Being an RRSA Ambassador

As a Rights Respecting School, we hope that you consider yourself an ambassador for the programme, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and children’s rights.  

Why not use your experience and knowledge to spread the word about the Rights Respecting Schools Award and help support and empower even more children, as well as promote your own school?  

There is a wide range of ways you may choose to promote RRSA and children’s rights, and have a positive impact in your community, local area or even beyond.  Here are some ideas on what you could do:

• Let other schools in your area know about RRSA and its impact. We have a template PowerPoint presentation you can use at your local school cluster meetings or other networking events. You could also run a RRSA conference – find some tips on running child rights conference on our website  
• Support schools in your area already involved in the RRSA – run network meetings for local schools to support their progress, link and collaborate  
• Run a campaign based on Article 42 – children have a right to know about their rights  
• Embed rights into transition work promoting RRSA to other schools  
• Create a film or a song to show how a rights-based approach is impacting on outcomes in your school. Share this with your local community, on social media and with your local media 
• Get your school involved in other UNICEF UK projects and campaigns such as Soccer Aid Schools Challenge and OutRight 
• Check out other opportunities to engage with UNICEF UK on our ‘Working with young people’ pages  
• Liaise with your Professional Adviser to explore opportunities to contribute to the wider RRSA community.  

If you’re planning any of the above or if you’re speaking about RRSA, whether you’re talking to fellow education professionals, at an event or to your local media, here are some useful pointers on how to do this with maximum impact: 

• Don’t forget to mention UNICEF UK so those who are interested in finding out more about RRSA know where to look 
• If you need, you can find facts about RRSA on our website . Any questions, let us know. 
• It’s powerful to focus on the impact of becoming a Rights Respecting School for children. You might find it helpful to think about your answers to these questions: 
  • What examples do you have of children being empowered by their knowledge of rights?  
  • How has the confidence and empowerment that comes with knowing their rights improved the pupils’ engagement with their learning? 
  • How does the language of rights and respect contribute to positive relationships and conflict resolution?  
  • How have children been inspired to take action to protect the rights of others through their knowledge of rights?  
  • How can children share their own experiences and be involved in the planning or delivery of ambassadorial activity? 
• If you need support, whether that’s to check facts about the programme, source quotes or press release templates for schools recently achieving Silver or Gold or for media advice, get in touch with [email protected].