Children's Rights / Hawliau Ysgol
We are proud to be an Accredited Silver : Rights Aware School by UNICEF.
It is granted by UNICEF UK to schools that show good progress towards embedding children’s rights in the school’s policy, practice and ethos. To achieve Silver: Rights Aware, Sketty Primary was assessed by one of UNICEF's Professional Advisers who looked at the whole school’s rights respecting work.
This means that at Sketty Primary we are:
- explicitly embedding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in its policy, practice and culture.
- promoting knowledge and understanding of the Convention throughout your school community.
- putting into action and developing the plans outlined on our Action Plan for Silver
- beginning to see the positive impact of these actions on children and young people, staff, and on the school’s ethos, practice and environment.
- beginning to see ourselves as rights respecting global citizens and advocates for fairness and children’s rights, both locally and globally.
07.05.24
The Big Conversation – Health and Wellbeing
To start the day, we had feedback given to us from the previous Big Conversation – The Big Equality Conversation. To see our feedback from the last meeting, head over to our school website. This term's conversation focused on Health and wellbeing. The visit allowed pupils from Sketty to share our thoughts an experience on the following important topics:
Play sufficiency
School Dinners
Welsh Government
Disability Strategy
Healthy Relationships
During the day, we shared our thoughts on each topic, through games and discussions, working with other Rights Respecting Schools in Swansea.
Toby, a Year 5 pupil, said “...”
We look forward to hearing how our work has helped shape these priorities and working on the action plan that follows.
The Big Conversation - Health and Wellbeing
The Big Equality Conversation Feedback
The Big Conversation is back in 2024!
What is the Big Conversation?
Since 2014, Swansea Council has had a Children and Young People’s Rights Scheme that puts a duty on the Council to make sure that all our decisions consider the rights of the child.
We want to make sure that all of our policies and the things we do have a positive effect on children and young people.
The Big Conversation is the name of the events that we run to get your views on certain subjects and is a county wide mechanism to hear the collective voice of Children and Young People.
This is the second Big Conversation for Schools of 2024 and will be an opportunity for children and young people to have their say on health and wellbeing through games, activities and discussions. We will listen to what they have to say and pass on their opinions to the Council who will then make decisions based on what they have said.
Rights Respecting Super Ambassadors Summer Special Mission 2023 for The Children's Commissioner of Wales - Sharing views on the Super Ambassadors Scheme.
Super Ambassadors Summer Special Mission 2023 26.6.23
Article 3 - The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all things that affect children.
Article 12 - Every child has the right to have a say in all matters affecting them, and to have their views taken seriously.
Article 13 - Every child must be free to say what they think.
Article 15 –Every child has the right to meet with friends and join groups.
Article 29 - Education must encourage a child's respect for children's rights
This term as Super Ambassadors we have the opportunity to share our views with The Children's Commissioner for Wales to ensure that the Super Ambassador Scheme gives us and other Super Ambassadors the best opportunity to learn about our rights and share our views with Rocio and her team.
Rocio wants to know how we think the Super Ambassadors scheme could be better, she has included questions where we can tell her about our experience as Super Ambassadors this year and our ideas for the Ambassadors scheme.
We are looking forward to sharing our views with her and seeing how our responses feedback into the Super Ambassadors Scheme next year.
Please click here to read the Children's Commissioner of Wales newsletter, which includes her visit to our school.
https://www.childcomwales.org.uk/our-work/commissioners-blog/march-newsletter/
Visit from Children's Commissioner of Wales, Rocio Cifuentes 27.1.23
Article 3 - The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all things that affect children.
Article 12 - Every child has the right to have a say in all matters affecting them, and to have their views taken seriously.
Article 13 - Every child must be free to say what they think.
Article 29 - Education must encourage a child's respect for children's rights
We were all very excited to meet Rocio. The first thing we did was take Rocio on a tour of the school, so that she could visit all the classes and speak to pupils and staff about their work with children's rights.
Then, Rocio spoke to some children about their well-being and the resilience activities they do with Miss Lewis in the well-being shed to support their mental health and emotional well-being.
Afterwards, Rights Respecting School Ambassadors talked to her about our special missions for the Children's Commissioner of Wales and our Outright campaign with UNICEF about Health care and well-being in our school.
Rocio then spoke to School Council about their work with children's rights and the Anti-Bullying Policy they are developing with pupils.
Rocio was very impressed with the work that we do in Sketty Primary to ensure that all children have their rights.
Website updated by Marnie.
Rights Respecting School Ambassadors Meeting with our ALNCo, Mrs Miller about Health care in our school. 23.1.23
Article 24 The right to the best possible health.
In our meeting with Mrs Miller, we discussed how we support children's health and well-being.
We learnt about Mrs Miller's role as an ALNCo and how she helps children with their Health care needs.
Mrs Miller talked to us about the health care register, Health care forms and Medication.
We asked Mrs Miller questions about First Aid and emergency procedures.
Mrs Miller explained about the training staff receive for example CPR, Diabetes, Epi pen training etc... School staff are also trained to support children with additional learning needs for example Autism, Dyslexia etc.
Mrs Miller and Miss Lewis talked to us about health and well-being in our School. Miss Lewis spoke to us about the well-being intervention's that children receive to support their mental health and emotional well-being. We also discussed how we monitor children's well-being.
It was a very informative meeting and we learned lots more about how our school cares for and supports pupils health and well-being to ensure that every child has the right to the best possible health.
Website updated by Marnie and Edie.
Rights Respecting School Ambassadors Meeting 20.1.23
Article 24 - The right to the best possible health.
Today we continued to work on UNICEF's Outright campaign about Health care. We discussed what Health care is; different types of Health care and Health care provision. We started to look at how we care and support children's health and well-being in our school. We arranged a meeting with Mrs Miller, our schools ALNCo (Additional Learning Needs Coordinator) to talk about her role and how as a school, we provide provision for pupils health and well-being.
Website updated by Marnie and Edie.
Article 3 - The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all things that affect children.
Article 12 - Every child has the right to a say in all matters affecting them, and to have their views taken seriously.
Article 13 - Every child must be free to say what they think and to seek and receive all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law.
21.11.22
Rights Respecting School Ambassadors attended Swansea Council World Children’s Day Event – You said…We did.
Article 3 - The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all things that affect children.
Article 12 - Every child has the right to a say in all matters affecting them, and to have their views taken seriously.
Article 13 - Every child must be free to say what they think and to seek and receive all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law.
Yesterday, four members of our Rights Respecting School Ambassadors attended Swansea Council World Children’s Day Event – You said…We did, at the Waterfront Museum, Swansea, with Swansea Schools.
At the event, Helen Morgan Rees, Director of Education; Rhodri Jones, Head of Achievement and Partnership Service and Cllr Hayley Gwilliam, Cabinet Member for Community Support, spoke to pupils about issues and concerns affecting them from the 'You Said' meetings last year and provided feedback about the work that Swansea Council is doing on the key themes:
Safety and feeling safe in our community.
Improved sports equality and facilities.
Mental Health.
Climate change and environmental awareness.
Black, Asian, Minority, Ethic –Equality.
LGBTQ+
Visible and invisible disability.
Substance Abuse and Vaping.
Other speakers at the event included:
Jack Moyse, an Ex Swansea School Pupil, who talked about visible and invisible disability and shared his journey.
Jayne Richmond, Climate Change Strategy Manager who spoke about Climate Change and Environmental Awareness.
Julie Davies, Head of Child and Family services, who made closing remarks.
After the speeches, we visited the Interactive Market Place, where we were able to take part in a variety of activities and discuss children’s rights further.
18.11.22
Rights Respecting School Ambassadors attend UNICEF Outright World Children's Day Meeting about Health care.
Article 24 - The right to the best possible health.
18.11.22
UNICEF Outright World Children's Day meeting - Healthcare.
Article 24 - The right to the best possible health.
Three members of our Rights Respecting School Super Ambassadors attended UNICEF's World Children's Day meeting as part of their Outright campaign about Health.
The meeting was very interesting, UNICEF talked to us about health care around the world and how important it is for children to receive their right to the best possible health.
Following this meeting we are going to find out how we support and care for children's health in our school and in the community, to ensure that every child has the right to the best possible health.
The Children's Commissioner of Wales Event November 2022
Article 3 - The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all things that affect children.
Article 12 - Every child has the right to a say in all matters affecting them, and to have their views taken seriously.
Article 13 - Every child must be free to say what they think.
Article 29 - Education must encourage a child's respect for children's rights.
Rights Respecting Ambassadors Wellbeing Presentation to the school.
July 2022
On Friday 15th July, members of the Rights Respecting Schools Ambassadors presented to the school. Throughout the year, they have attended meetings, read through UNICEF presentations and gathered feedback from pupils to ensure they could present helpful and up to date information for our school pupils.
School Council and Rights Respecting School Ambassadors meet with Estyn Inspectors.
June 2022
On Tuesday 14th June, at the Guildhall in Swansea, our School Councillors and Rights Respecting School Ambassadors spoke with Estyn inspectors about Children’s Rights and their participation with Swansea Council as part of the Councils’ inspection process.
Our pupils spoke about their involvement in Swansea Councils’ Play Sufficiency Assessment and Swansea becoming a Human Rights City. School Councillors and Rights Respecting Ambassadors also talked about their work embedding Children’s Rights in our school.
School Council shared the work they have done this year for the new curriculum, where they gathered pupils’ ideas for AOLEs and feedback to staff and governors they also spoke about their input into the schools Restorative Practice and Emotion Regulation policy.
Rights Respecting School Ambassadors talked about their work with Well-being and Mental Health at our school this year. They shared their involvement in UNICEF’s Outright Mental Health Campaign and their Super Ambassadors Special Mission from the Children’s Commissioner of Wales with Well-being.
Estyn Inspectors were very impressed with our Councillors and Ambassadors contributions and thanked them for attending the meeting and for their good practice and participation with Children’s Rights at our school and with Swansea Council.