From this week’s Galway City Tribune Schools’ Pages – World Children’s Day is celebrated each year on November 20 – it is UNICEF’s annual day of action for children, by children.

For the pupils of Knocknacarra Educate Together National School, this day is about teaching children about their rights and raising awareness of how they can use them.

They demonstrated this by hosting the Happy Hour on University of Galway’s FlirtFM 101.3 last Tuesday.

6th Class student Leon said: “We are hoping to raise awareness of children’s rights, mainly because some children may not know what they even are. Not all children know that they have rights. We want to help children understand what they deserve.”

The day is also an opportunity to draw attention to important issues affecting children locally, nationally and on an international level.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of when Ireland first signed the Children’s Rights Charter in 1992. This charter contains 42 articles which specifically outline the rights of the child. These include the rights to an education, to play, to access health care, to have a voice, to have protection from violence and to have a decent standard of living.

To acknowledge this important event, Mayor of Galway, Clodagh Higgins, visited the school to learn about its school’s three-year journey to become formally recognised as a Child Rights School. It will be the first school in Galway to earn the UNICEF Child Rights Ribbon.

As part of this work, each class has created their own charter which is an agreement on how the rights of the child will be made real in their classrooms. This links to article four on the Convention of the rights of the child ‘Making Rights Real’.

The whole school has a fortnightly focus on the different articles within the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

This involves highlighting child-friendly information and activities which enable children to explore children’s rights in their classes.

Children have learnt about experiences of children from other countries and shared their thoughts and views. The have explored how the articles from the Convention impact them in their lives and discussed why each one is important. The articles which we have learnt about as a school this year to date are as follows:

Article 12 – Respect for Children’s Views

Article 14 – Freedom of Thought and Religion

Article 15 – Setting Up or Joining Groups.

Article 38 – Protection in War

Article 39 – Recovery and Reintegration

The Student Council are also busy translating the school policies into more child-friendly language in order to make school information accessible for all.

Dexter, a student in third class, said: “I feel happy and feel more important than I did before. I thought I had to always listen to the adults. I feel like I have a chance to speak for myself now.”

For more information, see HERE

■ This article was written by the Child Rights Committee and Student Council at Knocknacarra Educate Together National School.

See the November 25 edition of the Galway City Tribune for photos and news from Knocknacarra Educate Together NS; St Patrick’s Primary School and Oranmore Boys’  School. You can send us news from your city primary or secondary school for inclusion in our weekly ‘Class Act’ pages to schools@ctribune.ie