Auckland Girls Grammar

Starting Off

Auckland Girls Grammar School has made clearer references to human rights in their 2008 School Charter. Recognising the human rights mission of the school and making clear reference to human rights in the Charter is crucial to developing understanding of human rights and responsibilities in the school community.

It also helps create the planning and review focus necessary to drive successful implementation of the Initiative to generate the sort of results we know can be achieved through human rights-based education.

As part of the Human Rights in Education Initiative, Auckland Girls have clearly stated in the preamble of their revised charter that:

The descriptions of the school’s various educational provisions make explicit reference to, helping to reinforce understanding of, the human rights mission of the school eg

Committed to the right to education for all, Auckland Girls’ Grammar School is the lead school for a Teen Parenting Unit for young mothers from the greater Auckland area.

The school’s statement of values, using the acrostic PRIDE includes clear references to human rights:

Respect – All members of the Auckland Girls’ Grammar School Community will honour the unique qualities that every student and staff member brings to the school. They will show respect at all times for themselves, others, human rights, and the environment.

Empathy – All members of the Auckland Girls’ Grammar School Community will have an understanding of the feelings of others based on an understanding of their inherent dignity and rights

The Charter explains that the school’s involvement in the Initiative underpins the school’s priorities for the next five years:

Contributing to these strategic directions, our school will develop as a community that knows, promotes and lives human rights and responsibilities.

Many of the strategic goals and objectives are expressed in explicit human rights terms: eg

Auckland Girls’ Grammar School will cater for the academic, sporting, cultural and social needs and rights of all students, so each individual experiences success and strives for personal excellence.

Auckland Girls’ Grammar School will continue to develop and implement practices and programmes that encourage students to respect and understand justice and human rights issues.
Implementation of a more comprehensive human rights approach to education in practice has already started at AGGS.

Social sciences teacher, Libby Giles:

“Since becoming a partner school in Human Rights in Education, we have begun to build a framework that connects the classroom teaching of human rights with pastoral care, expected behavioural standards and the school’s values. Students’ depth of understanding in and comfort with the language of human rights is growing as they are able to link universal human rights to their own lives. This has particularly been true of our Year 9 students who studied human rights as part of a “rich task” –during which they looked at “humanity” and what it is that makes us human, from varying angles in all of their subjects over a two week period.”

If you or your school has a story to tell about human rights in education, or an idea or resource to share click here.