Bronze: Rights Committed

Bronze: Rights Committed is the first stage of the Rights Respecting Schools Award

It is primarily a planning stage for the second stage of the RRSA, Silver: Rights Committed. When you are ready, you will supply documented evidence of your school’s commitment and how you intend to become rights respecting.

We estimate it takes a school between 3-6 months to achieve Bronze. There is no assessment visit for Bronze.

Before starting to work towards Bronze, please make sure you have visited the Getting Started page and have registered your school with us.

Achieving Bronze: Rights Committed means there is evidence that:

• You have introduced the RRSA Three Strands into your school community
• Your school’s senior leadership team (SLT) understands what is involved in the Award and is committed to embarking on the UNICEF UK Rights Respecting journey
• The right foundations are in place for your school’s journey to the second stage of the Award, Silver: Rights Aware

We have two training courses to help registered schools achieve Bronze: Rights Committed. Both of these are included in the RRSA membership fee.

• Achieving Bronze – Virtual training for one afternoon, facilitated by a Professional Adviser and joined by fellow teachers to share your progress with other schools at the same stage.
• Starting RRSA Online – An online training course to help kick-start your RRSA journey, with guidance from a Professional Adviser and online discussion forums with fellow teachers.

Do you ever take an Award away from a school?

The Rights Respecting Schools Award is based on nationally agreed standards and uses a system of assessment that looks at all aspects of the school’s life and work. Similarly to other inspection processes the accreditation is made on the evidence seen during the assessment visit. Individual situations and experiences outside the assessment process cannot, on their own, determine the school’s accreditation as Rights Respecting but we do take concerns seriously.  

If a Rights Respecting school experiences an event or circumstances that put it at odds with its Rights Respecting status (at either Silver or Gold) the Programme Director may ask that the school be reaccredited sooner than the three-year life of the Award. This would be done to support the school at a difficult time and, out of respect to all our other schools, to maintain the consistency and status of the RRSA. In exceptional circumstances we reserve the right to suspend an Award.   

 This approach has been approved by our Schools Accreditation and Standards Committee and this is made clear to schools at the time they are awarded Silver or Gold.