‘Educated at Auckland Girls, Equipped for the World’ (May 2010)

‘Educated at Auckland Girls, Equipped for the World’ (May 2010)

In reviewing its Charter and developing its school curriculum in line with The New Zealand Curriculum for 2010, Auckland Girls' Grammar School has settled on ‘global citizenship' as a key integrating theme. Unsurprisingly, as the first school partner in Human Rights in Education, the school has grounded the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in human rights: ‘Auckland Girls' Grammar is a rights respecting school.  All areas of school life are conducted with respect to the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. All members of our school community have the responsibility to ensure that one another's rights are respected.'

Much of the work of supporting and guiding the school on human rights and responsibilities is in the hands of students:

· A Human Rights Prefects' Committee

· The Student Council, which ‘strengthens student voice, promotes student initiatives, and implements Global Citizenship initiatives'

· A student led group (Auckland Girls' Grammar School Humanitarian Activists) that meets regularly and is actively involved with NGOs and the community on humanitarian and human rights issues. Developing out of the school Amnesty International Group and Youth Against Sweat Shops it now incorporates ‘a broader range of issues that people around the world are facing'. Their focus in 2010 is poverty.