Contact: John Clarke, Deputy County Education Officer Tel: 01962 846464
email [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 The Education Department is developing a major initiative focused, initially, on primary schools. The approach has been cautious, to establish the likely level of support from the teaching profession before wider discussion. It sets out to teach children about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Its aim is to encourage each school to base its ethos and code of behaviour on the Convention and therefore on the rights of people, adults and children, and the responsibilities that they have to each other.

1.2 There are high hopes, based on research from elsewhere, that the project will have an impact on pupils' self esteem, their behaviour and their academic standards. The project will help to further the Equalities agenda, the requirements placed on schools in respect of Citizenship and fulfil new Ofsted/Audit Commission inspection criteria that insist that LEAs take account of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It will also further the corporate aims of the County Council, contributing to building safe and strong communities and maximising the life opportunities of the population.

1.3 There are further hopes, backed by evidence, that the project in the longer term will have the potential to transform schools and their communities. Nothing of this type is being attempted on this scale anywhere in the world.

2 Introduction

2.1 All schools in Hampshire have developed codes of conduct; and pupil behaviour, overall, is good. Many schools have well-developed schemes for ensuring that the `pupils' voice' is heard through such things as school councils, `circle time', focus groups etc. In most cases, the codes and schemes tend to be developed by schools themselves, without overt reference to universal principles that exist outside them.

2.2 Up to the middle of the last century, rules governing personal behaviour and inter-relationships in schools tended to be predicated on scripture. Since that time, increased religious diversity and secularisation have sometimes left schools uncertain about the moral framework for their policies and practices. Teachers and schools have sometimes been reticent to assert values for fear that they may be imposing theirs on children who may not share them and so bring themselves and the school into conflict with parents and the community.

2.3 The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified in 1989, has the potential to fill something of a vacuum. Through Article 42, it places an obligation on signatories to make adults and children aware of these rights. Only two of the 193 member states have failed to sign it. Its importance in this project is that the principles enshrined within it, which are in no sense inimical to the precepts of the great world religions, are universal and intended to govern human behaviour across the world. It gives all schools, teachers and children, the opportunity to point to an Authority that is higher than their classroom, the school or their community.

2.4 Young children, in particular, are attracted to notions of universality. School is usually the first step into a much larger community than the family. Once there, they like to feel not just citizens of the school but citizens of the world.

3 Background

3.1 The Hampshire project is based on work already undertaken, and evaluated, in Canada. Staff from the University College of Cape Breton have done extensive work in the schools of Cape Breton, an area suffering the decline of its traditional heavy industries. There has been explicit teaching of the UN Convention. Teachers model rights, and rights-respecting behaviour, in all their teaching and relationships. There is continuous reinforcement of the message in corridors and display areas. Classrooms feature charters of Rights and Responsibilities devised in partnership and applicable to adults and children. The approach becomes integrated within the rest of the curriculum.

3.2 The key findings from the Cape Breton Project are these:

· Pupils' levels of self esteem have risen as they begin to understand better the responsibilities they have to themselves;

· Teachers report a considerable improvement in classroom atmosphere, a reduction in low level disruption and more time for them to teach as a result;

· Pupils understand more clearly the relationship between their own and others' rights and responsibilities, showing more respect for each other and their teachers than they did;

· Pupils begin to use `rights respecting language' in their everyday speech in school;

· Pupils are far less likely to view rights and wants as synonymous;

· Teachers' and parents' authority is not undermined by a rights/responsibilities approach although the way in which authority is exercised needs subtle changes - through an appeal to the Convention itself and what it means in schools, rather than an appeal to the authority that adults have traditionally exerted over children;

· In some families, there has been less conflict between parents and children over such things as bedtimes and homework.

No hard data are available from Nova Scotia in relation to pupils' academic standards.

4 The Hampshire Project

4.1 Initial Work

4.1.1 Some pilot work has already been undertaken, mainly primary,in schools in Andover and Eastleigh. Most of this work has taken place in schools where the headteacher and/or other teachers were part of the study tour to Cape Breton.

4.1.2 Early evaluations from the work in Hampshire schools have come to broadly the same conclusions as those of the work in Nova Scotia. Some remarkable changes have occurred in classrooms where this work has been undertaken, to such an extent that, in one school, other teachers who have not been involved in the programme are very eager to join. There is already evidence, too, that pupils are beginning to use the language of human rights in their classroom discussions.

4.2 Plans for the Future

4.2.1 A steering group chaired by the Deputy County Education Officer has been established. A `training team' consisting of headteachers, inspector/advisers, English and mathematics consultants and teachers has been set up under the leadership of Ian Massey, County Inspector/Adviser for Intercultural Education.

4.2.2 There have been briefings for the Executive of Primary Headteachers Conference and for all the area groups of primary heads. The reaction has been very enthusiastic. People seem to feel that this work will build on the strengths already in schools and will provide a unifying force. Issues such as bullying, bad behaviour and attendance are seen as likely to be tackled more successfully by creating a clear, moral context than by specific initiatives alone.

4.2.3 A series of day-long training events will be held between January and March 2004. Two hundred primary schools will be represented and places are available for the headteacher and one other teacher from each school. Everything that is known about training teachers through courses suggests that two people attending the event, together, yields far more benefit than one. The focus of the training will be the UN Convention of Human Rights, the rights of the child, and how to teach these things to children of different ages. Provided that support is sufficient, complementary work will be developed with others, particularly school governors.

4.2.4 A website has already been created and it currently carries information about the project and the training. It will eventually carry lists of resources and approaches that teachers have taken. In time it will carry examples of the work being done in schools across the county. There are outline plans to use an editorial board composed of pupils.

4.2.5 A series of networks will be established across the county of teachers who are most actively working in this area in their schools so that they have an opportunity to learn from each others and to explore the issues that will arise. The intention is not to control, but for the steering group, trainers and facilitators to set broad principles and allow schools and teachers to develop their own approached and resources to support the work. There is a particular interest, for example, in how schools will widen this work to include parents and their local communities.

4.2.6 The concepts and content have positive implications for all of the work of the County Council with young people. There is clear relevance to the recent Green Paper "Every Child Matters". It supports all the aims of the County Council's corporate strategy, with particular relevance to helping young citizens to contribute to the well-being and progress of the Hampshire community,

4.3 Resources

4.3.1 Most of the central resources for school improvement are already committed to the EDP, 2002-2005. However, some virement has been possible within the current financial year to allow this project to begin. Most of the budget is consumed by the time given by staff, time that would otherwise have been sold to schools or other clients. Small sums will be made available from the EDP resource in 2004-5.

4.3.2 The Innovations Unit of the DfES was approached and has provided £50,000 for pump-priming to fund the training of heads and teachers. Most of this funding has to be spent in 2003-2004.

4.3.3 Further resources may be available in 2004-2005 to support this project, contingent upon wider budget decisions.

4.4 Evaluation

4.4.1 The evaluation of the project will be overseen by Sussex University and staff from there will also carry out some of the field work. The budget does not extend to the kind of very thorough evaluation that the project deserves, but the intention is to undertake both quantitative (pre-test and post-test comparisons) and qualitative work, through visits to schools and discussion with teachers and pupils. Analyses will also be made, over time, of the academic progress made by pupils and the standards that they achieve.

Recommendation

1. That the Rights, Respect and Responsibilities programme be further developed with Hampshire schools and commended to the County Council and Cabinet.

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