Equality
St. Anthony’s Catholic Primary School and Nursery
Equality Statement
“We walk in the footsteps of Christ and are Held in the Hand of God”
As a school we welcome our duties under the Equality Act 2010. The General Equality Duty sets out the equality matters that the school needs to consider when making decisions that affect pupils or staff with protected characteristics. This duty has three elements. In carrying out their functions public bodies are required to have ‘due regard’, when making decisions and developing policies, to the need to: eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation or 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 between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.
Having ‘due regard’ to the need to advance equality of opportunity is further defined in the Equality Act 2010 as ‘having due regard to the need to:
- Remove or minimise disadvantages
- Take steps to meet different needs
- Encourage participation where it is disproportionately low
There are certain exceptions within the Equality Act to the discrimination provisions for schools with a religious character including content of the curriculum, Collective Worship and admissions.
The school must meet the two specific duties which are to:
- publish information to demonstrate compliance with the general duties, at least annually. This may include school performance data, anti-bullying policies, curriculum materials and parent and pupil surveys, it can also refer to national and other surveys and benchmarking. The school will, generally, have sufficient information in the form of routine data or individual/group records. Where there are gaps or concerns, then the school may decide to collect more information in order to provide a complete picture of the school, shape objectives, address inequality and inform decision making.
- publish at least one, although not usually more than four, specific and measurable equality objectives, at least every four years.
The duty to have due regard to equality consideration is a continuing one which applies to all policies and procedures. It also applies to what may not be written down i.e. practices and the school will always try to use information about pupils with protected characteristics to promote positive outcomes and mitigate adverse effects.
Meeting these duties forms an integral part of the work of the school and must be integrated into the carrying out of the school’s functions. The DfE advises that schools which were already compliant with previous equality legislation should not find major differences in what they need to do. In order to ensure that the school makes explicit its compliance and remains focused on improving outcomes an Action Plan has been drawn up which will be addressed through the mechanism of the school Learning Improvement Plan (Strategic Plan). This will secure consistency, enable effective self-evaluation and support robust and rigorous school improvement. We recognise that there are significant overlaps between fulfilling the Equality Duty and meeting the requirements of the school inspection framework.
In fulfilling our legal obligations we aim to:
- foster positive attitudes and relationships, and a shared sense of belonging
- advance equality of opportunity by ensuring that teaching, learning and the curriculum promotes equality and celebrates diversity
- ensure that all learners have equal access to a rich, broad, balanced and relevant curriculum
- observe good equalities practice, including staff recruitment, retention and development
- remove or minimise existing inequalities and barriers
- ensure that pupils, parents and other stakeholders are consulted and involved widely in advancing the provision made by the school
- promote community cohesion by fostering good relations
- ensure that within the school budget, adequate funding is provided to underpin this
- policy and that intervention, positive and preventative action is funded appropriately.
We believe that promoting equality is the responsibility of everyone in the school community.
EQUALITY PLAN 2023-24
This plan has been written in conjunction with St. Anthony’s Catholic Primary School Equality Policy.
Target | Action | How the impact of the action will be monitored | Responsible person(s) |
Establish effective systems to communicate the school’s equality duties. | Disseminate the School Equality Plan through the school website, newsletter and staff meetings. | Include questions relating to the School Equality Plan in the annual survey of parents/Carers. Discussion with pupils during Pupil Parliament and Pupil Voice conferencing. | Headteacher SLT Governing Body |
To ensure that all pupils make progress including vulnerable groups and individuals. | Monitor and analyse pupils’ achievement by race, gender and disability (and other relevant vulnerable groups) and act on any trends or patterns in the data that require additional interventions and support. | Analyse assessment data to judge the success of the planned interventions and support. | School Assessment Leader SENDCo SLT |
That there are sufficient opportunities with the school’s curriculum to address equality issues. | Ensure that the curriculum promotes role models whom pupils may identify positively with and that these reflect the school’s diversity in terms of race, gender and disability. | Increase in pupils’ participation, confidence and achievement. | Subject Leaders All School staff |
The school environment promotes diversity. | Ensure that displays in classrooms and corridors promote diversity in terms of race, gender, ethnicity and disability. | Monitor pupils’ responses to the school environment in pupil surveys. | Headteacher |
All pupils are encouraged to make a positive contribution to the life of the school community. | Actively promote and recruit vulnerable groups of pupils or individuals to participate in the Pupil Parliament, assemblies, fund raising activities, presentations and other extra-curricular activities. | Analysis of participation rates. | Headteacher |
Respond promptly and appropriately to all incidents of racist behaviour, victimisation and harassment. | Ensure that the procedures for dealing with any such incidents should they occur, are established and widely understood and that staff and pupils are clear about their responsibilities. Report incidents to the Governing Body and Local Authority. | Use the data to access the impact of the school’s response to incidents i.e., Are pupils and parents satisfied with the response to the incident. | Headteacher Governing Body |
To help our children to understand others and value diversity. | Ensure that opportunity to discuss diversity within the curriculum. Ensure that the values underpinning the school’s ethos are actively promoted by all staff. | Monitor responses to other pupils through pupil discussions | All Staff |
At the present time, all children with disabilities and special needs join in everyday activities with other pupils as part of our commitment to inclusion. Currently the school has the following facilities:
• Ramps
• Accessible toilets and shower facilities
• Curriculum and equipment aids
For further information on SEN and Disability please see the SEND section of our website.