Our Rights!: talking about human rights in the classroom

is an anthology of short stories and poems based around children's rights. The book features pieces written by Children's Laureate, Joseph Coelho, former Children's Laureate Anne Fine, and many award-winning authors and poets from a range of backgrounds and lived experiences. Becci Smith has created learning resources to help classes gain the most from the collection and to engage in thoughtful and lively discussions around what children's rights are and how to protect these. This session will explore how to use the collection and the resources to engage in discussions that cross-cut literacy, citizenship and PSHE.

Our speakers

Jake Hope is the editor of Our Rights!, an anthology of short stories and poems based around children's rights. Jake's background is in libraries where he has worked in reading and learning development. Jake works on training and public speaking on books, reading and inclusivity. Jake is an active reviewer, speaker and passionate advocate for libraries, books, and reading. Jake is past-chair of the Youth Libraries Group, and is the awards executive for the UK’s oldest children’s book awards the Yoto Carnegies

Sita Kenyon is an Education Officer at Amnesty International UK and former English Language and Literature teacher. Sita currently runs Amnesty’s 'Words that Burn' education programme which uses poetry as a tool to explore human rights with students.

Becci Smith is a primary-school teacher, reading for pleasure consultant, creative arts practitioner and the children's event programmer for Stratford Literary Festival. She previously worked as the Learning and Participation Manager for The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival and managed the national Reading Teachers = Reading Pupils programme.

Event Venue

Online