Equality
Equality Policy Aims of Bowdon Church School
Our school aims to meet its obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) 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
Our school aims to promote respect for difference and diversity in accordance with our vison & values, such as love, respect, hope, forgiveness, wisdom & koinonia (community).
Please find our Equality information and objectives Policy here.
Our Accessibility plan is included via a link in the policy.
The Equality Act
The Equality Act (2010) was introduced to combine the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Race Relations Act 1976 and Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Previously public bodies were bound by these three sets of duties to promote disability, race and gender equality. In April 2011 these were replaced by a single public sector equality duty (known as the PSED or the equality duty). This duty extends to all the aspects of a person's identity that are protected under the Equality Act 2010. These are known as protected characteristics and are:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race
- religion or belief
- gender
- sexual orientation
Specific duty
To help schools and maintained EYFS settings in England meet the general equality duty, there are two specific duties that they are required to carry out. These are:
- To publish information to demonstrate how they are complying with the equality duty.
- To prepare and publish one or more specific and measurable equality objectives.
Our Equality Objectives 2024/25
To ensure our curriculum is inclusive of all protected characteristics
Why we have chosen this objective: to enable all pupils to appreciate and value difference and diversity and to themselves feel included within our school community
To achieve this objective we plan to: Our curriculum and our learning is never complete. We continue to develop our practice to address our statutory duty under equality law.
Progress we are making towards this objective:
23/24
Full review of all curriculum areas – considering equality/diversity throughout. Working with external consultants where appropriate.
Review of vision & values for present context.
Engaging with external bodies for enhancement – Show Racism the Red Card, NSPCC, Crucial Crew etc.
To reduce incidents of and act upon incidents of racism, including micro-aggressions
Why we have chosen this objective: The above is experienced in school to some extent and some families experience in the local and wider community in a context predominantly racialised as white. Race work is important and we must all be able to engage in conversations about race with increased levels of self-awareness, understanding and confidence.
To achieve this objective we plan to: Engage in bespoke CPD with Stockport Ethnic Diversity team around being anti-racist as a staff team and within our curriculum, as well as staff attending other CPD they provide specifically around teaching and supporting pupils.
Establish a parental Diversity Forum
Engage in Race work with Integrity Coaching, London
Progress we are making towards this objective:
23/24
CPD with Stockport, curriculum review, open and transparent dealings with racist incidents, better recording via cpoms, teachable moments through PSHE.
To monitor and analyse pupil achievement by race, gender and disability/SEND and act on any trends or patterns in the data that require additional support for pupils.
Why we have chosen this objective: As part of our SIP we continue to embed systems to more accurately assess and measure impact for pupils with SEND and as part of this work look to other more significant groups within the school (boys, girls, summer born, ethnicity).
To achieve this objective we plan to: Continue to work on staff literacy with PKS standards for those children who are working significantly below their chronological age. Termly Pupil Progress meetings to look closely at pupils against prior attainment and within groups in classes and wider across the school. Use INSET & staff meetings to revisit Assessment for Learning, adaptive teaching to continue to work towards the effective inclusion of all pupils.
Progress we are making towards this objective:
23/24
As above repeated through the year.