Refer a London School
and for a chance to have a school trip to the UNICEF UK HQ!
We would like as many schools as possible to be part of the Rights Respecting Schools Award and experience the benefits of a child rights approach. State funded schools in London are currently able to become members of RRSA for free thanks to funding from the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, and we are aiming to double the number of London schools engaged in the programme by 2028.
To support this work, we invite you to be part of our ‘Refer a School’ campaign, which will run throughout the Spring term 2026. This will help you to meet Outcome 9 of the award as you will be helping others locally to learn about their rights, linked to Article 42 of the CRC.
How to take part:
Step One: Work with the children/young people in your Rights Steering Group to encourage another local state funded school to register and take part in RRSA.
We have provided a template letter which the children/young people can adapt to send to the school(s) you are targeting. The school(s) you are approaching may like to receive a visit from pupils in your Rights Respecting Steering Group or visit your school. We have also created a template PowerPoint which you can use to introduce children/young people and staff to the award during a visit. Please feel free to adapt and make these resources more specific to your context and locality.
You may wish to take some photos of your letter or your visit and add these to your evidence for Strand C, Outcome 9 if you are working towards accreditation at Silver or Gold.
Step Two: If you are successful and the school(s) you approach decide to register:
- Direct them to register
- Ask them to choose ‘From Another School’ in answer to the question ‘How did you hear about RRSA?’
- In the section where the form asks them to ‘provide some background information and a brief summary of their interest in the Rights Respecting Schools Award,’ ask them to include your school’s name and postcode.
And finally… A special thanks to you!
As a gesture of thanks, if you successfully refer a London school you will receive a complimentary CRC icons poster. Additionally, your school will be entered into a draw, where one school will be selected at random to bring up to 20 pupils to visit UNICEF UK’s office in Stratford during the summer term to meet members of the RRSA team. You can be entered into the draw more than once if you successfully refer more than one London school.
FAQs
Any London school who is at the Bronze, Silver or Gold stage of the Rights Respecting Schools Award can join this campaign.
You can approach any state funded school which is within a London Local Authority as part of this campaign. This incudes primary schools, secondary schools, all-through schools, special schools and schools providing alternative education.
RRSA will track which schools are mentioned in school registrations between the launch of the campaign (10th December 2025) and the end of the campaign (31st March 2026). Every school which has been named will receive one free children’s rights poster featuring the rights icons and will be entered into a draw for a chance of a group of up to 20 of their pupils to visit UNICEF UK’s headquarters in Stratford, East London.
Posters will be sent out by the end of April 2026.
The school will be chosen at random. If you recruit more than one school, your school’s name will be entered into the draw more than once depending on the number of schools you have recruited. The more schools you recruit, the more chance you have of being chosen.
The chosen school will be notified by 24th April. If you have not heard by then, this means you have not been selected. The school can bring a group of up to 20 pupils, this may be your school council or rights steering group. You may also bring the number of adults needed to accompany the children based on your school’s risk assessment.
The visit will take place during the summer term at a date and time agreed by the school and the RRSA team.