At Strangford Integrated College we are delighted to have achieved our Gold UNICEF’s Rights Respecting Schools Award.

A Rights Respecting School is a place where students feel safe and confident in the fact that their rights are being advocated for. We are a school that has fully embedded children’s rights into our school ethos. We believe that students and staff working together and respecting each other’s rights will result in the following being improved:

• Learning
• Self-esteem
• Well-being
• Confidence
• Appreciation of community

By achieving our Gold Award, we are acknowledging that across the world, some people do not have access to their rights. We are using our voices to help the wider community and beyond;working towards the Global Goals as seen below.

Article 19- The Right to be safe.

  Global Goal- Peace and Justice (this is the goal that all United Nation member have committed to achieving by 2030.)   As always, focus on... 1. What does this right mean?  (what sort of things do children and young people need to be safe from?) 2. What does this look like in NI? 3. What does this look like for children and young people around the world?  We really want our young people to be thinking about how they can be advocates for others.

We were delighted to be awarded our Gold Rights Respecting School status in March 2022.  Gold Rights Respecting is the highest level of the Award and is granted to schools that have fully embedded the principles of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child into their ethos and curriculum.  We are one of only three post primary schools in Northern Ireland that currently hold the Gold accreditation and the only integrated post primary to currently have the Gold Award.

Our assessors made the following observations about the College and our wonderful students:

⭐️Students were very articulate and demonstrated a good knowledge and understanding of rights. They knew a wide range of articles and were confident in the concept of rights.

⭐️Learning about rights is embedded across all faculty areas, ensuring all students receive a rich curriculum linked to articles of the CRC.

⭐️ A strong commitment to children's rights and to RRSA is evident from leaders at all levels and is tied into the
vision and values of the school. Quality training and support for staff has been sustained.

⭐️An ethos that places positive relationships based on mutual respect and trust at the heart of  school life.

⭐️A school with inclusion at its heart, where pupils feel safe and secure and are articulate about the importance of knowing about children's rights, the difference this makes to their livesand their desire and determination to help realise these rights for others.

⭐️Very confident students who know that their views are taken seriously.