https://www.childrensparliament.org.uk/
In April 2016, Cathy McCulloch (Director of Children’s Parliament based at Summerhall) kindly met with us to discuss potential opportunities for linking to support a rights based approach to learning at Sciennes. We are extremely fortunate that a number of opportunities have arisen for our children as a direct result of that initial meeting.
Sciennes’ Pupils Given A Voice on Food Insecurity with Nourish Scotland 16.5.2016
In May 2016, pupils from P4B gave their opinions on a variety of issues relating to Food Insecurity, in a wonderful morning of engaging and thought provoking activities designed and led by Dr Chelsea Marshall and a team from Nourish Scotland, based at Summerhall.
Our Children’s Voices Heard at Children’s Parliament 8.6.2016
On Wednesday 8th June 2016 our P4-7 Pupil Council reps and a group of P6 pupils were invited to take part in a Children’s Parliament project at Summerhall to explore their views on the minimum age of criminal responsibility, through discussion, games and creative art activities. Thank you to Cathy McCulloch (Co-Director Children’s Parliament) and Chelsea Stinson (Children’s Voices Programmes Manager) for the invitation and the opportunity for our children to share their ideas and opinions.
In Scotland, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is currently set at 8 years of age and plans are being explored to increase that to 12 years of age. As part of the consultation process, it is commendable that the Scottish Government is actively seeking young people’s views. Our twenty pupils were part of that ongoing process. The Children’s Parliament project they were invited to attend on Wednesday was one of several commissioned by Tam Baillie, The Children and Young People’s Commissioner in Scotland. Tam has very kindly offered to come and speak at our P1-3 and P4-7 Assemblies in September, to explain his role to our pupils.
Stop-Search-for-Alcohol-CP-Final-Report-2016
Article 12 The right to an opinion and for it to be listened to and taken seriously.
Sciennes Pupils’ Voices Heard on Food Insecurity 7.12.2016
In May 2016, pupils from current P5B (then P4B) gave their opinions on a variety of issues relating to Food Insecurity, in a wonderful morning of engaging and thought provoking activities designed and led by Dr Chelsea Marshall and a team from Nourish Scotland, based at Summerhall. You can read the full report they contributed to here:
Listening to what children think about food insecurity
The authors of this report are: Elli Kontorravdis, Olga Bloemen and Bella Crowe from Nourish Scotland. With kind thanks to Home-Start UK Scotland for co-ordination of the activity session logistics, and to children’s rights consultant Dr Chelsea Marshall whose support was integral to the design and delivery of the activity sessions. Thanks also to Sciennes Primary School for hosting a pilot session providing valuable feedback, and to Dr Flora Douglas for comments and feedback throughout the research. Most importantly, thank you to the children and families who gave their time to share thoughts on food insecurity, and the children that contributed drawings and photographs, we hope this report is an accurate reflection of your views.
Article 12
You have the right to an opinion and for it to be listened to and taken seriously.
Article 27
You have the right to have a good enough standard of living.
P6 UNCRC Art Project with Together (The Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights) and Children’s Parliament 7.6.2017
Over the past few months, Together and the Scottish Universities Insight Institute hosted four seminars on children’s rights in law, practice and policy, sharing national international examples of good practice with a diverse group of delegates:
http://www.togetherscotland.org.uk/resources-and-networks/the-uncrc-in-scotland-seminar-series-2017Â
As part of this seminar series, Together has been working to ensure that children and young people play a key role and that key messages from the seminars are accessible to everyone. Together commissioned artists Joanna Boyce, Yonnie and Lyver to work with our P6 pupils to present key messages in a creative and engaging way.
Three young people who had attended the seminars (Joel, Thomas and Suki) interpreted the key messages and themes then P6C pupils from Miss Katy Stewardson’s class – Arwen, Thomas, Alma, Luis, Eilidh, Isaac, Eamon and Rachel – worked closely with the artists to visualise the imagery suggested, for example ‘rights in the clouds’, ‘a policy factory’, ‘a meadow of rights’ and ‘connected Together in a daisy chain.’
During the project on 7th, 8th and 9th of June, Miss Stewardson’s whole class discussed and worked on visualising UNCRC articles, particularly Article 42 Everyone should know about the UNCRC (finding ways to depict 42 of the articles) and Article 31 The right to play and rest.
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| P6C have included their own images of 42 articles of the UNRC |
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| P6C’s ideas will help create a new Playground Charter |
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| Juliet and Liz from Together Alliance visited P6C on Election Day 8th June 2017 when Emily illustrated Article 4 |
Consultation on Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility (MACR) 30.11.2017
In June 2016, Sciennes’ pupils took part in consultation exercises with Children’s Parliament on the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility (MACR). On Thursday 30th November 2017, Chelsea Stinson and colleagues from Children’s Parliament revisited school, with a representative from the Scottish Government, to gather more of their views. They sought particularly to explore children’s understanding of the concept of dignity. Chelsea worked with the group to produce ‘Dignometers’, a useful visual tool for explaining their thoughts.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child called for an increase in the minimum age of criminal responsibility in both their 2008 and 2016 recommendations to the UK. Scotland is currently the only country in Europe where an eight-year-old can be treated as a criminal, with the average age across Europe being 14 years-old.
Legislation has been introduced which will increase the age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12, taking forward a longstanding recommendation from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
 Invitation to Pupil to Participate in Interview Process 2.3.2018
Chelsea Stinson from the Children’s Parliament kindly invited pupils to take part in the interview process for their new Head of Programmes on Friday 2nd March. Unfortunately, school was closed due to severe weather but the children really appreciated the invitation to participate.
Age of Criminal Responsibility: Report Launch + Ministerial Event 19.4.2018
Thursday 19th April 2018, six pupils from the large group who participated in the MACR consultation in June 2016 and November 2017 have been invited by the Children’s Parliament to meet Maree Todd, Minister for Childcare and Early Years at the Scottish Parliament for the launch of the report on the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility (MACR).
Legislation has been introduced which will increase the age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12, taking forward a longstanding recommendation from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
If the legislation is passed, it will mean that a child under the age of 12 years can no longer commit an offence. Currently, although children under the age of 12 are not prosecuted in Scotland, information about an offence accepted or established through a Children’s Hearing can continue to appear on their Disclosure Certificate or Protection of Vulnerable Groups scheme record well into adulthood. This information will no longer appear on a child’s record if the Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Bill is passed in Parliament.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child called for an increase in the minimum age of criminal responsibility in both their 2008 and 2016 recommendations to the UK. Scotland is currently the only country in Europe where an eight-year-old can be treated as a criminal, with the average age across Europe being 14 years-old.
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