(2) what his policy is on promoting UNICEF's Rights Respecting Schools Programme;
(3) what assessment he has made of the effect of UNICEF's Rights Respecting Schools programme on the behaviour of children in those schools that have adopted it.
The Rights, Respect and Responsibilities (RRR) programme provides a framework of values based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Rights Respecting School awards are made by UNICEF to schools which teach children's and human rights and where rights and respect are modelled in all relationships. The Department has not made a systematic assessment of the RRR programme's effect on pupils' behaviour, but we know of schools which implement the programme and which have reported improvements in behaviour.
Helping pupils understand their rights and responsibilities, which is central to RRR, can reinforce the Department's Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme, which has been shown to have positive effects on behaviour.
Behaviour-related guidance, training and curriculum materials produced by the Department emphasise the importance of promoting mutual respect and personal responsibility and while the Department does not actively promote the specific RRR framework, schools are free to adopt it. The Department does not collect information about the numbers of schools involved in RRR.