Equality Statement

Our Equality Statement is based on the principles below and aims to ensure that:

 ‘All pupils and members of staff at our School are provided with opportunities to fulfil their potential whatever their sex, race, colour ethnic or national origin, marital status, age, sexual orientation, disability or religious belief.’

PROMOTING THE NINE PROTECTED CHARACTERISTICS

 The Equality Act became law in 2010. It covers everyone in Britain and protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Everyone in Britain is protected. This is because the Equality Act protects people against discrimination because of the protected characteristics that we all have. Under the Equality Act, there are nine Protected Characteristics: 

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Marriage or civil partnership
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Pregnancy and maternity

Under the Equality Act you are protected from discrimination: 

• When you are in the workplace
• When you use public services like healthcare (for example, visiting your doctor or local hospital) or education (for example, at your school or college)
• When you use businesses and other organisations that provide services and goods (like shops, restaurants, and cinemas)
• When you use transport
• When you join a club or association (for example, your local rugby club)
• When you have contact with public bodies like your local council or government departments 

The 9 Protected Characteristics are actively promoted in school through:

• Our school vision and ethos statements, SDP, and SEF
• Our school core values
• Our school positive behaviour policy
• Conscious role modelling by all adults in the school community
• Active engagement and communication with parents and carers
• Whole school and year group assemblies
• The promotion of British values in school life
• Developing a love of reading through a range of authors and genres
• Discussion within connected curriculum subjects, taking a cross-curricular approach, for example when we learn about Black History month and when we learn about relationships in RSHE
• Promoting articulation by building appropriate language and a coherent vocabulary
• PSHE and RSHE lessons
• Religious Education lessons
• Sporting competitions –inter and intra competitions
• Art projects and visits
• The work of the Pupil Parliament, Friendship Ambassadors and ECO reps
• Educational experiences and visits
• Real-life learning outside the classroom
• Guest speakers
• Developing links within the local community
• Extra-curricular activities, after-school clubs, charity work and work within the local community
• Safer recruitment, retention and staff development

We collect and analyse the following data to assess the impact of our Single Equality Policy. The data is recorded on our CPOMs system and the main areas we assess are: 

• Admissions
• Attendance
• Exclusions
• Outcomes
• Racial incidents
• Bullying incidents
• Homophobic incidents
• Any other prejudice related incidents

Embedding Protected Characteristics into the whole ethos of Buckland Primary School promotes:

• Self-esteem, self-knowledge and self-confidence
• Understanding that everyone is wonderful and everyone has wonderful talents and attributes
• Respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic process
• Acceptance of responsibility for their own behaviour and teaching children to make good choices
• Respect for their own and other cultures
• Every member of the community knowing that whatever they report it will be dealt with appropriately and followed up
• Understanding of how they can contribute positively to school and home life and to the lives of those living and working in the locality and further afield
• An understanding of Equality, Human Rights and Protected Characteristics
• An appreciation that living under the rule of law protects individual citizens and is essential for their wellbeing and safety
• An understanding that the freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law
• An acceptance that other people having different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour
• An understanding of the importance of identifying and combating discrimination
• Parents taking an active part in identifying barriers and informing school leaders of actions that can be taken to eradicate these
• The highest expectations for all our children and staff, and the wider community