UNICEF: Carronshore Primary School strike gold

It recently became a UNICEF Gold Rights Respecting School (RRS) thanks to a lot of hard work from lots of people. It is also less than two years since they received their first award.

Angela Gallagher, the school’s education welfare officer is also the rights respecting school coordinator and she is delighted at the award.

She said: “We are so proud of this achievement as it personifies the work we do at Carronshore Primary. When I started here the level of focus on children’s voices, inclusivity and support for our children really impressed me.

"I set up our children’s rights champion group and we got to work.”

The bronze award was achieved by September 2023 and, having been told they weren’t far off from silver, made a plan to reach this by the end of the year – which they did. Now their work has seem them achieve gold.

Mrs Gallagher added: “Our group of children worked really hard planning for our gold award. They set up a monthly food collection for KLSB foodbank called ‘Bring a Tin on the Way in’. They organised litter picks in the community and even wrote to our MSP's and the council about recycling bins and single use plastic being used in our dinner hall.

"In November 2024 we had our RRS visit and our children, families and some other agencies who work with us in school were interviewed by two inspectors. The inspectors thought it was clear to see children's rights were embedded in our school and young people were included in everything we do at Carronshore. They were very impressed with the work that had been done to keep our families informed. The parents interviewed spoke very highly about our school and mentioned our young people discuss children's rights at home and feel empowered to use their voices in matters relating to them.”

Earlier this year and after an anxious wait, the school heard they had struck gold and now are proudly displaying their banner and certificate to tell everyone in their community the good news.