UNICEF and Sanctuary

We are a place of sanctuary and encourage children to be individuals and to become authentically themselves when they enter our school.

We welcome all families into our setting and embrace all walks of life. It is important for us to build strong relationships with families and embrace diversity, as we are very keen to celebrate the uniqueness of each family that joins our school.

We challenge children to be thoughtful and take into consideration the thoughts and feelings of others. We provide children with a safe space to listen, enquire, explore, sometimes forgive and embed their own values and beliefs. We look towards our methods of embracing spirituality in school and teach children how to understand their own faith/self, coming from a place of deep understanding. We teach children to show patience, by learning lots about other faiths, cultures and ways of life- even if it differs from their own, this links strongly to the British Values too. We highlight the importance of sharing celebrations, customs and traditions in a culturally appropriate way so children can explore a wide variety of special moments with their peers and learn lots about the world around them.

We look to the Story of the Good Samaritan as a way of guiding our learning and practise. This story explores and helps children understand that helping others is a necessity and although we may be different, we are all special and deserve to have a place of sanctuary offered to us.

As part of UNICEF, we have nominated in-school ‘Ambassadors’ who are responsible for ensuring our school is up-to-date with local and global news (from child-friendly resources). These are children who have developed a strong sense of social justice and understand issues from a ‘rights’ prospective. 

Our next steps, as part of Article 12, will be to ask the Ambassadors what they would include in a Child Development Plan and to help make decisions about their learning. What they could do to improve mental well-being at school.

As part of Sanctuary the Ambassadors will ask for a whole school initiative to  create cards for new arrivals and also make some boxes up using fundraising donations to give to new arrivals to Dover.

As part of Harvest the Ambassadors will help bag up the donated food to send to the Food Bank.

The Ambassadors will also host an assembly (termly) to talk through what is happening in the media to provide a stimulus for children and young people to take  action.

Next steps UNICEF:

• Identify how children and young people are supported and actively engaged in identifying and reviewing their progress targets and, where relevant, in any other review procedures.
• Use structured and systemic access to appropriate media, news and current affairs to provide a stimulus for child and young people led action.
• ‘Signpost’ children and young people to reliable information and support, both within school and externally. Consider exploring issues such as ‘fake news’.
• Support children and young people to understand the difference between fundraising and campaigning, and provide opportunities for pupils to move beyond fundraising to campaigning and taking active part in social justice initiatives. Focus on global themes, such as fair trade, social justice, climate change and sustainability, and identify how these impact upon children’s rights.
• Explore with children and young people how you might raise awareness of particular issues, and help to bring about change. For example, hundreds of Rights Respecting Schools took part in UNICEF UK’s Outright campaign which involved writing to their Children’s Ministers, many schools support their local food bank to ensure all children have access to nutritious food, other schools are getting involved in the World’s Largest Lesson to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
• Develop children and young people’s involvement with charity events, for example choosing charities to support, sharing information, organisation of fund-raising events.
• Start to make explicit connections between charity action and support for the realisation of other people’s (especially children’s) rights.
• Explore what being a rights respecting global citizen means and how making small changes to daily decision making can have a positive impact on the planet and other people e.g. how we use resources, what we choose to buy, how we use energy, recycle, reuse etc. For more information see our ‘guide to global citizenship’
• Schools can also get involved in campaigns to raise awareness and pressure politicians to do more to protect children’s rights. Sign up for Unicef UK’s OutRight campaign, join up with another international campaign such as ‘Send my Friend’ to school or campaign on an issue your pupils feel strongly about using our ‘Youth Advocacy Toolkit.’
• Develop, with your steering group, a strategy for promoting the CRC in your locality. Ideas may include, leafleting, posters in shops, a community event, engagement of politicians, a local rally or march, letters to newspapers etc.