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Kilcreggan Primary School has been awarded the prestigious Silver Rights Respecting School Award by Unicef – the first school in the UK to receive a virtual accreditation this term.

The award is granted to schools that show commitment to promoting and realising children’s rights and encouraging adults, children and young people to respect the rights of others in school. Silver is given to schools that make excellent progress towards embedding the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into its ethos and curriculum.

Parents, staff and pupils at Kilcreggan have all contributed to the award, with the whole school community coming together to learn about, and promote, children’s rights.

The school’s steering group organised an event for World Book Day earlier this year to raise money for a reading programme from Save the Children that enables other children throughout the world to enjoy books too.

Pupils also re-wrote the words of the school song to include reference of their rights, they made posters for display around the school, and many wrote articles explaining the importance of children’s rights. A special assembly was also held to highlight the issue.

����ֱ��’s Policy Lead for Education, Councillor Yvonne McNeilly, said: “Sincerest congratulations to everyone at Kilcreggan Primary. This is a fantastic achievement. The values embedded in the Rights Respecting Schools Award help to ensure that our children and young people feel empowered and gives them a voice.

“A Rights Respecting School is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted. Staff, pupils and parents have all worked extremely hard to achieve this. They have shown great commitment and dedication, and I am extremely proud of them. Well done.”

Frances Bestley, UK National programme director for Rights Respecting Schools, said: “Children at Kilcreggan Primary School have shown a really good grasp of the Convention. It is great to see how much the Convention underpins the school’s work and values, in turn creating a rights-respecting environment, both in the classroom and playground.

“Children’s rights are incorporated in many areas of the school’s work, including in the curriculum, assemblies and the various activities children organise and take part in. We were also impressed by the many opportunities for children to have their voices heard. We are very pleased to be awarding Silver: Rights Aware to Kilcreggan primary School and look forward to continuing our Rights Respecting work with them.”