Lesson video

Hi everyone, My name is Miss Patel and welcome back to our RHE unit called all around us, where we get to learn about each other, ourselves and the communities that we're a part of.

This lesson is called I have rights.

And now that you have been elected the Mayor of Oak Town, it's your responsibility to represent our town and help to improve the lives of its constituents.

These are the people who have elected you to become the mayor.

So today let's talk about rights.

In particular, we'll be focusing on children's rights.

So by the end of this lesson, you will understand what human rights are.

You'll explore the rights that children have.

You'll write a letter to the United Nations, and as always, your parents or carers can share your work with us on social media.

So before we start, let's take a look at what we'll need for this lesson.

In this lesson, you'll need a pen or a pencil.

You'll need some paper.

And of course you'll need to work in your office or any quiet space will do.

If you're missing any of these things, pause the video now and press play again when you're ready to continue.

So this is what our lesson will look like today.

We'll begin by looking at what rights children have.

We'll look at the structure of a formal letter.

I'll show you what a good one looks like.

Then we'll take a look at the task and success criteria and see how we can self-assess our work at home.

But before we can look at children's rights, let's recap what human rights are.

Do you remember in 1948, a few years after World War II ended, the leaders of the world created an organisation called the United Nations.

This was an organisation created to promote peace.

And one of their first jobs was to create a list of rights.

They called this the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The world's governments promised to tell everybody about it and to protect all of these rights.

Just over 20 years later in 1989, the governments around the world adopted the UNCRC.

This stands for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It applies to everybody under the age of 18.

It contains 54 articles or rights that cover all aspects of a child's life.

And it outlines how adults and governments can work together to make sure that children can enjoy all of their rights.

For our lesson today, we're particularly interested in Article 28, which is the right to an education.

It reads, every child has the right to an education.

Primary education must be free and different forms of secondary education must be available to every child.

Discipline in school must respect children's dignity and their rights.

Richer countries must help poorer countries achieve this.

So what we want to do today is to create a formal letter to the United Nations, persuading them to ensure all children have the right to access education.

So let's start by recapping the structure of a formal letter.

What's the first thing that we start with? That's right, we put our address in the top corner.

What do we follow this with? This is an element that lots of children forget.

Can you remember what it is? Brilliant, it's today's date.

You need to write the date in full with the date, the month and the year.

This is all aligned to the right-hand side of our page.

Next, we address the letter to our recipient.

This is the person who will receive our letter.

Ideally, we start with the word to or dear, we follow this with our introduction.

What do you think is included in the introduction? That's right, whenever we write a letter, it's always a good idea to explain what the purpose of writing the letter is.

What do you think comes next? As we're writing a letter to persuade someone, we need to highlight the issue, which we'll include in the main body of our letter.

This could be more than one paragraph.

And finally, to conclude your letter, you could discuss the changes you want to see and why they're so important.

If you don't know the name of the person you're writing to, we end this with, yours faithfully.

If we do know their name, what do we end with? That's right, we write, yours sincerely.

You'll need this writing frame to hand when you're completing your independent tasks.

Let's take a look at this WAGOLL to see whether I've included all my ideas in the right places.

From our previous slide, can you remember if I have put the address, the date and the valediction in the right place? Yes, it is right, well done.

Can you remember what paragraph one will do? That's right, it is used to introduce myself and explain why I'm writing this letter.

Now I've addressed the letter to Mr. Secretary-General, who holds the highest role within the UN.

So our letter reads: My name is, this is where you write your name, and I'm the Mayor of Oak Town in, and the name of your country.

I am writing to you because the people in my town feel strongly about ensuring that free education is available for children all around the world.

This goal of worldwide primary education is not only a fundamental right protected by the convention on the rights of a child, but it is essential in protecting children from exploitation and in eliminating poverty.

This means protecting children from being treated unfairly and by getting rid of poverty.

The word fundamental here means important.

Now that's the end of my first paragraph.

So what do you think we'll write about next? Brilliant, we'll discuss the issue at hand.

Even before the implications or the effects of COVID-19, or coronavirus, we had 258 million children not in education.

This means 258 million children are being deprived of their human right, which is clearly outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The word deprived means stopped from having their human rights.

This is unacceptable.

We must do more.

Some of the barriers or obstacles or problems that these children are facing include expensive school fees, conflict in their country, or children are being forced to work instead of going to school.

In our final paragraph, what do we need to include? That's right, we need to explain what changes we want to see.

So it reads Mr. Secretary-General, I still have hope.

Hope that we can build and upgrade facilities to ensure every child's needs are met.

Hope that gender will no longer be a factor that disadvantages a child, and finally hope that all children have equal access to free education.

Now, the rule of three here is especially important because repeating something three times brings emphasis or draws attention to an important point that you're making.

Now I've ended my letter with yours sincerely, because we know who we're writing our letter to.

We're writing our letter to Mr. Secretary-General.

I'll then write my name and my title, which is the Mayor of Oak Town.

To summarise, your task is to write a formal letter to the United Nations, persuading them to ensure that all children are given the right to an education.

This is what each paragraph should contain.

In your first paragraph, you'll write who you are, what your job role is and why you're writing.

In paragraph two, remember this could be more than one paragraph, you'll write why the UN's job is so important and what the current problem is.

And in the final paragraph, you'll conclude with the changes you want to see.

I've also included some key words you can include in your letter.

If there are any words you're unsure about, use this time to look them up.

You can pause the video now and use the success criteria, the WAGOLL, and the writing frame to help you write your letter.

Pause the video now and press play again when you've completed your letter.

Hope you're proud of your completed letters.

Using a different coloured pen, check your work against success criteria using the symbols below.

Is there anything you've missed or anything that you could add now? You've worked really hard today.

That was a really tricky task that required lots of thinking and writing.

So I'm really proud of you.

I hope you got to think about how lucky we are in our country to have access to free education.

If you'd like to, you can ask your parents or carers to share your work with us on social media.

I'd love to read your letters.

Don't forget to complete the quiz and I'll see you again really soon, bye-bye.