Students lead strengthening of human rights culture (Dec 2009)

Students lead strengthening of human rights culture (Dec 2009)

Since a voluntary 1½ day workshop before the beginning of term 1, senior students at Motueka High School have

• developed and led workshops with vertical form classes on human rights and the development of input for a school rights and responsibilities agreement, which was subsequently agreed with the principal and signed by all students, becoming the standard reference point for behaviour in the school community
• worked with staff to prepare for a staff presentation focusing on encouraging staff to use human rights language in all their dealings with students and parents
• created a Human Rights corner in the library as an ongoing focus for stories, posters and a box to allow students to discuss anonymously any concerns about breaches of human rights
• driven changes to disciplinary paper work to incorporate human rights and responsibilities, and to detention systems to incorporate peer support for students so that they can draft a letter of apology to the person whose human rights they have affected
• started work with the Head of Maths and a Drama teacher on a project to make a DVD highighting breaches of human rights within a school context, with vertical form classes to be invited to contribute a skit towards the DVD at the beginning of the year when the Charter or Code of Behaviour will be revisited.

The school is working to incorporate human rights and restorative justice into the school principles and values. Motueka High School began their participation in Human Rights in Education with a whole-staff workshop in December 2008.