Gold: Rights Respecting
Accreditation Visit
During the Gold accreditation a school is assessed at the highest level of the Award.
We recognise that schools are working in many different contexts and it is possible to accredit your school virtually as well as face-to-face.
Take a look at our article about virtual accreditations if your accreditation will be virtual, then the guidance on this page and when you want to book, contact your Professional Adviser with a selection of date options.
Costs
The Rights Respecting Schools Award is a membership based programme with an annual subscription. Accreditation is included in the membership package. For more information, see costs section of our website.
Before the visit
Complete the School Evaluation: Gold form to check you are ready for your accreditation visit. Identify:
- How has the outcome been achieved?
- What difference has been made?
- What evidence do you have?
The form is to be completed by senior leaders. You may include feedback from staff and pupil questionnaires, reports from your school inspection body, comments from parents, etc.
Find the School Evaluation Gold form here.
The School Evaluation form needs to contain enough detail for the assessor to see what you have achieved.
Request a date. Send a completed Gold visit request form to your Professional Adviser .
Your request will then be shared with an assessor who will contact you to confirm the date.
The purpose of the evidence pack is to give us a feel for your school and show us some of what we would usually see if we were physically visiting your school and viewing your physical evidence file.
We have produced the guidance below and a template evidence pack to help you bring your evidence together.
Download the template evidence pack.
- Please be selective – you do not need to send us everything as most of the accreditation process and subsequent report is based on what you, your colleagues and your pupils tell us during the visit.
- Provide the evidence in a single PowerPoint deck (or similar presentation tool) with sections for Strand A, B, C.
- Have a contents page slide for each strand. In your PowerPoint deck (or similar presentation) please aim to include a maximum of 2 or 3 pieces of evidence for each outcome (there are 9 outcomes of the award) with a maximum of 30 slides in total.
- Feel free to include hyperlinks to useful information on your website.
- The evidence should be linked to what you write in your evaluation form so we can cross reference.
- Please ensure we can see the detail on photographs of displays and ensure you are following your child protection policies when sharing photographs and videos.
- We need to receive the evidence at least two weeks before the accreditation visit and earlier if possible.
- Do involve the pupils in your steering group to help create the evidence presentation if you can.
- Quotes from parents are useful as we often don’t get a chance to speak to them
- Short video clips or voice overs are welcome.
- Examples of children’s work on rights are useful and can be photographed and added to the evidence presentation.
We will delete all materials sent after the accreditation report is completed.
Two weeks before the assessment date please send:
- School Evaluation: Gold
- School Questionnaire Summary (if possible, if they have already been completed)
- Evidence Pack
The Gold Accreditation – Suggested Programme document will provide an outline of how you should structure the assessment.
The day before arrange to check the video platform: Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams etc. so you can be sure that everything works.
During the visit
Make sure you have identified a school member of staff to attend all sessions, ideally this will be your RRSA coordinator.
Be flexible. If at any point anyone needs a break the meeting can be adjourned and we appreciate that network connections are not always reliable.
The assessor should have a short break (10-15) minutes before feeding back to the headteacher and coordinator – this allows them to clarify the highlights of the ‘visit’ they particularly want to share and to properly prepare the recommendations they wish to give you.
The visit will probably last between one and a half and two and a half hours.
During the accreditation, at Gold there will be two assessors who will have conversations with:
- The headteacher and RRSA coordinator and senior leaders to discuss their role in achieving the three RRSA Strands
- Staff, governors and parents
- Groups of students
At the end of the Gold Visit the assessors will be clear about their judgement but the confirmation of your school’s Gold Accreditation (or Reaccreditation) will not happen until after the report has been seen by our Accreditation and Standard Committee. Your assessors will let you know the outcome as soon as the decision has been made.
After the visit
Assuming you are successful, you will receive a report from your assessor.
The Gold: Rights Respecting logo will be emailed to you, and you will receive a banner and certificate in the post once schools reopen.
You can display these on your school website and documentation.
Reaching Gold is an amazing achievement so be sure to celebrate. Use our press release template for your media work, and share your photos and stories with us.
