THE headteacher of a school given a RRSA Gold Award for putting children’s rights at the forefront of their teaching says she is ‘proud’.

The Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) puts children’s rights at the heart of schools in the UK.

Unicef works with schools in the UK to create safe and inspiring places to learn, where children are respected, their talents are nurtured and they are able to thrive.

The Rights Respecting Schools Award embeds these values in daily school life and gives children the best chance to lead happy, healthy lives and to be responsible, active citizens.

The Award recognises a school’s achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into practice within the school and beyond.

Lyme Community Primary School were first awarded a Silver Award in July 2017 and a Gold Award in July 2018.

In July 2023 it was reaccredited with the Gold Award again and was the first school in St Helens to achieve this prestigious award.

A spokesperson for the school said: “The staff and children have worked very hard to ensure that children’s rights are central to all that they do.

“The driving force behind the accolade being the RRS Steering Group and Miss Evans, who have worked passionately on a variety of projects: creating charters around school, planning and teaching lessons to their own classes on children’s rights and global citizenship, leading assemblies on world news and discussing global injustices, pursuing campaigns such as ‘Send My Friend To School’, which led to correspondence with the Prime Minister on the importance of ‘every child has the right to an education’ and sharing their knowledge and understanding of the UNCRC with the whole school community.

“The impact on Pupil Voice and confidence has been the most noticeable impact.”

Headteacher Jo Roberts, said: ‘We are so proud of all that we have achieved at Lyme to promote children’s rights.

“Our pupils feel empowered to speak up about issues in school, the community and in the wider world – we are helping them to be global citizens who can play their part in changing the world.”