A Rights Respecting School is one in which students are happy and healthy, feel safe and appreciated, have positive relationships and are involved in their school and the wider community.
At Douglas Academy children’s rights are promoted and realised; adults and students work towards this goal together.
Awareness of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is central to our learning and teaching, and the UNRCR’s ‘Four General Principles’ of:
- Non-discrimination
- Best interests of the Child
- Right to survival and development
- Right to be heard
underpin our approach to policy and practice as well as our school ethos and environment.
One of our most prestigious achievements at Douglas Academy is our Rights Respecting School team successfully securing the UNICEF UK Gold Award in March 2018. We are one of a small number of secondary schools in Scotland to achieve this award and the first in East Dunbartonshire! The UNICEF representatives highlighted particular strengths which encapsulate our positive school ethos perfectly:
- Very confident and articulate pupils who are clearly proud to represent their school.
- Links are made clearly between children’s rights and whole school improvement
- Strong desire to ensure all pupils are supported to achieve, using data to help inform practice and targeting intervention when required
- Pupil voice is respected and encouraged, with involvement woven through all aspects of school life.
Students meet in three different lunchtime groups each week and organise events and activities that aim to promote awareness of Children’s rights.
Human Rights Group:
- Presentations at year group assemblies relating to topics such as Black History Month, LGBT Rights, Mental Health and International Women’s Day.
- Collaborations with the Milngavie Refugee Action Group including awareness-raising assemblies and fundraising events, including our Christmas hats and jumpers day.
Rights Respecting School Teams:
- Produced a School Charter which is a statement of agreed expectations and commitments for conduct within the school.
- Produced a new Anti-bullying Policy for the school, and promoted this during Anti-bullying week in November 2017.
- Focus on Global Citizenship with fundraising for a sponsored mother and baby in Rwanda and a sponsored teacher in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in partnership with the charity Comfort International.
- Primary liaison work – senior pupils delivering peer-education on children’s rights to primary pupils in two of our local primary schools.
- Supporting departments as they develop their courses to include links to rights-based learning in all subjects.
- Overseeing the school’s progress through the Unicef Rights Respecting School accreditation programme.
