At Canford Heath Junior School, we are proud to hold the Level 2 'Gold' status for the Rights respecting school award. We achieved this status in July 2012 and then in March 2015 and June 2018, we were re-accredited with this status.

The Gold Award is the highest accolade given by Unicef UK which shows we have a deep and thorough commitment to children’s rights at all levels of school life. This commitment was evident from our most recent report, which stated:

‘It was clear throughout the visit that being a Gold Rights Respecting School has continued to be a fundamental part of the identity, ethos and strategic planning at Canford Heath Junior School.

Since the last accreditation visit the school has become part of the TEACH Academy Trust and has championed a child rights approach, supporting the other three schools in the Trust to also be actively involved in the rights respecting journey.

It was particularly impressive to hear and feel the impact of an embedded rights respecting approach in the way children spoke, how they thoughtfully reflected on questions and in the way a clear sense of respect for the rights of all children has a positive impact on relationships and attitudes.

This is an inclusive school in which children are treated with respect, feel valued and their emotional and mental wellbeing supported so that all children can access learning.’

At Canford Heath Junior, we ensure that children are confident in knowing their rights, which are written in the form of 42 articles (published by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child).

At the start of each school year, the children think about what will make their classroom a happy place to learn and draw up a charter based on children’s rights.

The charters explain what rights the children have and as a joint class decision, we agree on the behaviour we will show in order for all children to access their rights.

We also agree on what the adults in our school community should do in order to support these rights.

Here are some of our class charters:

This is our whole school interactive display where we can choose which right to talk about in class each week:

Throughout the year, the children have class assemblies linked to Rights Respecting Schools whereby they learn in depth about certain articles. They have the opportunity to express their views freely (Article 13) and to be given reliable information (Article 17). Here is an example of some work that children created based on their assembly about International Women’s Day: