Respecting our Rights, Respecting our Earth

We’re very happy to share the great news that we have been awarded the Bronze Award on our journey to become a Rights Respecting Nursery. The Rights Respecting Award is a UNICEF programme that puts children’s rights at the heart of the whole nursery. You’ll be hearing lots more about what this means, how children’s rights thread through our culture and ethos and how it affects every aspect of our care. This means that, whilst the award is for our four Bristol nurseries for now, we’ll be rolling it out across the group and the principles are embedded in our policies. The award will help our children continue to be confident, caring, responsible young people both at nursery and in the wider community.

Children at Redland discussing their rights using visual prompts

UNICEF’s Jilly Hillier said, “I’m very excited to be working with four Snapdragons Nurseries in Bristol on their journey to become UNICEF UK Rights Respecting nurseries. They have achieved the Bronze stage of the award which means they have an action plan in place and are working together to embed a child rights approach in their settings. What a lovely positive start for children and staff!’

 This couldn’t have happened at a more appropriate time as we marked Earth Day 2021 this week. Children’s rights encompass every aspect of their lives and it is our duty as adults and leaders to ensure that they are upheld. Take a look at this to see how Articles 6, 12 and 24 tie in with Earth Day and the environmental issues that face our children’s generation:

So the planting, growing, eating well and recycling that are ever present at nursery, have taken on even more significance, including at Snapdragons Weston, where the children planted fruit trees and other edibles:

Planting fruit trees at Weston

We also talk to children about recycling and how how our actions and choices affect the environment. This amazing scenario at Snapdragons Redland gave pre-school a tangible experience of how they can help to save the world from a plastic web:

The world is entangled in a web of plastic … it needs pre-school to rescue it!

This is such an exciting time and we are so proud to be one of the few nurseries to embrace RRS. Let us know if you’re interested in being a parent ambassador for Rights Respecting, or want to know more!