Rights Respecting School
SCHOOL MOTTO: “Preparing today’s children for tomorrow’s world.”
Our school intends to become a UNICEF Rights Respecting School and Article 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) underlines our school vision:-
“Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures and the environment.”
It is within this context that St Malachy’s is the primary school catering for the educational needs of those children aged 4 – 11 years within our locality. Some 10% of our intake is resident outside the parish boundary. During the last 10 years we have seen the steady rise in the number of Newcomer children attending our school. This currently stands at about 25%. This has meant that the provision and support we offer has had to change to take account of this.
Our aims can best be encapsulated within our mission statement or motto, “preparing today’s children for tomorrow’s world.”
Our educational philosophy is based on a clear intention to promote all that is best in Catholic Education. We seek to encourage the holistic development of those pupils entrusted into our care.
We provide a broad and balanced curriculum that meets the demands of the NI Curriculum and offers our pupils rich and varied contexts to acquire knowledge and to develop skills which are essential to learning in all aspects of life.
We are a caring school, where the major stakeholders feel valued, and are aware of the important contribution each one has to make to ensure that the school continues to be successful. This was reported on successfully in our last ETI report in 2014. Our most recent Parent Questionnaire in 2014 also bore testament to this where 95+% agreed or strongly agreed with many statements about life in our school.
The whole community within the school shares a common goal where we set high standards in respect of attainment and behaviour and expect our pupils to achieve these.
Our merit totals over the last few years have shown that 98% of our pupils gain a gold award for their work ethic, behaviour and attitude to school life each month. Last year all of our pupils had 200+ merits whilst 95% of them achieved 300+ and almost 30% achieved over 400.
We encourage within our pupils desirable qualities such as self-esteem, tolerance, consideration and respect for others. We provide a safe learning environment where the health, safety and emotional well-being of pupils are of the utmost importance.
As set out in the CRC our school will deliver:-
- The right to a childhood protected from harm;
- The right to be educated;
- The right to be healthy;
- The right to be treated fairly;
- The right to be heard.
As a Rights Respecting School we place the voice of the child at the centre of all we do underpinned by Articles 3 and 12 of UNCRC:-
Article 3: “The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all our actions.”
Article 12: “Every child has the right to say what they think in all matters affecting them and to have their views taken seriously.”
We have recently taken part in various initiiatives to mark the 25th Anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. As part of this all pupils and their families have received a copy of UNICEF Rights for Every Child as well as A Better Life for Everyone. Be sure to use these to discuss the convention with your children. if you click the link below you will see some of the activities our pupils have been invoved in to mark this.
We have recently added this Ethos statement to all of our school policies. Please check the links below to find out about some of our Pastoral Care policies.
As part of our attempt to receive UNICEF Rights Respecting School Award at Level 1 we have carried out a questionnaire with our Key Stage 2 pupils which was led by our School Council members. The results were very encouraging. Click on the link below to see if you agree with their assessment.
We have also evaluated the impact the programme has had on our school during the past 18 months. Acopy of this is available by clicking at the link below. If you would like to comment on this, please let me know at the school.