Rights Respecting Schools

Transfer of scheme to the Children, Young People, Education and Skills Department

In January 2025, after seven great years of piloting, embedding and supporting the Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) across the Island's primary and secondary schools, we transferred responsibility for the scheme to the Children, Young People, Education and Skills Department (CYPES).

The main point of contact for RRSA is now Gemma McGregor, CYPES' Participation and Engagement Lead (G.McGregor@gov.je).

You can also find further information on the Government of Jersey's Children's Rights webpage. 

How the scheme works

The Rights Respecting Schools Award is a UNICEF initiative that aims to put children’s rights at the heart of schools.

It embeds children’s rights in daily school life and empowers children to grow into responsible, active global citizens.

The programme involves working with schools to create safe and inspiring places to learn, where children are respected, their talents are nurtured, and they are able to thrive.

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

There are three stages to the award:

• Bronze: Rights Committed This is the first stage of the Rights Respecting Schools Award. It is a planning stage. When a school is ready, they supply documented evidence of their commitment and how they intend to become rights respecting. It generally takes a school between 3-6 months to achieve Bronze. There is no assessment visit for this stage.
• Silver: Rights Aware This is the second stage. 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. Schools will be assessed by a Unicef UK RRSA assessor who will look at the whole school’s rights-respecting work. 
• Gold: Rights Respecting This is the highest stage of the Rights Respecting Schools Award. It is granted by Unicef UK to schools that have fully embedded children’s rights throughout the school in its policies, practice and ethos. Schools will be assessed by a Unicef UK RRSA assessor(s) who will look at the whole school’s rights-respecting work.