Equalities 

Our school is inclusive and we are committed to equality. We aim for every pupil to fulfil their potential no matter what their background or personal circumstances. We focus on the well-being and progress of every child and we are committed to ensuring all members of our community are of equal worth.

We maintain the aim of embedding principles of fairness and equality across our entire curriculum, in assemblies and acts of collective worship, in break and lunchtimes, in pastoral support and in after school activities.

Legal Framework

We welcome our duties under the Equality Act 2010 to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations in relation to age (as appropriate), disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

We recognise these duties are essential to reflect international human rights standards as expressed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Public Sector Equality Duties 2010.

We must, under the general duty of public sector equality duty, in the exercise of our functions, have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited under the Act.
• Advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;
• Foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it

This will apply to all pupils, staff and others using our school facilities. We will give relevant and proportionate consideration to the public sector equality duty.

The protected characteristics for the school’s provisions are:

• Disability
• Gender reassignment  
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief 
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Age (only applicable to staff, not pupils)
• Marriage and Civil Partnerships (only applicable to staff, not pupils)

Age and marriage and civil partnership are NOT protected characteristics for the school’s provisions for pupils.

We will have due regard to advancing equality of opportunity including making serious consideration of the need to:

• remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by persons who share a relevant protected characteristic that are connected to that characteristic; 
• take steps to meet the needs of persons who share a protected characteristic that are different from the needs of persons who do not share it; 
• encourage persons who share a relevant protected characteristic to participate in public life or in any activity in which participation by such persons is disproportionately low. 

We will take into account the six Brown principles of ‘due regard’

• awareness – all staff know and understand what the law requires
• timeliness – implications considered before they are implemented
• rigour – open-minded and rigorous analysis, including parent/pupil voice
• non-delegation – the PSED cannot be delegated
• continuous – ongoing all academic year
• record-keeping – keep notes and records of decisions & meetings

We welcome the opportunity to be transparent and accountable. To this end we fulfil the specific duties of the Act by:

• publishing our equalities information – updated and published annually
• publishing our equality objectives – reviewed annually and updated at least every 4 years