Whinhill Primary retains gold Rights Respecting School award

Whinhill Primary School first received its gold award from UNICEF's Rights Respecting Schools programme back in 2016 - and nine years on, they're still working as hard as ever to keep children's rights at the forefront of what they do.

Pupils from the school showcased their hard work at a special assembly held to celebrate the achievement.

Pupils from Whinhill Primary School with Caroline McCahill at the rights respecting assembly (Image: George Munro) Caroline McCahill, children’s rights officer for Inverclyde, works in all the district's primary schools, leading workshops with pupils and sessions with teachers, and says there was never any doubt in her mind that Whinhill would be re-accredited.

"It is a fantastic school," she said. "They are constantly making sure they are doing their best for their children and young people right across the board, and that includes the Gaelic school.

“Rights start from birth, and if we can get the language of your rights ingrained in the children as early as possible, then staff and children alike will know what it means to be 'rights respecting'.

“We can then build more inclusive communities.

“It’s important that we have this in all schools and that every single child is involved.

"It’s about them, it’s for them, and we need to make sure as duty bearers that we make sure that we uphold their rights.”

Alistair MacPhee, the school's principal teacher of Gaelic, says he is so proud that Whinhill are the first school in the country to be awarded the bilingual version of the certificate.

He said: “I was part of the first committee who worked towards the gold accreditation, but there was lots of work done before I joined the school to work towards the bronze and silver awards.

"To be able to continue that hard work has been very rewarding.

“It’s always been about maintaining our school values and making sure that children’s rights are still consistent and embedded as part of what we do at Whinhill.”

Head teacher Elizabeth Ruddy added: “Having been able to achieve the gold level is just amazing. It can be such hard work; everything has to permeate the whole school and curriculum. Our children and staff should be so proud of maintaining that level.

“Achieving the re-accreditation shows that Whinhill is still operating in a way that puts that really high level of rights at the centre of all that we do.

“It’s not just for an assembly or a one-off event. We use it in our teaching and the language that we use to communicate with pupils day-to-day.

"It is everything that Whinhill is about.”