This is the key collaboration space for Human Rights in Education. Here you will find colleagues’ ideas and experiences in implementing human rights-based education.

• * Starting off: How's it going?
• Posted: 26-02-2009 10:23:22 UTC By Ced Simpson
• Are you contributing to human rights-based education in some form? What have you done? How has it gone? What have the results been?

• Re: * Starting off: How's it going?
• Posted: 02-11-2009 09:43:07 UTC By Ced Simpson
• Auckland Girls’ Grammar school became a partner in the HRiE initiative at the beginning of 2008. The first thing we did was to incorporate the language of human rights into our charter. In that first year we began gradually to introduce the idea to staff and students. Teachers have been receptive to the idea and interested in learning more. This year, all Year 9 students took part in an introduction human rights and what it means to be part of a rights respecting school session, as part of their induction programme. In April I was privileged, as a PPTA study award recipient, to visit schools in Hampshire that are well established rights respecting schools. It was fantastic to see the positive results there and to find out that we are on the right track in getting started. I have been able to bring home some great ideas to further integrate the initiative, in particular by using student voice through the student council and a newly formed human rights committee. We have recently launched “project respect” - a positive promotion of respective behaviour, rewarded with AGGS R, R & R badges. We intend to further expand the programme next year, with input from representatives at all levels of the school community. The one difficulty to this end is a lack of resourcing. It would also be helpful to have an external accreditation system such as the UNICEF rights respecting schools award in Britain.
  -- Libby Giles, Auckland Girls’ Grammar School
  

• Re: * Starting off: How's it going?
• Posted: 02-11-2009 09:49:21 UTC By Ced Simpson
• This year Motueka High School has introduced a Human Rights component to our school. Whilst there has never been any argument about the relevance of Human Rights we have decided to make it more explicit.
  In order for this to occur we invited Ced Simpson and Lynn Scott to Motueka to deliver the message and to give a picture of what some of the possibilities might be in a school setting. They delivered this presentation to all of our staff together with a group of senior students at the end of 2008.
  As a consequence staff and students were excited about the prospect of applying a Human Rights lens to aspects of our school and a group of students volunteered to deliver a programme to their peers at the start of 2009. So in January Ced came back to Motueka and worked with these students, prior to school starting, giving them the background and some of the skills that they might need to do this.
  During the first week of Term 1 these students delivered the programme to their Vertical Form groups with the aim of producing a Motueka High School Charter that would encompass The Rights of all stakeholders, the individual Responsibilities that go with those Rights and the need for Respect of others and our surroundings. The result was a Charter that has been signed off by all students and staff – a school-wide document that has been contributed to by all of us and so belongs to all of us.
  The final Charter was delivered to the full school by some key students and a powerpoint developed by these students is attached.
  -- Rex Smith, Motueka High School (8 May 2009)

• Re: * Starting off: How's it going?
• Posted: 17-12-2009 20:54:10 UTC By Ced Simpson
• Indications within Nelson Central School show that there has been a reduction in reported bullying which is very pleasing and we would like to see that this trend continues as HRiE becomes embedded within the culture of the school. What it definitely has achieved both from a parent's perspective and a BOT member is to raise awareness of rights and responsibilities. It has also provided for some quite amusing times sitting around socially with children from NCS and hearing them debating their rights and responsibilities with parents – all very positive.
  
  HRiE has given the school is a lot more structure around the development of social skills and some of the programs the schools has run in a rather adhoc way. When we work through our strategic plan early in the New Year we will look to incorporate it at the Governance level as well. I think that the enduring nature of the initiative will be great as I am sure that it will be built on year by year and I will be really interested to see the outcome for yr 1 & 2 students now by the time they reach yr 6.
  
  One of the other impacts that the teachers are noticing from case studies is the fact that the children have a greater awareness of children in other parts of the world who do not share the same rights and freedoms that they themselves enjoy.
  
  I think we feel this has been a very positive move by the school and the ongoing development of the initiative will have a lasting effect on our culture and values.
  - Geoff Clark, Board chair (17 Dec 2009)
  

• Bluestone School (Timaru)
• Posted: 26-03-2010 11:47:38 UTC By Ced Simpson
• There has been strong follow-up to the great introductory whole-staff workshop at the end of January. A subsequent staff meeting discussed where to next and a steering group formed to create an action plan. Classes have begun incorporating human rights themes and applying a human rights lens to what is happening in and around the school. Each class is setting up great wall displays. Class agreements/treaties are being established across the school and this will extend to a whole-school statement. Displays and posters are being set up round the school. The Library has collected some wonderful resources to share.
  
  The juniors have been using fairy tales to generate rights discussion. Year 7 & 8 classes have started with a passion, with human rights themes inspiring student engagement and challenging thinking, resulting in some great indepth discussions.
  
  Newsletter and Assembly slots promote themes and messages to complement what we are already doing.
  We are seeing student comment starting to appear in class blogs.
  
  It is all good stuff, practical and inspirational. We will keep you posted!
  
  -- Ian Poulter, Principal (Feb 2010)