Back to School Resources to help teachers and home educators wanting to explore Human Rights Education

We have put together a selection of resources produced by us and other organisations which you can use in your contexts to explore Human Rights Education. 

Activities to use to support students returning to school:
As students begin to return to school why not try some of these activities to help them settle back in? You could ask students to create a people tree to celebrate their connections, draw a self-portrait to celebrate what makes them unique, make a kite and celebrate a time when they feel free or make a helping hands mural to show what they can do to help others. For younger students why not make a feelings beanbag or make feelings faces to explore their different feelings.

Resource Packs to Support Educators with their planning: 
If you are wanting to start the year teaching Human Rights Education to your students there are some great activities to help with your planning within our Early Years pack for 3-5 year old's, Primary pack for 6-11 year old's and our Secondary pack for 11-18 year olds. We have also created eight new Words That Burn Poetry teaching activities that are designed for students to access at home and are easy to follow. Find them here and get students exploring poetry and creating their own poems to share in response to human rights.

Resources to support students in building their activism skills: 
We have also created 2 different projects that children and young people can work on at home or that you could use in school to build their activism skills. One focuses on Solidarity Actions (aimed at 7-13 year olds) and gets them to learn about human rights and how to show solidarity with key workers in your community. The second one focuses more specifically on building Activism Skills (aimed at 14-19 year olds) and asks them to learn about human rights under threat and how to be an activist in your community. 

Anti- Racism, Equality and Diversity Resources: 
Many of you have asked for recommendations of resources to use in lessons to make your curriculum more diverse and representative, you may be interested in exploring some of these resources. The Black Cultural Archives have developed some excellent lesson plans and resources for Keystage 1- 5 including activities on the Windrush Journeys, Freedom fighters in Georgian Britain and changemakers in Victorian Briton. This excellent resource list of 100 great Black Britons and this competition are also great ways to allow children and young people to explore the achievements of Black people in Britain and the way they have shaped the country. Part one of this Fearless Futures infographic explores the history of anti-Black racism in the UK. You may also want to print and display this interactive poster of book recommendations for children and young adults from Darren Chetty and Karen Sands O’Connor for ‘Beyond the Secret Garden’ with Books for Keeps. This detailed 23 page PSHE / Citizenship workbook has been created by EC Resources for the new PSHE 2020 Statutory Guidance and focuses on racism and the Black Lives Matter movement. Or use some of the people from this list of 6 LGBTQ Figures from African History. You may also be interested in signing up for this weekly Diversity and inclusion webcast. This report by Dr Remi Joseph- Salisbury and published by Runnymede on Race and Racism in English Secondary Schools also explores the nature of racism in secondary schools and is organised around four key issues: the teacher workforce; curricula; police; and school policies.

Free Online Courses that are useful for 13+:
Amnesty’s Human Rights Academy has released a free online course aimed at parents/guardians and their children (over the age of 13) to equip you and your children with a basic understanding of humans rights. You can also find a number of their other free online courses here, including a new one on the human rights impact of Covid-19. Amnesty UK has also created a new free online course which explores the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and how it empowers you to know, claim and defend rights. During the course students will learn about inequality and how change happens.