Pupils and staff at a Caldercruix school enjoyed a massive dose of silver lining to their day after scooping a top honour from UNICEF.
Glengowan Primary was accredited with the Silver Rights Aware Award for "learning and teaching about, and through, children’s rights".
Glengowan's rights respecting schools (RRS) co-ordinator, Laura McCabe, decided to research and analyse what impact pupils' voices have within a RRS as part of her own education - and the school promptly adopted a rights-based approach.
Laura told Lanarkshire Live : "I became RRS co-ordinator while completing my Masters in educational leadership and professional inquiry, so I decided to research children’s rights and it changed the whole school's values, vision and practices.
"More importantly, the children are now learning about their rights, through their rights and for their rights, all of which are at the heart of UNICEF’s RRS Award.
"UNICEF’s professional adviser for the West of Scotland, Steven Kidd, assessed the school to see whether it would be accredited with the Silver Rights Aware Award, and we were delighted to learn it had been successful.
"The school achieved the Bronze: Rights Committed Award at the end of 2019 and was on track to scoop the silver award when the pandemic hit, which unfortunately delayed the accreditation. But the children did not let this stop them."
Laura added: "This award would not have been accredited if it weren't for the hard work and efforts of all the children at Glengowan, despite the challenging times we have all faced.
"Special recognition must be given to P4 kids as they were active participants during the assessment. They loved being able to share their knowledge of the UNCRC with Steven and enjoyed showcasing some of their work.
"Glengowan Primary could not be any prouder to receive this accreditation, for the children, the staff and the community.
"Since embarking on our RRS journey, and developing a rights-based approach, this has now became firmly embedded within our school’s ethos, vision, values and practice.
"The school will continue to explore learning and teaching opportunities about, through and for children’s rights and look forward to achieving gold in the future."
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