UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Award
James Brindley Academy and the Rights Respecting Schools Award
James Brindley Academy’s vision is to ‘Think Differently’ – we want all of our young people to achieve success despite the challenges they face. Success could look like accessing education, making their voices heard, or engaging with the society around them and recognising the role they can have in making the world a better place. Our vision and purpose align completely with the principles of the Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA); all adults who are part of the school recognise our responsibility as Duty Bearers to ensure that all young people receive the rights to which they are entitled.
What is the Rights Respecting Schools Award?
The RRSA is a UNICEF UK initiative that supports schools in embedding the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into their culture. You can read more about the 54 articles of the Charter at https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/. By signing up to the award, schools pledge to promote values such as equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination, and participation. The award recognises schools that put children’s rights at the heart of their practice, by teaching about rights, through rights, and for rights. Ultimately, it is a judgement on a school’s ethos, relationships and empowerment of its young people.
Schools progress through three levels of the award:
- Bronze: Rights Committed
- Silver: Rights Aware
- Gold: Rights Respecting
James Brindley Academy, has achieved the Gold, Rights Respecting Award.
James Brindley Academy has been part of the programme for ten years in 2025, and have just been reaccredited with the Gold Rights Respecting Award – one of only around 350 schools across the UK who hold this level of the award.
Achieving the award involves an external assessor, who looks at our whole-school approach, including speaking to young people, staff, parents and carers, trustees, and the wider stakeholder community. JBA is able to demonstrate that we as a community educate young people on their rights, give them the right to an education (Article 28) at a time when many of them have struggled with mainstream provision, have mutual respect between everyone in the community, and prioritise listening to the views of our students.
James Brindley is committed to the wellbeing of our young people, and enabling them to grow into responsible, active citizens who can lead safe, healthy, and fulfilling lives. As one young person said during the reaccreditation, the values of the Gold RRSA are ‘just what we do here’ – upholding the rights of our students is completely embedded in our practice.
