Ideas to sustain Gold practice

It is important to keep rights explicit in your school to maintain knowledge of rights, and ensure new people know that they are in a Rights Respecting School. Other things you can do is to:

• Check out our online training courses, particularly Strengthening the RRSA Online.
• Have a look at our training day courses delivered online by our experienced team. Achieving Gold might be a good refresher on how to keep working towards Gold, or 101 Ideas will give you new ways to teach about rights in your classroom.
• Have you thought about having bespoke training delivered at your school or with a network of schools in your area? Have a look at how this can work for you!
• Take a look here at our wide range of free resources to support teaching and learning about children’s rights in your classroom, as well as ideas and guidance on achieving Strands A, B and C of the Award.
• We send out regular newsletters to our Rights Respecting Schools. If you don’t receive information from us, please email us at [email protected] to make sure we have the correct contact details for you.
• Don’t forget your regional Professional Adviser is on hand to support you – find their details here.

At your Gold accreditation you will have been given some recommendations. With your steering group and SLT plan to address these.

Our e-learning course, Strengthening the RRSA Online, will help you to do this, and is also a great way to induct new staff in your school on all things Rights Respecting.

Our teaching and learning toolbox also provides you with ideas and actions that you can consider implementing in your school to sustainably embed into your practice.

Here are some other ideas:

Global Citizenship

• Use the Global Goals to underpin your Rights Respecting work – they also link nicely to the individual articles in the CRC. The World’s Largest Lesson is a really helpful resource to help you do this.
• Help your pupils understand the big issues that shape our world and equip them with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to make a positive contribution with the Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning initiative, a partnership between the British Council and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Pupil voice and participation

• Pupil voice and participation (Article 12) is one of the key values of the RRSA. Learn more about participation here.
• Download our Article 12 resource pack (from our Article of the Week series), designed to provide you with easy to use, appropriate rights-related learning to share with your students, their families and your colleagues.

Networking with other Rights Respecting Schools is a great way to share good practice and keep your ideas fresh. It also helps to promote children’s rights further into your community. Here are some ideas of how you can do this:

• Join our Facebook community group – find out more here.
• Create a Rights Respecting network in your area – find out more here.
• Introduce new schools to the Rights Respecting Schools Award.
• Host a child rights conference for schools in your area and spread Rights Respecting practice. Find out more.
• Deliver child rights training – and get young people to lead it! Here’s some guidance on how to do this.
• Mentor other schools on their Rights Respecting journey.
• Have a look at some stories from other Rights Respecting Schools working to put Rights Respecting values at the heart of their practice here. If you have an interesting story to tell, you can find a case study template here and a Sixty Seconds With interview template here. Please send to [email protected] when you’re ready – and don’t forget to send an image with it!

Reaching Gold: Rights Respecting is an incredible achievement. Fewer than 200 school across the UK are accredited at this level each year. Here are some ideas to celebrate and showcase your success:

• Have you informed your whole school community about your work? When you are accredited and reaccredited at Gold, make sure you display your Gold: Rights Respecting banner, certificate and logo, hold an event or assembly, and send out a letter to parents and guardians to let them know.
• Think about sharing your report with your Local Authority and other external partners. Here is a Gold press release template, which you may find useful
• You can also share your photos and stories to feature on our website to inspire our Rights Respecting community – find a case study template here and a Sixty Seconds With interview template here. Please send to [email protected] when you’re ready – and don’t forget to send an image with it! The information you provide here will appear on our website and we will share it through our newsletter and social channels.

Please note, we receive a high number of case studies so we will be in touch if we are able to use your case study. To make your case study stand out, please let us know about anything that is unique about your school or if you have taken part in any unique projects.

A big part of being a Gold: Rights Respecting school is advocating and campaigning for children’s rights, both locally and globally. Have you looked at some of our resources and initiatives?

• Outright is a youth-led campaign that empowers children and young people to realise their own rights and speak out in support of the rights of all children. The theme of the campaign changes each year. Find out more here.
• Our youth advocacy toolkit gives you the skills and information to help you support young people to speak up and actively take part in decisions that affect them. Find it here.

As a school who has been involved with the RRSA for a long time, we may approach you to host visits with some of our ambassadors or sector colleagues. We might also ask you to help us trial and pilot new resources, or to be part of a photo shoot.

When we have vacancies, other ways you can get involved are:

• Joining our Accreditation and Standards Committee (the ASC): The ASC includes the RRSA Programme Director, a UNICEF UK Professional Adviser, senior leaders from primary, secondary and special schools and a UNICEF UK RRSA assessor. They review all Gold accreditation and reaccreditation reports to confirm that schools have met the RRSA  Outcomes at Gold, and to ensure consistency across the UK. When we have vacancies for membership of the ASC, we contact our Gold schools to see if anyone is able to join.
• Become a RRSA assessor: From time to time, we need new assessors to facilitate Silver and Gold accreditation visits. When we have vacancies for assessors, we contact our Gold schools to see if anyone can commit to this. Training is provided.