Equalities and Diversity

The Equality Act 2010 requires schools to publish information to show how we are working to:

• Eliminate discrimination

• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic* and people who do not share it

• Foster good relations between groups of people

The *protected characteristics – which relate to a primary school – are:

• Disability

• Gender reassignment

• Sex

• Sexual orientation

• Race

• Religion and belief

Other groups of pupils we believe it is also important to consider are:

• Looked-after pupils / children who were previously look-after

• Young carers

• Pupils eligible for free school meals or living in poverty

This forms part of our published information and is designed to show information that will be most useful and interesting to our families. On the school website, there is also our Equality Policy; our Anti-Bullying Policy and our PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) Curriculum Overview.

At St Paul's CE Academy, we believe that our school is where 'Love and Learning Meets'. We strive to treat each member of our community as an individual; to make each individual feel valued and to teach our pupils to do the same. Trying to achieve this involves us all learning what we all have in common as well as valuing our many differences. We think that children will learn better in a school where everyone feels safe and welcome. We believe everyone has the same rights but may have different needs and so we aim to make our school fair for everyone by putting the needs and the individuality of the pupils first. 

As well as teaching the children about Equality and Diversity generally through  our Jigsaw PSHE curriculum and all other areas, we also regularly discuss these ideas with the children in assemblies and aim to reflect these values in our day to day interactions with the children.

We teach children about how to deal with tricky situations, ‘put downs’ and prejudicial language and our playgrounds are safe places to be. We practice how to deal with these scenarios in the classroom so that children are confident with how to approach these issues when on the playground. The Equality message is loud and strong and we involve the children in ensuring that this remains so.

Gender Equality at St Paul's CE Academy

What this means to us:

• Stereotyping means expecting girls and boys to behave or look a particular way. We recognise that there is still incredible pressure in society for us to conform to gender specific roles / looks and we need to teach children about this

• We value individuality and this includes individuality in children who don’t want to act or dress in a way that is ‘typically like a boy’ or ‘typically like a girl’

• We respect and support children’s gender identities whether they accept, question or want to  change the gender ascribed to them at birth.

How do we promote gender equality?

• Staff use language carefully to reflect gender equality (for example: we wouldn’t say ‘ladies first’, we would teach the children about letting each other through a door as a polite thing to do; we would talk about fire-fighters not firemen; police officers not police men or women; nurse not male nurse which suggests a man as a nurse is unusual).

• We do run girl-only sports clubs because these sporting activities are often dominated by boys and so we positively discriminate.

• We teach the children about stereotyping within the curriculum within our PSHE  learning. They have the opportunity to discuss and reflect on these concepts. 

• We challenge stereotypes through the books we read children; choices of images we present etc.

What we avoid/don’t tolerate:

• We don’t tolerate gender put-downs (for example: calling a boy ‘a girl’ to make him feel bad; calling a girl a tomboy because she plays football).

• We try to make sure reading books reflect our inclusive approach. If you find a book that you think gives the wrong message, please tell your child’s class teacher – we won’t be offended (some may slip through the net and we will be able to use them to teach children about gender equality).   We do have books that are obviously aimed at girls or boys and we know these appeal to children – we are more worried about stories that give stereotypical messages about girls’ or boys’ roles in the  world.

How we would like to improve our Gender Equality work:

• We are aiming to increase children’s understanding of gender stereotyping and sexism and begin  these discussions earlier, from the beginning of EYFS. This is part of our PSHE learning.

Disability Equality @ St Pauls CE Academy

What this means to us:

• We celebrate different abilities in many ways while also supporting the specific needs children may experience. We teach children to celebrate difference in our in our PSHE learning. 

• We recognise that helping your child be equally included may need specific support and we will work with you and other agencies to ensure we do this well.

• Disabilities can affect a child’s achievement or social experience in very different ways. Although achievement is a major factor, we also are clear that a child’s social experience is vital to a good education and can help your child achieve a positive social experience in a variety of ways.

How do we promote disability equality and help all children to work together?

• We teach children about disability equality through the curriculum  in our PSHE learning as well as our general language and attitude.

• Children may become diagnosed with a learning disability during their time at St Pauls CE Academy (eg dyslexia). We have clear pathways to diagnosis of specific learning difficulties / disabilities and parents/carers will be involved with this process. You are welcome to discuss any concerns about your child’s development at any time.

What we avoid/don’t tolerate:

• We talk to the children about different skills, achievements and abilities. 

• We treat put downs related to ability/disability seriously. These can include put downs pertaining to high attainment (eg: geek; nerd) or low ability / attainment (eg: thick; stupid). Such put downs are unusual.

How we would like to improve our Disability Equality work:

To increase representation of disabled people in our school. This includes curriculum developments (every subject leader’s action plan aims to develop diversity within their curriculum area) and every day learning and teaching practice (eg resources; worksheets; powerpoint images; displays; (eg) historical / scientific contributions of disabled people)

Religious or Belief Equality @ St Pauls CE Academy

What this means to us:

• We value the diversity of religious belief and other philosophical beliefs (eg humanism) within our local and wider community. We also respect the right to have no religion or belief.

• We believe that religious/belief education plays an important role in helping to keep our community a tolerant and inclusive place in which to live.

• How do we value all the children’s beliefs and help children with different beliefs get on well together?

• Our Religious Education curriculum  and our PSHE learning gives young people the opportunity to develop an understanding of their own and other people’s beliefs and therefore helps young people live in a diverse society.

• We respect the right of families to celebrate key religious festivals and authorise absences accordingly.

• We respect the religious wishes of families regarding participation in school celebrations (for example Christmas performances and birthday assemblies).

What we avoid/don’t tolerate:

• Put-downs related to belief or religion are never tolerated

How we would like to improve our work:

• We would like to include more members of our school community to come and talk about their faith and how this affects their way of life. If you would like to talk to your child's class or their key stage, please talk to your child's teacher. 

• We aim to plan more opportunities for children to talk about their own beliefs.

Race and Heritage Equality @ St Paul's Academy

What this means to us:

• We value all our children as individuals and value the diversity of racial and cultural heritage within our community. As a school with a relatively small ethnic minority community, we feel it is especially important to value and make visible not only the races and cultures represented within our community but those that are not currently represented – and to do this in a planned and proactive way.

• How do we value all the children’s cultures and help children from different communities get on well together?

• We make sure toys, displays, books etc reflect a range of people from different cultures and avoid stereotypes.

• We celebrate Black History Month in assemblies and are developing a more diverse / hidden history curriculum.

• Good To Be Me weeks and PSHE units help all children understand and respect our range of identities.

What we avoid/don’t tolerate:

• We teach children about GRT insults (pikey; chav being the most common) and do not tolerate their use; racist comments / put-downs are never tolerated

How we would like to improve our work:

• We are developing a proactive ‘everyday’ curriculum as well as specific lessons to explore skin colours and cultures (eg different food in lunch boxes) from the start of reception.

• To increase representation of skin colours and cultures in our school. This includes curriculum developments (every subject leader’s action plan aims to develop diversity within their curriculum area) and every day learning and teaching practice (eg resources; worksheets; powerpoint images; displays) – see our Equalities Everyday Practice Guide and our Race Equality Education Action

Family Equality @ St Paul's

What this means to us:

• We value all family types as equally special and recognise that children need to be proactively taught that other children’s families can be different to their own family type.

• How will we make all families feel equally valued and help children from different family types get on well together?

• We will celebrate families in special ‘Good To Be Me’ weeks regularly over your child’s time in our school and within the RSE* / PSHE curriculum. Our hope and experience is that celebrating family diversity encourages children to share and therefore educate other children about the variety of family types in our community

• We use the term ‘grown ups’ as a general term rather than ‘mums and dads’ to refer to children’s significant adults so that children who live with one parent; 2 mums; 2 dads; foster parents or who live with extended family don’t feel that their own family make-up is not included. We ask club providers to use this language too. Not only do we avoid certain language, we also actively talk about different family types and children regularly hear all family types recognised in our language. We buy books that include a variety of family types.

• We realise that there are financial inequalities between families at St Paul's and, via our Poverty proofing audit, aim to ensure no family or child is excluded from a school event or activity for financial reasons and that we do not add stress or embarrassment to families

• In Relationships and Sex Education*, we teach the children that babies are conceived in different ways (conception teaching formally happens in key stage 2 but questions can begin before then and will be answered in an age-appropriate way).

What we avoid/don’t tolerate:

• We don’t tolerate any put downs about families and deal with them seriously – we take any put-down as an opportunity to educate children about diversity and equality

• We teach children about homophobia and homophobic put-downs. The casual use of ‘gay’ as a negative adjective is never tolerated and children are taught why this can never be acceptable

• We never leave children out of trips because their grown-ups can’t afford to pay for them and we provide a free place in each fee-charging clubs

How we would like to improve our Family Equality work:

• We are aiming to increase visual representations of different family types throughout the school