events.
Much of the work at New Inn Primary has been steered by the Pupil Leadership group ‘The Rights Knights’, a group of pupils from Year 2 – Year 6, who have the responsibility of developing the understanding of children as ‘Rights Holders’ and adults as ‘Duty Bearers’.
The group frequently lead assemblies and deliver presentations to staff, Governors, visiting schools and other outside agencies.
One successful event was the Christmas ‘Tin on the Wall’ appeal which supported local community group ‘Panteg House Food Share’ to help families and individuals experiencing hardships, by providing emergency food packages.
The Tin on the Wall Appeal promoted Article 24 ’The right to good quality health care, to clean water and good food.
In October 2023, a UNICEF UK assessor visited the school and praised the strong evidence of rights-based learning and teaching, pupil participation and voice, and positive impact on the school community and wider society.
Staff were also commended for their effective collaboration with other schools and organisations and sharing its good practice with other school in the South East Wales region.
Headteacher, Kate Prendergast, said: “We are delighted to receive this award, which reflects our dedication to creating a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment for all our pupils. We are incredibly proud of Mrs Mann and the Rights Knights and so pleased that their hard work and dedication has been recognised in this way.
“At New Inn Primary we believe that by empowering our pupils to know and exercise their rights, we are also equipping them with the skills and values to become responsible and active citizens in the future. In the future we will continue our work with UNICEF UK and strive to maintain and further develop our rights respecting practice and ethos.”
To celebrate the achievement, the school received a certificate and a banner from UNICEF UK.
There are currently only 38 schools in Wales that have achieved this standard.
For more information about the Rights Respecting School Award, visit: The Rights Respecting Schools Award | UNICEF UK