Equality
At Grange Juniors , with our ethos underpinned by the catchphrase ‘Where everyone counts’ we are committed to creating a community, which promotes equality in a positive environment, where there is a shared sense of belonging, within a culture of respect and cooperation. We believe that all pupils and members of staff should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential whatever barriers they face. We welcome our duties under the Equality Act 2010 as both a provider of education and as an employer.
Our commitment to equality and diversity is a fundamental part of our drive towards excellence.
We understand the term equality to mean not that everyone should be treated the same, but that everyone should be treated fairly.
We recognise that everyone has individual needs and that they a right to have their needs respected.
We understand the term diversity to mean that whilst our backgrounds, knowledge, skills, aptitudes and experiences are all different, these differences should be valued and appreciated.
School Aims:
- To ensure all pupils, families and staff are treated equally and that we comply with our duties under the Equality Act 2010;
- To ensure that policies, procedures and practice take into account diversity and to ensure that every effort is made to remove barriers so that there is equality for all;
- To foster positive attitudes and relationships, and a shared sense of community cohesion, identity and belonging, ensuring that difference is appreciated and similarities are valued;
- To promote an environment where all members of the school community can thrive;
- To promote positive attitudes and interaction between members of the school community, and to promote effective teamwork through mutual support and cooperation;
- To ensure that our policies and practices for all staff and potential staff throughout the employment lifecycle, i.e. from recruitment through to the cessation of employment and beyond, are applied fairly and consistently across all groups with full respect for legal rights, taking into account aspects applicable to particular groups (e.g. duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled staff).
Equality in the Curriculum
Embedding equality and diversity in the curriculum is the creating of learning, teaching and assessment environments and experiences that eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and foster good relations in a manner that values, preserves and responds to diversity.
This is done by:
Fostering belonging and engagement:
• Create a safe and collaborative environment of mutual respect and honesty, conducive to pupils learning.
• Recognise and handle tension, strong emotions and/or controversy, acting sensitively to pupils’ feelings and beliefs.
• Monitor any incidents of sexist, racist, homophobic etc. language/humour and deal with this appropriately.
• Use inclusive language to avoid stereotyping.
• Identify and plan to overcome barriers that prevent pupils from diverse backgrounds from learning.
• Provide opportunities for pupils to relate content to their own experiences.
• Empower pupils to take responsibility for their own learning.
Enabling potential:
• Get to know our pupils through transition before we start teaching.
• Ensure teaching methods and assessments do not place pupils at a disadvantage by varying assessment methods as necessary.
• Ensure teaching environments do not place pupils at a disadvantage e.g. by putting necessary adjustments in place for specific disability or SEN needs.
• Vary teaching methods and learning activities to encourage active participation of all pupils e.g. use of visual materials, coloured overlays and differentiated tasks and support resources
• Adjust aspects of learning and teaching for specific pupil learning needs.
• Be clear, encourage pupils to ask for clarifications and check learning through questioning and teaching activities.
Practising awareness and understanding of diversity:
• Provide opportunities for pupils to work with a variety of other pupils across the school.
• Use counter-stereotypical language.
• Through the RE, Collective Worship and PSHE curriculum provide content that covers multiple cultures, multiple perspectives and diverse experiences.
• Develop learning outcomes that reflect engagement with equality and diversity.
Developing skills of self reflection:
• Through RE, Collective Worship and PSHE we explore pupils own identity and beliefs.
• Provide opportunities for pupils to reflect on their own equality and diversity competence.
Equality policy including equalities information and statement March 2024V2