Rights Respecting School Award

We currently hold a Silver Rights Aware award by UNICEF and are working towards our Gold award.

Since 2023, when awarded silver, we have identified ways in which our pupils and school community can commit to the UNCRC charter as well as embed the principles of this across our school. We continue to implement an action plan which puts the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the forefront of our approach to education and ethos in Dalziel.

We have developed from a Pupil Council of 8 to a Pupil Parliament of 30 and intend on continuing to build upon this.

Our Pupil Parliament is made up of our School Captain, School Vice-Captain, House Captains, representatives from different groups, year group representative from S4, class representative from each S1 – S3 class.

The Pupil Parliament meet regularly, and this is chaired by our School Captain, Nero Rutherford, and minutes taken by our School Vice-Captain, Alex Smith. At each meeting one article of the five chosen for the year is discussed. As a group, our Pupil Parliament discuss three questions: What do we think this article means? What does this look like at Dalziel? What could we do to improve or make positive change in Dalziel and the school community?

The Pupil Parliament, alongside staff, create presentations to deliver at each year group assembly. Members of the Pupil Parliament have delivered at assemblies throughout the year, and we will continue to do this moving forward. We have also been involved in raising funds for charity including Children in Need and the Christmas Jumper appeal.

Following a discussion and a vote, our Pupil Parliament will be writing to local councillors to increase the number of bins in Motherwell town centre and the surrounding areas. Nero and Alex have also shared this concern with the senior leadership team at Dalziel. This group have also highlighted other concerns they would like to take forward including concerns around traffic in the community. Our pupils have carefully considered the UNCRC charter and have identified which article are visible and link to areas of the school, these will be visible across the school.

Our Pupil Parliament is supported by our Rights Respecting Staff Steering Group.