Developing class agreements at Nelson Central

Many New Zealand teachers start the year with classroom contracts, but the difference in HRiE schools is the explicit linkage to the internationally-agreed rights young people have. Making this linkage helps students understand how human rights were negotiated and agreed (a Social Studies achievement objective), adds weight to the agreed rights and responsibilities, and provides a constant opportunity for human rights learning as Agreements are used to guide behaviour. At Nelson Central Primary teacher Helen Zachariassen undertook this task with early success.

'I have already been following the outline on how to make a Class Agreement, and with a few changes I have had fabulous responses from the children. I am amazed how many rights they believe they have; it has been great to come up collectively with the related responsibilities. It might be too early to see any great impact but the words ‘Rights and Responsibilities’ flow freely in the classroom. The understanding they have of their responsibilities gives the children a lot more ownership over their behaviour. They are aware of the need to ‘respect’ everyone’s ‘rights’ and this is easily reinforced now with the correct language. I am excited to see how this year progresses through the human rights lens.' (2009)