A RADCLIFFE school has become the first in the borough to be given a prestigious award by Unicef.

Radcliffe Hall Primary School, in Bury Street, has earned a level one Rights Respecting Schools Award, recognising their commitment to putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of a school’s planning, policies and practice.

Staff and pupils at the school have been working towards the award for a year and were visited by Unicef representatives in July to assess their progress.

Sian Hamer, the school's deputy headteacher, said: "We are very proud to be the first school in Bury to be a Rights Respecting School.

"We have a steering group who have called themselves the Rights Respecters, made up of two children from each class.

"They meet every other week and decide what they want to do around the school in terms of fundraising or other events.

"They are our ambassadors and go back to their classes and spread the word about what we are doing.

"We will now be working towards our Level Two status, which is all about spreading awareness and working with other schools.

"The children have been very keen to get involved and now they all know their rights. I think knowing that makes children a lot more thoughtful and respectful towards each other and to teachers too."

A report on the school's achievement written by Unicef assessor, Martin Russell, said: "All children and adults spoken with were keen to explain that rights respecting has strengthened the voice of pupils across the school and that they now have a strong and widely valued voice in many areas of school life.

"As one child said, ‘We now respect everybody else and we see each other as more equal.'

"The children described having a say in a range of matters including setting up anti-bullying action, fundraising, marking the Queen’s 90th Birthday and the year sixes choosing which play to produce and perform."

The Unicef UK Rights Respecting Schools initiative now involves over 3,300 primary and secondary schools in the UK.