A PRIMARY school has become a UNICEF Rights Respecting School after working towards placing the rights of children at the heart of school life.

Romanby Primary School has achieved Level 1 of the UNICEF schools award.

The school in Romanby, Northallerton began working towards the status after learning about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and developing the school’s ethos and practice accordingly.

The school encourages children to become more “active citizens” focusing on wellbeing, participation, relationships and self-esteem.

One pupil, Alex, aged 10, said: “I love being a Rights Respecting Ambassador for my school.

“We all want to make a change and help our school become even better than it is so that everyone feels safe, happy and confident that they can make a difference.

“We’ve particularly enjoyed having a say in the charities that we support and learning about what happens to the money we raise. Our favourite fundraising activity was the ‘Water Bucket’ event from we raised money for schools in Ghana.”

Deputy headteacher Jane Wood said: “The children and staff at Romanby see the importance of rights and understand that they are central to making their school a wonderful place to learn and grow.”

The school’s Rights Respecting ambassadors are currently supporting UNICEF’s current Outright 2017 campaign which develops awareness of refugee children and raising money with a scramble obstacle course challenge.