Year 5 discussed the importance of individual rights and responsibilities, and how these can potentially impact others – answering these questions:

• Why do we need rules in society?
• How do rules keep us safe?
• Why might people break rules?
• What can we do if we think a rule is not fair?
• How can rules in a school help us to learn and grow?

For each right and responsibility, we thought of an appropriate reward if children are seen to be upholding that right. We also thought of an alternative consequence if children were not showing responsible behaviour and the right was being ignored.

Some examples included:

Being kind to other children in your class. The rewards for this were to be given dojo points, table points or to have one day per week on chrome books. If this right was to be ignored, consequences would have to take place. The children came up with sensible consequences such as: have a playtime taken from you, having to clean other children’s’ mess or having to write in pencil all day if you have a pen license.

Finally, as a class, we discussed the rewards and consequences from the lesson the children would like to see in our classroom.

These rights and responsibilities are important to discuss as children gage an understanding of the importance of obeying rules and working together to achieve their goals.