Gold rights respecting status for St Martin’s
PUPILS at St Martin’s School have gained a greater awareness of the struggles people face worldwide as part of attaining Unicef Gold Rights Respecting status.
The school is the first in Guernsey to get the award. The 95 children from Years 2 to 6 which make up its Rights Respecting squad was proud of the achievement.
Unicef’s report stated that it had never seen such confident and articulate Year 2 students.
‘For two years we have worked towards gold, as have all the island schools, and it’s been brilliant for improving children’s lives,’ said Claire Giles, St Martin’s rights respecting lead.
Learning about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has helped pupils think differently.
‘The convention is at the heart of everything we do at the school. We are lucky that all of our staff really got on board, as have our parents and students.
‘Getting children to know and value their rights, by treating them with dignity and respect, teaches them to respect others. We are really proud of all our children, there has been phenomenal progress.’
As part of the award, said 11-year-old Jago Duncan, a cyclathon event organised by squad members raised £4,600 for schools affected by last July’s Australian wildfires.
Bella Hughes, 10, said: ‘It really helps us understand how other people are in the world.’
She explained that there are 140 rights-respecting buddies who look after younger students.
Alex Lowe, 11, said shoeboxes were filled to help children elsewhere.
Fleur Harrison, also 11, described a reverse advent calendar system which generated donations to the food bank, while Mabel Hill-Tout, 11, explained about a shoe-share system: ‘Basically, we collected shoes to send to Clarks, and for every tonne of shoes, they made a big donation to Unicef to help children.'
Squad pupils changed the car park arrangement, 10-year-old Molly Cook said.
‘We did it to decrease the amount of cars using our field, to exercise our right to play.’
At home, children have been having shorter showers, turning lights off when not in use, using active travel, drying and washing outside, and having meat-free Mondays. At school there is a pupils’ council, a digital leader, youth forum, suggestion boxes, mental health and wellbeing check ins, duty bearers and pupil-led clubs.
