Equality Scheme

Ethos:

Promoting the equality off all people in our community is of great importance to Christ Church CE Primary School since every person imbued with God’s love deserves justice, respect and equal opportunities. Christ Church is therefore committed to the promotion of well-being and achievement for all its pupils and staff. We therefore aim to enhance the culture of inclusion and celebrate the diversity of all who attend this faith community.

What we do:

Christ Church promotes equality of opportunity in its day to day practice as indicated through the following:

Teaching and Learning:

The school sets out to provide opportunities for success and enabling pupils to reach their potential. This manifests itself through:

• Using data to monitor and track achievement of all pupils
• Monitor achievement by ethnicity, disability and gender
• Setting challenging targets
• Consulting staff and students
• Promoting consistency in relation to behaviour
• Celebrating achievement and effort of all students
• Promoting values that challenge prejudice
• Seeking parental support for learning

Exclusion and inclusion:

The school bases its exclusion protocol and inclusion programme on the behaviour policy.

This expresses the values that are important to the Christ Church family and which manifest themselves in respectful relationships. To ensure exclusion and inclusion are undertaken fairly we will continue to:

• Analyse data once a term
• Analyse end of year data
• Work with outside agencies to provide support for pupils
• Prepare reports for the governing body to ensure any trends are identified. 

Admissions:

The Admissions criteria that are agreed by the Governing body promote fair access for all.

Equal Opportunities for staff:

Christ Church CE Primary school is committed to providing equality of opportunity for all staff.

Appointments and promotions are made on the basis of merit and ability in compliance with the law. However some posts remain protected due to the fact that this is a faith school i.e Headteacher .

The governing body as the employer actively promotes equality for all and ensures recruitment and retention are monitored.

All staff have CPD opportunities as appropriate.

Equality and the law:

Schools have a number of statutory duties which must be met in line with legislation e.g. Race Relations (amendment) Act (2000)

Disability Equality Duty (2005), Equality Act (2010)

Race  

The Race Equality Duty requires us to:

• Eliminate racial discrimination
• Promote equality of opportunity
• Promote good relations between racial groups 

Christ Church will continue to:

• Report to governors regarding Equal Opportunities
• Monitor our plans and policies
• Analyse data with reference to tests, exclusions and inclusion
• Use the school curriculum and assemblies to promote positive role model 

Disability

The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 defines disability as someone who has a physical or mental impalement which has substantial or long term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out “normal day-to-day activities”.

The act places a duty on schools requiring them to:

• Promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and others
• Eliminate discrimination and harassment of disabled people
• Promote positive attitudes
• Take steps to meet needs of disabled people 

Christ Church will continue to:

• Monitor the Disability Equality Scheme and where there are significant changes report to Governing body
• Revise the scheme every three years
• Consult with disabled users to inform actions

Gender Equality

The Gender Equality Duty places a duty on school to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment on the ground of gender
• Promote equality between men and women

Christ Church will continue to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination
• Promote equality between men and women

LGBTQ+

Homophobic, biphobic and transphobic (HBT) bullying is bullying directed at someone who is or is perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans (LGBT).

Provides support for parents and their lesbian, gay and bisexual children. The website offers resources, stories from parents of LGB young people and inflammation on local parent groups.

Community Cohesion promotes good relations between pupils from different races, faiths and socio-economic backgrounds.

Christ Church will continue to:

• Promote respect and tolerance among pupils through the PSHE programme and the RE curriculum.
• Celebrate cultural and religious differences
• Link with local parishes, local schools, local organisations, CAFOD and other local organisations

Impact Assessment:

Impact assessment will be carried out on our policy and practice covering aspects of equality such as race, disability and socio-economic status. We will look for ways to improve practice as well as eliminate discrimination. A range of information will be gathered to help monitor policies and demonstrate progress in relation to equality impact assessments and inclusion.

Pupils

We will continue to gather information to carry out equality impact assessments by race and disability with regards to:

• Achievement and progression
• Participation in school groups
• Take up of extended school provision and extra-curricular activities                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Staff:

We will continue to collect the following with regard to disability, race and gender:

• staff recruitment, retention.
• CPD
• Disciplinary, grievance, competency

Roles and Responsibilities:

Governors

The Governing Body is committed to the ethos of this faith school which manifests itself in ensuring that Christ Church is an inclusive school for all irrespective of race, gender and disability. The governors are committed to ensure discrimination is eliminated for those applying for roles within the school on the grounds of race, gender or disability.

Reasonable steps are taken to ensure the environment allows access for those with disabilities and that communication is inclusive for parents, carers and students.

The admissions procedure is all inclusive whatever a child’s background, race or disability.

Headteacher

The Head teacher’s role is to implement the Equality Plan supported by the governors.

The Head teacher will ensure all staff are aware of the equality plan and that staff apply guidelines fairly in all situations. All appointment panels must give due regard to the plan in order to avoid discrimination with reference to employment or continued professional development.

The Head teacher promotes equal opportunities when developing the curriculum and participation in the life of the school.

All incidents of unfair treatment, bullying or discrimination are treated with due seriousness.

Staff

Staff live out the school ethos by treating other fairly, equally and with respect and will have due regard to the equality plan.

Staff will endeavour to provide appropriate positive images based on race, gender and disability. They will challenge any incidents that are disrespectful to gender, race, disability or sexual orientation  involving students or other adults recording serious incidents and draw them to the attention of the Head or Deputy using the procedures that are in place within the school. It should be noted that a racist incident was defined by the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report (1999) as: any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.