Rights Respecting Steering Group 

Dundonald's 'Rights Respecting Steering Group' is a group of children and adults who meet together weekly to discuss, plan and drive forward everything we do as a Rights Respecting School.

Our representatives are made up of children from Years 1 to 6, with two members from each class. The children apply to be part of the Steering Group at the beginning of the academic year by writing a short manifesto, stating why being part of a Rights Respecting School is important to them and how they would like to contribute to our Rights Respecting journey. They do a fantastic job of making sure the ideas and opinions of their class are being heard and actioned.

The Steering Group are also involved in presenting assemblies to the whole school, such as Star of the Month, introducing whole school competitions, running campaigns as well as passing on messages and reminders. 

Article 12 in the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child states that "all children have the right to an opinion, and for adults to listen and take it seriously." During steering group meetings, all contributions and decisions are mutual, and the children's ideas are as important as the adults' ideas. Children are responsible for recording the minutes of each meeting and passing on information to their classmates.

Children's Rights & Responsibilities Leaflet 

The members of the Rights Respecting Steering Group designed the 'ABCDE of Rights' ('Word of the Week') glossary which has been shared with all classes. 

Teaching staff will refer to this document regularly in lessons and discussions about rights. It aims to support the children to become more confident in their use of the vocabulary in conversation.