Harvest – Visit to Whitechapel Mission

Mahi, Y3 Gold

“I went to the Whitechapel Mission to give some food because homeless people don’t have food to eat. The centre had a kitchen where they serve breakfast. I learnt that the Mission helps homeless people to change and a have a better life.”   

Hamza, Y6 Aqua

“When we visited the Whitechapel Mission, I learnt that over 300 homeless people visit the centre every day. They provide free breakfast at 6:00am including hot showers, clothes and advice. We met Susan, Tony and Sonny who work at the centre; they do not get funding by the government. They support homeless people to change their lives and get off the streets.”

Eliza, Y3 Orange

“We went to Whitechapel Mission. They give food to poor people. Sonya, Sue and Tony work there. They teach the homeless people to read and write and support them to change their lives, They also help them to get off the streets.”

Outright Clean Air Campaign

During one of our meetings, we looked at one of the UNICEF OutRight campaigns linked to air pollution.

It is our right to best possible health and a safe, clean environment, so we were shocked to find out that the air we are breathing in and around Whitechapel is not only toxic but also breeches the legal limit. We used our right to be heard and wrote postcards to the Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, to stand up for clean air.

Read some of our postcards and remember you can campaign too and follow the hashtags #outright2018 #UNICEFcleanair on Twitter.

Rights Respecting Ambassadors

Red Nose Day!

On Friday 15th March, we celebrated Red Nose Day by wearing red to mark the occasion and donating money to Comic Relief. We also got the opportunity to splat our teachers in the face (cruel but so fun) and parents put on a yummy bake sale.

In class, we were shown videos about children, similar to ourselves, from around the world who benefit greatly from our donations. We watched a video about a boy who had fled his home in Iran due to war. Currently living in a refugee camp in Serbia, we found our money goes towards supporting his and other’s education by providing the camp with school resources including pencils, paper and books. Our donations also help pay for warm, nutritious meals for families in need.

As a school, we are proud to say we raised £275.40.  Thank you for your continued support- it is greatly appreciated.

Rights Respecting Ambassadors

WE Day UK was incredible!

On Wednesday 6th March, the Rights Respecting Ambassadors had the privilege of attending WE Day UK. Thousands of change-makers (that includes us), packed the SSE Arena in Wembley, for this spectacular event. A-list celebrities including The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Prince Harry and Meghan Markle), Liam Payne, Nicole Scherzinger and Naomi Campbell, inspiring speakers and world leaders, mixed with real people, celebrated a year of action that has transformed communities and changed lives.

It was a truly inspirational day where we thought about how we could take action on things we care about. Key messages throughout the day were to ‘Get doing’, ‘Believing in ourselves’ and understanding that ‘Education is the most important tool you can have to change the world’. We hope to take the messages onboard and hope that one day we’ll be on that stage in front of thousands, inspiring them all too with the positive changes we’ve made.

Rights Respecting Ambassadors

Charity of the Year 2018/19

During one of our earlier Rights Respecting Ambassador meetings, we discussed the importance of raising money for charities and supporting children and adults who do not have access to some of their basic human rights. We thought about different charities we have heard of and decided on four charities that we would vote for to be our school Charity of the Year.

The four charities were: UNICEF, Barnado’s, NSPCC and Save the Children.

We shared these charities with our classes and each child voted for the charity they’d like us to support. The votes were counted and we are proud to announce that UNICEF has been voted as our Charity of the Year.

Please continue to support our school and children around the world to gain access to their rights and live a better life.

Y6 Rights Respecting Ambassadors

Human Rights & Equality Workshops​

As part of one of the E1 Pupil Parliament actions, the children at Osmani School thought about Human Rights and Equality. During the Pupil Parliament, the school councillors were concerned about the rise in homelessness in around the local community. The panel suggested that we all need greater awareness as to how and why people become homeless and suggested actions we could take to become active citizens to support them.

WE charity came in and held workshops with children in Year 1-6. To start the morning and afternoon sessions, the students drew the first thing that comes to their mind when they think of the homelessness.

We then discussed reasons why people become homeless which led the children to write a list of the things that they do on a day to day basis. Furthermore, the students then wrote a list of what they believe a homeless person day to day routine would be like.

Lastly, we then discussed what they can do to give back to the homeless people.

Some of the ideas included:

·         Create food packages to give at the Whitechapel homeless shelter

·         Donate to a food bank

·         Donate clothes, toys, and shoes

·         Write a letter to their local MP expressing the importance of rights for home

What will you do to support homelessness in the UK?

Christmas Jumper Day

On Friday 14th December pupils and staff took part in Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day. The whole school put on their festive knitwear in order to raise money for Save the Children.

As ambassadors for children’s rights, we are proud to say we raised £240 which will go to Save the Children, making sure every child, no matter where they are born, has essentials like food and water, healthcare, education, protection and shelter.

Thank you all for your support to make Christmas Jumper Day a success – we surely made the world better in our sweaters!

Rights Respecting Ambassadors

Pupil Parliament

On Friday 23rd November, the Rights Respecting Ambassadors visited Norton Rose Fulbright for their annual Pupil Parliament. During our fantastic time there, we asked questions to four panellists about topics that were important to us. The topics that we discussed were: Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour, Sustainable Development and Human Rights and Equality. We asked questions such as: How can we encourage people to stop using plastic and why is there still religion discrimination in the 21st century?

Eight schools were invited in total and we were put into mixed groups to discuss the feedback given back by the panellist. After lunch (which was delicious) we presented our ideas to the rest of the schools.

Click to read the Pupil Parliament report.

Keep an eye out for our Pupil Parliament Action Weeks coming up throughout this academic year.

Year 4, 5 and 6 Ambassadors

This is Our Rights Song

In our Year 6 music classes, we cover many different ways of writing, listening and playing music, including songwriting! We decided to write a song based on the rights we have as children and adults in our community.

First, we looked at our Rights Respecting rules that we have in Osmani, we chose the rights that we felt were most important to us and made these into poem or ‘lyrics’ as we call them in songwriting.

We then created our backing track using both electronic and live instruments. We learned Pachelbel’s Canon in D on a range of instruments including piano, recorder and xylophone. Then, we produced the track by recording it and mixing in Logic Pro before finally adding our voices on top to complete the track. We are super proud of the track we made and hope it will highlight how important our rights really are.

You can also view our Rights Respecting song and other schools songs directly on the Unicef website.  Click here to be redirected to their page.

Plastic School Packed Lunch Cases Letter to the Council

During one of our meetings, the ambassadors discussed the use of plastic within our school packed lunches. The sandwiches are cased in single-use plastic and we wanted to use our voice to see if we could make a change. We emailed the local council to ask for suggestions for alternative materials that could be used for our lunch. We are still awaiting a response and will keep you updated when we hear from them.

Have a read of our letter.

Rights Respecting Ambassadors