We are thrilled to announce that Grange Academy have been awarded the Rights Respecting Schools Gold Award for another 3 years after our re-accreditation visit on Monday 2nd October 2023. 

The assessor spoke to staff, governors, parents and pupils and was impressed by the understanding of the rights and the impact it was having on the pupils’ lives and their understanding and interaction with the world around them.

The report states:

Learners from Grange Academy talked about a range of rights that are important to them and explained that learning about rights is important at their school. They were aware that rights belong to, ” … everyone around the world,” that they don’t need to be earned and cannot be taken away.

The principle of dignity pervades the culture of the school and the day-to-day experiences of the pupils. The language of rights is used across the school,
the RRSA lead saying that she hears children say, “I have the right to… ” and that it is used appropriately. The headteacher said, “It’s moved from something we learn about to something we live and breathe.”

The report celebrates our strengths as:

• A strong sense of community and belonging underpinned by a rights respecting ethos and culture.
• The extent to which children’s rights are embedded across all areas of school life.
• The support given to each individual child to reach their potential, underpinned by an understanding of dignity and their rights.
• The extent to which pupils are listened to and their views acted upon.
• The support learners are given to develop an understanding of the wider world and their place within it, knowing that they can make a positive difference locally and globally.
  
  

Please click below to view the full report from Unicef on our achievement of Gold.

Grange Academy GOLD Re-Accreditation Report – October 2023

At Grange we are explicitly embedding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in our school practice and culture which goes hand in hand with our British Values and SMSC (Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural) work.

We strive to continually promote knowledge and understanding of the Convention throughout our school community.

This is particularly relevant as our pupils have their own range of needs and we strongly believe in advocating these needs and empowering pupils to advocate their own.

We have seen the positive impact of these actions on pupils, staff, and on the school’s ethos, practice and environment.

Our pupils agree on their own class charter. Each class also delivers an assembly on a relevant article fortnightly therefore reinforcing pupil voice and pupils’ confidence and public speaking skills.

Our young people are seeing themselves as rights respecting global citizens and advocates for fairness and children’s rights, both locally and globally and we are promoting this through various activities, lessons and events throughout the year.

Included in this is a focus on Schools of Tomorrow and Sustainability, using topics and themes as well as using subject areas to focus on global situations.

We use the curriculum as a vehicle to ensure that our pupils are aware of current global issues. One example of this is a class reading a book on refugees and getting pupils to understand how children are affected by being refugees.

The images below are our class charters: