Equality information and objectives
Contents
- Aims
- Legislation and guidance
- Roles and responsibilities
- Eliminating discrimination
- Advancing equality of opportunity
- Fostering good relations
- Equality considerations in decision-making
- Equality objectives
- Monitoring arrangements
- Links with other policies
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
1. Aims
Our school aims to meet its obligations under the public sector equality duty by having due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic (ie. age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership (in employment only), pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation) and people who do not share it
- Foster good relations across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
2. Legislation and guidance
This document meets the requirements under the following legislation:
- The Equality Act 2010, which introduced the public sector equality duty and protects people from discrimination
- The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011, which require schools to publish information to demonstrate how they are complying with the public sector equality duty and to publish equality objectives
This document is also based on Department for Education (DfE) guidance: The Equality Act 2010 and schools.
3. Roles and responsibilities
The governing board will:
- Ensure that the equality information and objectives as set out in this statement are published and communicated throughout the school, including to staff, pupils and parents, and that they are reviewed and updated at least once every four years
- Delegate responsibility for monitoring the achievement of the objectives on a daily basis to the headteacher
The headteacher will:
- Promote knowledge and understanding of the equality objectives amongst staff and pupils
- Monitor success in achieving the objectives and report back to governors
Members of staff will:
- Uphold the aims and objectives as set out in this policy.
4. Eliminating discrimination
The school is aware of its obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and complies with non-discrimination provisions.
Where relevant, our policies include reference to the importance of avoiding discrimination and other prohibited conduct.
Staff and governors are regularly reminded of their responsibilities under the Equality Act, for example during meetings. Where this has been discussed during a meeting it is recorded in the meeting minutes.
New staff receive training on the Equality Act as part of their induction, and all staff receive refresher training annually.
The school has a designated member of staff for monitoring equality issues, and an equality link governor. They regularly liaise regarding any issues and make senior leaders and governors aware of these as appropriate.
5. Advancing equality of opportunity
As set out in the DfE guidance on the Equality Act, the school aims to advance equality of opportunity by:
- Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people which are connected to a particular characteristic they have
- Taking steps to meet the particular needs of people who have a particular characteristic (e.g. enabling Muslim pupils to pray at prescribed times)
- Encouraging people who have a particular characteristic to participate fully in any activities (e.g. encouraging all pupils to be involved in the full range of school activities)
In fulfilling this aspect of the duty, the school will:
- Analyse relevant pupil data to determine strengths and areas for improvement for any group sharing a particular characteristic. Implement actions in response to this information to ensure equality of provision for all groups.
- Make evidence available identifying improvements for specific groups (e.g. declines in incidents bullying, racism – see reflection record)
6. Fostering good relations
The school aims to foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it by:
- Promoting the school’s Core Values of Success, Unity, Pride, Enjoyment and Respect
- Promoting tolerance, friendship and understanding of a range of religions and cultures through different aspects of our curriculum. This includes teaching in RE, citizenship and personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, but also activities in other curriculum areas. For example, as part of teaching and learning in English/reading, pupils will be introduced to literature from a range of cultures
- Holding assemblies dealing with relevant issues. Pupils will be encouraged to take a lead in such assemblies
- Working with our local community. This could include inviting leaders of local faith groups to speak at assemblies, and organising school trips and activities based around the local community
- Encouraging and implementing initiatives to promote understanding between different groups of pupils within the school. For example, our school council has representatives from different year groups and is formed of pupils from a range of backgrounds. All pupils are encouraged to participate in the school’s activities, such as sports clubs. We also work with parents to promote knowledge and understanding of different cultures
7. Equality considerations in decision-making
The school ensures it has due regard to equality considerations whenever significant decisions are made.
The school gives due regard to the impact of significant decisions on particular groups throughout the curriculum. In addition, when a school trip or extra-curricular activity is being planned, the school considers whether the trip:
- Cuts across any religious holidays
- Respects religious observances and beliefs
- Is accessible to pupils with disabilities
- Has equivalent facilities for boys and girls
8. Equality objectives
Previous equal opportunities initiatives have already enabled us to ensure our school staff are from a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds, gender and religious groups – well representing our school cohort and local community.
Current objectives are:
Objective 1: Train all members of staff and governors involved in recruitment and selection on equal opportunities and non-discrimination by the beginning of the next academic year. Training evaluation data will show that 100% of those attending have a good understanding of the legal requirements.
Why we have chosen this objective:
To ensure all staff are aware of the legislation and information held in this policy
To achieve this objective we plan to:
Provide all staff and governors involved in recruitment with the legal documentation
Facilitate training where needed
Progress we are making towards this objective:
Objective 2
Include the ‘Two Ticks’ positive about people with disabilities symbol on all job adverts, application forms and information by January of next year, to help address the under-representation of people with disabilities in the school workforce.
Why we have chosen this objective:
To ensure equal opportunities recruitment for all.
To achieve this objective we plan to:
Monitor all advertisements for vacancies, including internal
Progress we are making towards this objective:
All external adverts already include the ‘Two Ticks’
9. Monitoring arrangements
The Governing Body ensure up-to-date equality information is published annually.
This document will be reviewed by The SLT at least every 4 years.
This document will be approved by Governing Body.
10. Links with other policies
This document links to the following policies:
- Accessibility plan
[/cws-widget][/col][/cws-row]