Case Study: Fairview School
Creating bespoke rights resources to support pupils
A range of different approaches based on children’s rights ensure young voices are heard.
Jemma Oswald and Yvonne Brolly, are Lead Pupil Support Assistants at Fairview School, an additional support needs (ASN) school with pupils ranging in age from 3 to 18 years with profound and complex needs based in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
Working with UNICEF UK has allowed us to fine tune how inclusive our school is and how we can ensure the rights of our pupils can be met. We continue to improve our school through teaching about and advocating for the rights of the child; a continuous journey that changes as we all learn on the way.
We are particularly proud of showing our pupils that they have a voice. We found that our pupils react better towards their peers, rather than to a stranger. With this in mind, we recorded our pupils telling us about each article in the Convention. They were filmed using their voice; whether that was through a talker, switch button, signing or talking – it was their preferred way of communication. The videos were then edited to include the written language and sometimes a voice over, so it was inclusive for everyone to watch.
QR codes were produced for each video, then printed and put up around the school. Pupils are now able to take a tablet to scan the code and watch themselves and their peers talk about their rights. It holds more meaning for them, and they are much more engaged in the learning experience. We plan to continually update these videos so the pupils attending all have a turn at seeing themselves in the videos.
While working on RRSA within our setting, we had to adapt almost all the resources that were available to suit our pupils. Our school has a variety of differing abilities and disabilities with the age of pupils ranging from 3 to 18 each with different learning styles. When looking through the available resources online, we found that very few were suitable to use for an ASN school. Therefore, we needed to make our own resources to use within our setting, this took time as well as a lot of trial and error, but we now have a bank of resources that we can use to talk about rights within our ASN school.
We would advise other schools that are working with children and young people with additional support needs to educate the staff, working with them first. Once the staff understand children’s rights they are better equipped to help the young people understand them. It is important to remind staff that adults are Duty Bearers under the Convention, and many children and young people with ASN will need them to be their voice and advocate for them.
School context: Fairview School is an additional support needs school with pupils ranging in age from 3 to 18 years with profound and complex needs. As we are a public school built on the land next to both a primary and secondary school, we strive to work with our neighbours, families and the wider community to ensure the rights of our pupils are met.