Our "Right of the Month"
Since our steering group was re-launched in June 2023 , as part of our silver action plan we have created a focus every month on one of the UNCRC articles. The hope is to raise awareness about rights, and to make sure every young person at Forres Academy understands that rights are universal, inalienable, inherent, unconditional and indivisible.
These are tough words and concepts to understand so it is simplified below with our ABCDE of rights and our pupil friednly version of each article.
Since August of 2023 each month we have picked a theme to focus on which has incorporated a UNCRC article and a sustainable development goal. See below our Right of the month content.
August 2023 - Right of the Month
August - Article 12. Respect for Children's views.
August right of the month summary.pdfPlease click the document on the left to see our monthly newsletter about Article 12 - the right for respect for children's views.
We have had a number of successes this month in:
Introducing our first "Right of the month"
Holding our first assembly on the ABCDE of rights
SLT have created a pupil voice calendar to make sure the rights of all pupils is regularly sampled.
The Student Network has been re-established and had their first session on discussing positive relationships and wellbeing themes.
Pupil Leadership has been launched. We now have 2 house captains for each of our Houses, a team of senior prefects who work closely with staff on events and supervision rotas, and a team of wider S5/6 students. All of these pupils went through application and interview processes to earn this important role.
We have set up our new "Equalities Club". Monday at lunch time in the library - all welcome !
We have done a big audi on clubs and societies ready for next months theme.. look out for more.
SLT have introduced their monthly 24/7 programme where 7 pupils spend 24 minutes with an SLT member to talk school improvement on a range of topics.
Mrs Munn has secured funding for us to deliver a programme of Wellbeing Ambassadors in the coming months.
A group of pupils voted to name a new space in the Forres community called "The Gaff". We look forward to making use of the space and enjoying some much needed down time.
Re-established our LGBT+ group.
"It has been amazing to create such momentum in establishing various pupil voice groups within the school. We have gone from a few groups to a range of pupils wanting to get their voices firmly on the table from our LGBT+ group to Rights respecting ambassadors. It's amazing to have such passionate young people involved in our improvement journey, taking on leadership roles and to have established a busy pupil voice calender of opportunities to promote article 12." Mrs Lindsay Muluzi. Acting Depute Head Teacher.
September 2023 - Right of the Month
Article 31 - The right to rest, play, culture and arts.
September 2023 right of the month update.pdfPlease click the document on the left to see our monthly newsletter about Article 131 - the right for young people to rest, play, culture and arts.
This month we have spent a lot of time as a school creating opportunities for rest and recreation. Jsut before the summer there was a whole school survey done from S1-6 which asked pupils all about clubs and societies. The student network had also raised at their meeting that celebrating success and wider achievement was a priority this year with the new house systems being created. The student network spent time analysing the survey results and found that there were 7 clubs actively still running post lockdowns and that wider achievements in the community were not being recognised in school. With that in mind during the month of september Forres Academy has made the following progress:
RRSA group had a meeting with the SLT link for active schools to share ideas.
Collated survey information about new clubs that pupils would like to be offered
22 clubs and extra-curricular activities are now up and running
Pupils were able to work with active schools to vote on spending money on a drop in coach to offer lunch time sessions.
The lunch time sessions are now up and running with Fiona ! They have been really well attended and its nice to have taster sessions to try out new things.
Our S6 "Canva Crew" have been working with active schools to create new posters for these drop ins as well as the Portable Cage they have introduced.
New posters have been designed for all 22 clubs on offer.
We have created a new display board to signpost pupils to all of the extra currcular activities on offer.
House captains have created a Microsoft Form to be sent electronically to parents to gather successes and achievements out of school. They have dates in the diary for house group assemblies to shout out about all of these at the end of term.
We have agreed next year to have a BGE as well as a Senior Prizegiving so that more of this can be captured and that success is celebrated across all year groups.
October 2023 - Right of the Month
Article 2 - No discrimination
October right of the month summary no discrimination.pdfEvery child has rights “without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status” (Article 2).
This month at Forres Academy lots of work has gone on in curricular areas to learn about non discrimination. October is recognised worldwide as Black History month and topics across the school have included the Atlantic Slave Trade, and display boards were created on Moray's invovlement in this trade. Did you know that 21 community areas across Moray all received compensation when the slave trade ended?
This month:
Pupils in N5 history have been learning about Britains role in the Atlantic Slave Trade
RMPS lessons have included article 2 acoss a range of topics such as medical ethics and capital punishment which is known historically to have been discriminatory based on race and class.
Our S6 charity committee have been working closely with Blythswood on the Christmas Shebox appeal to help discrimination linked to financial inclusion. Hundreds of donations have been made adn this has been linked to our new house points system. Thank you for your generosity !
PSE classes have also been gearing up towards anti-bulling week next month.
Special awareness has been raised regarding ongoing conflicts around the world just now and that many children and young people are unable to access their rights.
Geography classes have been creating infographics on the conflict in the Gaza strip.
Our LGBT+ "Pride of Forres Academy - POFA - is back up and running with Inclusion staff and they have teamed up with the Rights Respecting Schools group to welcome Moray Pride into school to talk to them about our Equalities plans for the next few terms. We welcomed representatives into school from Moray Pride and we have made a great new partnership with them and look forward to teaming up for next years Pride events.
November 2023 - Right of the Month
Article 38 - the right to be protected during war and times of conflict.
Article 38 Remembrance.pdfNovember is a special month for us in terms of our Right of the Month programme. Now more than ever it is so important to remeber those who have served in wars, and those that continue to serve.
Our school context at Forres Academy is unique as we have lots of military families. We also have a dedicated member of staff Nicole who is our military support coordinator who works closely with our military families. Lots of our families are serving members of the Army and are based in Kinloss, as well as RAF families. Our school role can be affected from time to time with military families deploying abroad or moving to our area.
During the month of November there have been lots of opportunities to engage with article 38 - the right that all children and young people have to be protected in times of war.
There was a whole school lesson on Remembrance Day created by Mrs Goodwin and her Advanced Higher History class
A beautiful display was created in the foyer that was linked to UNCRC articles and Sustainable Development goals of peace and justice.
Social subejcts classes continue their work on researching refugees from the Hamas war.
National classes continue to study "The Great War" and other topics relating to war such as "Nazi Germany" and "The Scottish Wars of Independence".
Bill Symon in s5 proudly piped in our foyer as part of our remembrance day assembly to end our minutes silence.
We had pupils take part in laying wreaths and accompanying Mrs Sinclair to a local ceremony.
The RRSA group and military pupils met to discuss atticle 38 and it has been decided that a new drop in lunch time club for all thigns military should be created to provide pupils extra support. We aim to set this up in January 2024 right in time for prelims.
December 2023 - Right of the Month
Article 14 - Freedom of thought and religion
Right of the month - December write up.pdfDecember has brought so much joy and fun to the life of the school. It has been a jam packed month full of fun interhouse competitions, whole school events to take part in, the introduction of 2 new clubs at lunch times and lots of festive shenanigans !
Throughout December we have been reflecting on the right to freedom of thought and religion. This was highlighted at our end of term assemblies, and that while many pupils are excited for the festive period it can be a difficult time for many families; as well as the fact that not all families celebrate Christmas due to their own religious beliefs.
During December pupils have had opportunities to:
learn about Christmas celebrations around the world, as well as other religious festivals such as Hanukkah and Diwali.
House captains have hosted 2 Interhouse Christmas competitions and house points were awarded for participation.
Our canteen staff hosted a lovely Christmas lunch for us all to enjoy.
The staff went into full competition mode by designing Christmas doors for the whole school competition.
House captains hosted an end of term house assembly to share successes and and acheivements.
Mr Fraser's S6 Leadership class organised our whole school "Christmas Cracker" event which was amazing fun and was the perfect way to end a busy term.
Our S6 charity and community committee also arranged the 12 Days of Christmas event in partnership with Moray Food Bank to collect much needed essential items. There was an interhouse spin put on this too and each person who contributed was awarded house points !
Our Blythswood Shoebox Appeal was a great success and we also put an Interhouse spin on this where each house group had a different target audience. It was amazing to see our school values of being inclusive, kind and determined in action here ! Well done to all.
We also partied the night away at both the Junior and Senior dances which were really well attended. The food and nibbles were great, the band were fabulous and the dance moves were absoluetly epic ! It was a brilliant atmosphere and a massive shout out to the S6 Events committee for organising!