The back packs begin their journey.

Today representatives from The Blandford School came to collect our school contribution for the back pack appeal. School council members and our Rights Respecting Reps. celebrated the success of the appeal and helped pack the bags up for their long journey.  

All our best wishes go with them!

Thankyou Morrisons!

Well done and a big thankyou to Morrisons of Blandford for their kind and generous donation in support of our backpack appeal!.

Backpack progress!

The back pack appeal is taking off!
We have had some wonderful donations. Keep up the good work everyone!

Back pack appeal.

Article 28
All children have a right to primary education,which should be free. Wealthy countries should help poorer countries achieve this........ Young people should be encouraged to reach the highest level of education they are capable of.
School council have been thinking about the charities our school can support this year. The Blandford School invited us to join with them in providing school backpacks for children in Malawi and Liberia. As we are keen to work towards enabling children everywhere to benefit from an education we thought this was a great opportunity for us.
Here is a short video to show you more about the appeal.
 Please help us make a difference to these children's lives.

Rights respecting schools lead the way!

Today there was an exciting new step in the Rights Respecting journey! Holleigh, Emma and Mrs. Rees attended a Pyramid schools council meeting.
 The aim is to take forward the spirit of Rights Respecting Schools to achieve a Rights Respecting Community for Blandford!
Plans were made for all the schools  to display work that they have been doing on the Articles in the UNCRC and introduce the language and principles of a rights respecting ethos to the people of our town. This will take place on the night of 15th December.It will be a fantastic evening with a lantern parade, singing outside the church and lots of festive fun.
More information will follow!

Hooray for us!!

On Wednesday, our school was visited by Mike Hilary - a school inspector tasked with assessing whether or not Blandford St Mary Primary could be considered a "Rights Respecting School".

After a long day and lots of evidence being shared - the resounding answer was: Yes!
We are very proud of ourselves indeed. Many thanks to all of those who have contributed to the cause but most of all to our brilliant school community.

Below is the actual report written for us which is very positive and make sure you look at the bottom of our letters from now on because we have a new badge to display!

Open publication - Free publishing - More rrs

A RRS Harvest Festival!

We had a fantastic Harvest Festival Assembly yesterday that was interwoven with our commitment to the UNCRC. Have a look at the slides above.
The children who delivered the assembly spoke beautifully and the whole community sang with a great deal of passion. I was a very proud man indeed.

Once again, the local community has been very generous and we are now able to donate our offering to several local organisations: Treads, Bryanston Court and Charities linked to our church.

Once again - we will be singing and praising in church this Sunday to celebrate the Harvest Festival with the church.

Mr Lavis.

International Day of peace

Article 6
All children have the right to life. Governments should ensure that children survive and develop healthily.

Article 19    Governments should ensure that children are properly cared for , and protect them from violence, abuse and neglect.........

September 21st is International Peace Day and we have a host of activities planned to promote thoughts and aspirations of peace in our own lives and throughout the world.

The New School Council

Article 12 Children should have the right to say what they think should happen when adults are making decisions that affect them and to have their opinions taken into account.

Article 3  All organisations concerned with children should work toward what is best for each child.

Tuesday 14th September.
The newly elected School Council held their first meeting.

We discussed at length exactly what the role of a school council should be and decided on the following aims;
• To listen to the ideas and views of our classmates


• To bring ideas to School council for discussion

• To take our best ideas forward and act as a link between children and management of the school.

• To represent the children of our school when decisions are being made that affect us all.

• To think of ways we can improve our school.

• To help anyone who is sad.

• To help develop the Rights Respecting ideas throughout the school

• To solve problems

• To welcome visitors and show them around our school

We then elected our new chairperson. Congratulations Holleigh!

Welcome!

Welcome to an exciting new year of RRS ideas, activities and achievements.
We will continue to develop the children's knowledge and understanding of the UNCRC [United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child]  which underpins the teaching and ethos of our school.

Article 12 Children have trhe right to say what they think should happen, when adults are making decisions that affect them, and to have their opinions taken into account,

This week the children in every class have been discussing the sort of learning environment they want for their base. Class charters have been created and signed detailing the behaviours and attitudes the children feel will lead to a classroom that is happy safe and inspiring.
The charters were shared with parents in our whole school assembly on Friday 10th September but if you missed this do check the individual class blogs for more information or come in and see our displays.

Year 2 look at fairtrade in the chocolate industry

Article 24

You have the right to good quality health care and to clean water, nutritious food and a clean environment so that you can stay healthy. Rich countries should help poorer countries achieve this.

Article 27

You have a right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet your physical and mental needs. The government should help families who cannot afford to provide this.


Article 28
You have a right to an  education.  Primary education should be free. Wealthy countries should help poorer countries achieve this.

Year 2 have been looking at our responsibilites as individuals and also as a country to support Fairtrade  and help children in other parts of the world enjoy their rights as we do.
See 'Making a difference' in Polar Bear Base Blog

Making new friends

Article 31



You have a right to relax, play and join in a wide range of activities.
Here we are enjoying a fab dance experience with our new friends from Yewstock School.

International Arts week.

Article 29

Education should develop your personality and talents to the full. It should encourage you to respect your parents, your own and other cultures.

In International Arts week every class took a country participating in the World Cup to research and explore.

Reception class lookeed at New zealand, Year 1 Mexico, Year 2 Brazil, Year 3 Italy, Year 4 The Netherlands, Year 5 Japan, Year 6 the hosts South Africa.

The results were shared in a dramatic finale including singing, dancing, a samba band,  parades, raps, and chants!

 

We put on an exhibition of all our work for our parents to enjoy.

 

In a very short while we learnt an amazing amount about the lives of people living in other countries! 

Reviewing our progress.March 19th 2010

Luke, our RRS representative was invited to our School Council meeting to review the progress we have made towards becoming a Rights Respecting School.

Generally we felt that everyone is aware of the RRS intentions and fully supported this as the way forward for our school. Several members felt that parents didn't keep up with developments in the school and suggested we could advertise our blog more. The school council were unanimous in their belief that class sharters and teacher's use of Rights and Responsibilities language had improved the behaviour in their classrooms. All felt, however, that we still needed to improve matters at playtime. It was again suggested that the playground charters were not obvious enough and we should work towards addressing this.

School council agreed  that their is a strong student voice at our school and had been particularly proud to be part of the interviewing process for teachers to work in year 3. [March 2010]

Everyone felt they contributed to the planning and development of learning in their classes.

All council members felt that we were very good as a school at responding to crises and acting on behalf of children in difficulty at home and abroad.

World Book Day

On World Book Day we all came to school dressed as our favourite book characters.

In assembly on we thought about children in other countries who are just like us and have a right to education but because of war or difficult conditions do not have books to teach or entertain them.

We learnt about organisations like Unicef that raise money to create schools and provide educational resources so children can have the education that is their right.
 
We know we are lucky. Our school has a wonderful library and provides fantastic opportunities to learn. It is our responsibility to make the most of it!
 
Satoshi Kitamura’s illustration of Articles 28 & 29 from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child - Article 28

All children and young people have a right to free primary education. Children should be encouraged to go to school to the highest level they can.

Improving our lunchtime charter

School council have been asking their classes to help make our lunchtime charter more colourful and visual so the everyone will understand our Rights and Responsibilities at lunchtimes.

Here they are presenting their wonderful posters at assembly.