Equalities Information and Objectives, including Accessibility Plan

Equality Information

The Equality Act 2010 introduced a single Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) that applies to public bodies, including maintained schools and Academies, and extends to certain protected characteristics race, disability, sex, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment. This combined equality duty came into effect in April 2011. It has three main elements. In carrying out their functions, public bodies are required to have due regard to the need to:

Eliminate discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Act
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.

Equality Objectives

Schools are expected to report on how they meet the PSED and this includes setting objectives (which should be reviewed at least every four years). At Shirehampton Primary School, we are committed to ensuring equality of education and opportunity for all pupils, staff, parents.

In order to further support pupils, raise standards and ensure inclusive teaching, we have set the following equality objectives:

Achievement:

We are committed to improving the attainment and raising the aspiration of all groups of pupils.

Teaching and Learning:

We will ensure that our curriculum promotes understanding between different groups of people, cultures and societies, tackles stereotypes, challenges pupil’s perceptions and promotes British values.

Behaviour and safety:

We will maintain a rigorous anti-bullying stance so that all pupils are protected from harassment and discrimination, and deal with the use of discriminatory, homophobic, or otherwise offensive language in line with our behaviour policy.

Leadership and Management:

Consistent application of our policies and procedures, ensuring that our systems for recruiting, retaining and managing staff support all those in groups protected by the Equalities Act.

We will endeavour to raise levels of parental and pupil engagement in learning and school life, across all activities, including regular attendance.

Objective 1: To ensure that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have an equal chance of making good or better progress from starting points by focused quality first teaching and targeted intervention.

Objective 2: Review the curriculum to ensure that across the school there is sufficient opportunity for all pupils to learn about different cultures.

Objective 3: Ensure that emotional wellbeing of our children and staff is an intrinsic part of the education offered at Shirehampton, ensuring all achieve across the curriculum.

Objective 4: Continue to monitor incidents of racist/homophobic language and all forms of bullying.

Our Accessibility Plan is compliant with current legislation and requirements to consider, as specified in the Equality Act 2010:schedule 10, Paragraph 3 and Disability Discrimination (prescribed Times and periods for Accessibility Strategies and Plans for Schools) (England) Regulations 2005. You can see it here.