A deeper understanding of rights through art
at Christ Church Primary School
By linking rights to the arts children know that rights are not an ‘add on’ but a part of the school’s ethos.
Christ Church Primary is a RRSA Gold primary school in Hampstead, London. RRSA Coordinator Kathryn Pagnello shares why incorporating rights into the school’s art curriculum is so important.
A deeper understanding
At Christ Church Primary, the arts support children gain a deeper understanding of the rights of the child. By linking rights to the arts, the idea that children’s rights are not an ‘add on’ but a part of the school’s ethos is promoted. Using the arts can also be a way for children to ‘have a say’ about specific rights and share knowledge of the rights of the child with others.
A day of art linked to Rights Respecting Schools
Each year we run an art project in the autumn term which focuses on children all producing a piece of art linked to a common theme. We frame each child’s art work and showcase all of the art at an art exhibition run after school. This year, we focused the project on children’s rights. Each class focused on one article they had explored during our Rights Respecting School day. You can read the exhibition leaflet to find out more. The class teachers chose an artist and a style of art work to inspire the pieces alongside the focus article and then each child created a piece of artwork that represented the article.
Advice for other schools on linking rights to the arts
If other schools want to link the arts to their work on children’s rights, I’d suggest giving each class a specific article to focus on and linking the two is a really good way to also tick off art skills. Having some sort of opportunity to share the artwork is a great way of promoting the rights even further especially with parents.
School context: Christ Church Primary is a Church of England primary school in the heart of Hampstead with 192 pupils on roll. 3.6% of pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium funding, 9% receive support for Special Educational Needs or a Disability (SEND) and 55.2% speak English as an Additional Language. The school had been reaccredited at Gold six times.