A YORK school has received an award from one of the world’s leading children’s rights organisations.

Escrick CE Primary School has gained the Silver Rights Respecting School (RRS) award from UNICEF UK.

School officials said the award is granted to schools showing commitment to promoting and realising children’s rights and encouraging adults, children and young people to respect the right of others in school.

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The school in Carr Lane started the Rights Respecting Programme in 2022, and the Silver Award recently attained ‘recognises achievement in putting the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child’ at the centre of a school’s planning, policies and practices.

A group of the Rights Respecting Ambassador pupils from the schoolA group of the Rights Respecting Ambassador pupils from the school (Image: Supplied) Hattie Robinson, the school RRS lead, said: “It is clear to see how intrinsically the school’s Christian values are linked to rights.

“It is subtle and natural, having a knock-on effect on attitudes, behaviour and even dialogue amongst children and their peers.

“The ambassador pupil groups have been created to promote pupil voice and empower children to have ownership and responsibility for things in school thus making a change to their school community.

“In the context of increasing diversity and with a rise in the number children requiring more specialised support, especially post-Covid, this work could not be at a better time.”

Headteacher Miss Emma Miller said: “We are so proud of the children, staff team and wider community in helping us to achieve the Silver Award.

Our children’s understanding and supporting of the Rights of a Child has improved dramatically which has in turn helped them to develop their role in our school community.

Our children live our school values and are developing the skill set to be active and responsible citizens who are driven to live in a fair and safe world, where everyone has rights.

This award really has made a difference, and we hope the journey to the Gold award will further embed and support the children’s experiences of school life.’

Miss Robinson with pupils including George (l) who said the school had been learning about the UN Convention on Rights of the Child Miss Robinson with pupils including George (l) who said the school had been learning about the UN Convention on Rights of the Child (Image: Supplied) Year Five pupil George said: “We have been learning about all the rights and how important Article One of the UN convention is – ‘Everyone under the age of 18 has all the rights in the Convention’