UNICEF Recognition for Caversham Primary

Press Release

08/02/2012

Caversham Primary School has become the first school in Reading to be given an award by international children’s charity UNICEF.

The school, based at Hemdean Road, was awarded a 'Level One Rights Respecting School' award by UNICEF on February 3rd last week. The award recognises Caversham Primary School as a rights respecting community, with the UN convention on the rights of the child at its core.

The UNCEF award is just reward for all the hard work which has taken place over last 18 months towards gaining the UNICEF recognition. At the beginning of the journey this involved reviewing the school vision and ensuring that staff, pupils, governors and parents had a clear sense of what Caversham Primary School was trying to achieve.

The school community came up with five core values that everyone would show in their work and play in order to respect the rights of themselves and others - Co-operation, Enthusiasm, Determination, Compassion and Respect.

Once the vision was in place, a steering group was set up to lead the process of embedding the UN convention at the heart of the school curriculum, policies and the everyday language used within the community.

Now - 18 months on - Caversham Primary is a different place. The assessor from UNICEF congratulated the school on having developed such an enthusiastic atmosphere in which staff and pupils are equal partners.

Headteacher Ruth Perry said: “This award celebrates how much the school community has moved forward the emphasis on the pupil voice and the empowerment of the pupils as global citizens. The school’s focus now is working with others, locally, nationally and internationally, in order to promote the sanctity of children’s rights everywhere.”

John Ennis, Reading Borough Council’s Lead Councillor for Education and Children’s Services, said: “My congratulations to staff and pupils at Caversham primary for all their efforts on this worthwhile project.”