Equality Information and Objectives

1. Aims

Blaby Stokes CE Primary 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 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

A member of the Governing body will:

• Meet with the headteacher annually and other relevant staff members, to discuss any issues and how these are being addressed
• Ensure they’re familiar with all relevant legislation and the contents of this document
• Attend appropriate equality and diversity training
• Report back to the full governing board regarding any issues

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
• Meet with a member of the governing body to raise and discuss any issues

All school staff are expected to have regard to this document and to work to achieve the objectives as set out in section 8.

4. Eliminating discrimination

Blaby Stokes CE Primary 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.

Staff receive training about their responsibilities under the Equalities act and reminded about the objectives set out in section 8 annually.

5. Advancing equality of opportunity

As set out in the DfE guidance on the Equality Act, Blaby Stokes CE Primary School aims to advance equality of opportunity by:

• Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people which are connected to a particular characteristic they have (e.g. pupils with disabilities, or gay pupils who are being subjected to homophobic bullying)
• 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 teams, clubs and extra- curricular activities)

In fulfilling this aspect of the duty, the school will:

• Analyse the data to determine strengths and areas for improvement, implement actions in response and publish this information
• Make evidence available identifying improvements for specific groups (e.g. declines in incidents of homophobic or transphobic bullying)
• Access information about any issues associated with particular protected characteristics, identifying any issues which could affect our own pupils

6. Fostering good relations

Blaby Stokes CE Primary School aims to foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it by:

• 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 and we will also invite external speakers to contribute
• Working with our local community. This includes 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 deal with tensions 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

Blaby Stokes CE Primary School ensures it has due regard to equality considerations whenever significant decisions are made.

The school always considers the impact of significant decisions on particular groups. For example, when a school trip or activity is being planned, the school considers whether the trip:

• Is affected by any religious holidays
• Is accessible to pupils with disabilities
• Has equivalent facilities for all children regardless of gender

8. Equality objectives

Objective 1: To increase the representation of pupil voice by ensuring that our school council includes a fair representation of all pupils in the school, and in this way foster good relationships between those who have a protective characteristic and those who do not.

Why we have chosen this objective:

Our active school council helps to make decisions on a range of issues across the school and therefore must be truly representative of our school population.

To achieve this objective we plan to:

Enable pupils with SEND to be on the school council by using peer support and a differentiated selection process. Actively encourage pupils with any protected characteristics to stand as a school councillor. Monitor membership of the school council to ensure the mix of gender, race and religion is evenly representative.

Progress we are making towards this objective: The inclusion manager and the wellbeing faculty will oversee the school council and relaunch the selection process as part of this to ensure we have equality of representation across the school from Year 2-6.

Objective 2: To continually consider how well the school ensures equality of opportunities for all pupils particularly those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Why we have chosen this objective:

We have many pupils who have SEND. These pupils have a range of complex needs including co-occurring medical conditions, ASD, physical disabilities, hearing and vision impairments. 

 

To achieve this objective we plan to:

Consider our curriculum offer with our faculties and through development of the MAT Curriculum to ensure that all pupils are included. Ensure that extra-curricular activities and any school trips or special events such as sponsored events are accessible to all. Work closely with the South Leicestershire School Sports Partnership to develop our sport and PE curriculum to ensure all pupils can be included. 

Progress we are making towards this objective: We adopted the trust curriculum overview, principles and rationale in September 2018 and have been developing a bespoke curriculum offer for Blaby Stokes since then.

Learn-At curriculum’s mission is that:

“Every child flourishes and enjoys learning with access to a rich, rounded, rigorous and coherent curriculum” and our intrinsic values shared across the trust are:

“Christian values, British values and those essential values common to good, kind and tolerant people of all faiths and no faith”.

Blaby Stokes’ teaching staff have also work in Faculty groups and each faculty will determine their main aims and actions for the coming year which will be published to relevant stakeholders. These faculty action plans will also consider equality of access to the whole curriculum for all pupils.

 

Objective 3: To improve the gap between girl’s and boy’s performance in reading in both KS1 and KS2

Why we have chosen this objective:

At our school currently girls perform better than boys in reading across key stage 1 and 2 To achieve this objective we plan to:

Analyse school data on a half termly basis and discuss progress in meetings with each class teacher and the senior leaders of the school. Actions are agreed and monitored.

Progress we are making towards this objective: detailed analysis of the school’s data has identified the gender difference which pupil progress meetings will address. We will also be considering the attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils in the school and this too will impact the gender difference in reading.

Objective 4: To educate our pupils about use of hate speech and the impact this has on others.

Why we have chosen this objective:

This is a pertinent issue in the wider society.

To achieve this objective we plan to:

Use staff training, assemblies and lessons to celebrate difference. Challenge any use of homophobic language and other hate speech with a discussion about why it is wrong and the consequences on others.

Progress we are making towards this objective: assembly rota re- done with opportunities for speakers from the wider community including faith and non faith representatives to come/ remotely join and talk to the children.  Our RE curriculum- Understanding Christianity and the local syllabus and teaching about British Values and character education also allow for open discussion and learning to develop children’s tolerance and understanding of others.  SLT have been leading the children in developing kindness as a key Blaby Stokes value  and learning our motto: “Kind and Proud and Together as a team”

Objective 5: To continue to develop staff’s understanding of equality and its implication on a day to day basis and in this way reduce or remove any inequalities particularly relating to protected characteristics.

Why we have chosen this objective:

Staff training to raise awareness about equality is due.

To achieve this objective we plan to:

Include training about equality and protected characteristics in our CPLD schedule. Review our curriculum offer and extra-curricular activities taking into account protective characteristics.

Progress we are making towards this objective: establishment of new faculty groups who are considering the wider curriculum and all aspects of equality teaching and learning.

9. Monitoring arrangements

The Chair of the governing body and executive headteacher will update the equality information we publish, at least every year.

This document will be reviewed by governing body and headteacher at least every 4 years to ensure that the objectives are relevant.

This document will be approved by the full governing body.

10. Links with other policies

This document links to the following policies:

• Behaviour policy
• Risk assessments
• Special needs and disabilities policy
• Anti- bullying policy