Hermitage Primary has become the first school in Argyll and Bute to be awarded Gold by Unicef UK’s Rights Respecting School programme.
Unicef is the world’s leading organisation working for children and their rights and the award is granted to schools that show commitment to promoting and realising children’s rights and encouraging adults, children and young people to respect the rights of others in school.
Gold is the highest accolade given by Unicef UK and shows ‘a deep and thorough commitment to children’s rights at all levels of school life’. It has been awarded to
500 schools across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
The Helensburgh school received its silver certificate in April 2018 and was awarded the Gold certificate at an event in the school on World Children’s Day, Friday November 20.
Children wore yellow and gold to school that day to celebrate receiving their prestigious award and took part activities focussing on climate change.
Senior pupils took part in Unicef UK’s Outright Campaign, writing to local and national leaders and the COP26 President on action they think should be taken to combat the issue.
They held a special virtual assembly, which was beamed into all the classrooms.
Children had a special ‘clap’ which echoed around the school to congratulate one another and created gold decorations to brighten the school hall over the festive period.
Headteacher Elspeth Davis said: “We are incredibly proud to be the first recipient of this award from Unicef UK in Argyll and Bute.
“It marks an enormous effort on the part of our whole school community – pupils, staff and parents in embedding rights education in all we do.
“Children’s rights are at the heart of our school and this strength of the partnership we build together permeates through all aspects of our work.
“Pupils are encouraged to be respectful of themselves, each other, the community we live in and the world we take care of.
“This is reflected in the relationships, behaviour and attitudes of our pupils and raises the quality of our school. I often refer to rights as the ‘golden thread’ which connects everything and this is now recognised in the gold award.
“I’d like to thank pupils and staff, and in particular, Mrs Louise Grafton, our RRS school lead. Getting our gold is not the end of our journey, which will only continue and just keep getting stronger!”
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