Wandsworth Hospital and Home Tuition Service (HHTS Wandsworth) proudly received the Unicef Rights Respecting Schools Silver Award this week.
Unicef’s Rights Respecting award is focused on getting schools to put children’s rights at the centre of the education system, such as the right a child has to a home, an education, and a name.
More than 1.5 million children in the UK already go to a Rights Respecting School and 4500 schools around the country are working through the award, and yet HHTS Wandsworth is the first hospital school to receive the award.
HHTS Wandsworth allows children suffering from chronic or severe illnesses, mental health issues, pregnant women and young parents to continue receiving an education.
Assistant headteacher Anna D’Olier said: “The kids are delighted, and the teachers are delighted too.
“It’s so important for the children to know the rights of themselves and the rights of others.”
The school set up groups and working parties among faculty in order to truly embed the rights of the child into the schooling system, which led to them achieving the award.
Every week the school focuses on one article of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – the code underpinning the Rights Respecting award – and embeds it into lessons.
One week, for instance, lessons might centre around the right a child has to a home, in which children might have discussions about refugees, weaving that into current affairs and philosophy.
