Richland Academy is honoured to be recognized as a Rights Respecting School (RRS) by Unicef. The announcement was made Wednesday evening by Ms. Sarah Hutchison, Education Manager for Unicef Canada, in front of Richland’s entire community at the Spring Musical Production of “Our School Song.”  Ms. Hutchison had this to say following the performance, “What a powerful and energizing evening! You must all be very proud of your students – they did an amazing job.”Together with parent and student representation, Richland’s Faculty and staff embarked on the process to become a Rights Respecting School this past December. In order to be designated as a RRS, a series of professional development workshops are necessary to explore children’s rights, rights respecting education and how to create an inclusive, safe and respectful school atmosphere using a children’s rights approach. We look forward to implementing our action plan in the upcoming school year to infuse children’s rights even more deeply throughout the school.

Here’s one of our favourite articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article #29:

Children’s education should help them use and develop their talents and abilities.  It should also help them learn to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people.

The entire community is delighted with Richland’s Rights Respecting School status. Sincere thanks to Ms. Hutchison for her support throughout the process, and to Ms. Pitt for leading this initiative from a Faculty perspective.