Hannah Fitzpatrick is teaching her students how to change the world. She works at Plymouth Grove, a primary school tucked into the industrial redbrick streets of inner-city Manchester. The children here come from a wide range of backgrounds, and many are new arrivals to the UK. A bright poster in pride of place in the entrance hall welcomes visitors in all 34 languages spoken at the school.
Hannah never planned to become a teacher, but within hours of starting her first job as a teaching assistant she was hooked by the thought of shaping the future by empowering the children of today. Now a fully qualified teacher, she champions children’s voices across her whole school as coordinator of Plymouth Grove’s status as a Rights Respecting School.
Based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Rights Respecting Schools Award was set up to by the charity UNICEF to help schools embed children’s rights into their ethos and practice.
“It’s all about promoting the understanding of what rights are and how we can live our lives in a way that respects everybody else’s rights”, Hannah explains. Plymouth Grove currently has silver accreditation, and will be going for gold in the autumn.
One of Hannah’s biggest achievements is the creation of the Plymouth Grove’s school charter, which has reshaped the way the whole school is run. The charter is a selection of articles from the UN convention, voted on by everybody in the school — from the children to the teachers and the kitchen staff. This framework of values informs behaviour policy and even the way in which the school communicates with parents.
In addition to the school charter, every class votes on their own charter at the start of each year, tailoring it to their age, interests and personalities. The charters are then protected and monitored by a rights steering group of representatives from each class who are chosen by election. These positions are hotly-contested among the children, with an amazing sixteen candidates running in one class this year.
Hannah herself acknowledges that all this may sound somewhat improbable, but putting the children’s voices first really works. Headteacher Mike Cooke is impressed by how the Rights Respecting School scheme has brought everyone together:
“When you have such a diverse school community, what you need is a shared goal and a shared language, and that’s what the rights respecting school framework brings. It is common to every child regardless of race, gender, religion or anything else.”
By enabling the children to have a say on the school’s values, Hannah has improved behaviour across her school. Couching issues in terms of the rights in the school charter — such as to have an education, to be respected and to feel safe — gives children and staff a shared language with which to understand and deal with them.
“If children don’t feel listened to and that the situation isn’t understood, you can’t change their behaviour, because they’ll just feel that the situation isn’t being dealt with fairly,” says Mike Cooke, “The fact that we can always ensure that the children have been heard makes a big difference.”
Rights are also deeply ingrained in Hannah’s lessons. In the classroom, she empowers the students to use their voices to protect the rights of others, which is where changing the world comes in! “We use the word ‘change maker’. We say a child can be a change maker — not just adults or the government.”
Classes choose global rights issues to research and campaign about, covering topics such as the Brazilian favelas, climate change and the experiences of children in warzones.
“The children have been really inspired by the school climate change strikes,” she tells me “we had a protest on the playground recently, and the children made placards and banners, and they marched around chanting.”
Plymouth Grove has a very diverse student community, which means that children from countries such as Yemen, Syria and Somalia can share first-hand experiences of living in conflict, and help others understand what it’s really like.
“It’s really such a privilege to work with children like that and to learn from them as much as they learn from us,” says Hannah, “the sort of thing you get out of eight year olds talking about these topics is just absolutely amazing.”
Hannah loves seeing her work pay off in how the children have changed: “They’re definitely more aware, and they’re definitely able to talk about tricky issues in a way that is more mature. There’s more understanding there.”
From grilling a visitor from UNICEF about sustainable development goals, to winning a national debating competition at the Houses of Parliament, these children certainly have the knowledge and confidence to speak up for themselves.
Hannah’s championing of rights has transformed the culture at her school, but for her what’s even more exciting is the difference she’s making to her students’ futures: “To have this at such a young age when you’re going on to your adult life is really powerful.”
The children have the confidence to stand up and use their voices to defend their rights and the rights of others, and the tools to build respectful relationships and handle whatever tricky situations life throws at them.
As Hannah proudly says, “they really believe that they can change the world.”
