This half term Vale Rights Ambassadors have continued to meet digitally via Microsoft Teams, giving members the opportunity to keep in touch and informed about children’s rights.  The group has met on three different occasions with our last catch up during the half term break.

One of our Rights Ambassadors was given the opportunity to attend a Q&A session with the Education Minister, Kirsty Williams, representing the Rights Ambassadors. Members contributed by sharing their experiences of school closures, the current lockdown as well as their concerns for the next year.  We’ve had a response from the Education Minister’s office focusing on the following concerns raised.

1. What will school like after the pandemic? Will you make major changes? When will we go back? What will it be like?
2. Arrangements for qualifications? Grade boundaries? Year 10s? Future years (2022 and beyond)?
3. Distance Learning – differing experiences and the importance of consistency.
4. Mental Health and Wellbeing 

We’re grateful for the response and the members hope to return to face-to-face learning soon.

Below some images from our digital catch ups!

Members have also completed the Children’s Commissioner for Wales Corona Virus and Me Survey in January. We’ve looked at the published report and survey results and we hope to have the opportunity to look at the detailed results for the Vale of Glamorgan. 19,737 children and young people, age 3-18 completed the survey nationally in Wales. You can read the full report by visiting the Children’s Commissioner for Wales website.

This term the Children’s Commissioner for Wales also launched Project Vote – Project Vote is a parallel election for young people aged 11-15 to coincide with the Senedd election in May 2021. We have had the opportunity to learn about the powers of the Senedd and who represents us, we’ve been using the resources available on the website including an interactive Kahoot Quiz.

Finally here are some different quotes from members on what they’ve been enjoying the most about the project in the last year:

“Meeting Sally Holland, Completing the mission, Kahoot quiz”

“The chance to learn more about rights and how rights came to be. Meeting people who want to learn about rights and are interested. I have grown in confidence in presenting to others or to a crowd. The main skill I have learned is the skill to adapt on other and use different environments (e.g. Zoom and Teams). I have mostly enjoyed workshops and the fun task we have done.”

“I have become more confident with talking to others”