Equality and Diversity
All pupils and members of staff at St Peter at Gowts C of E Primary School are provided with opportunities to fulfill their potential whatever their sex, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, marital status, age, sexual orientation, disability or religious belief.
Our Equality objectives for 2020-2025 are:
• To tackle prejudice and promote understanding in relation to people with disabilities and those of differing races, beliefs or religions, sexual orientation or gender
• To ensure that all pupils are given similar opportunities with regards to after-school clubs, activities and educational visits and experiences, including through the pandemic
• To allow equal access to information for all parents, including those with English as an Additional Language
• To promote cultural development and understanding, especially through a rich range of experiences, both in and beyond the school
At St Peter at Gowts, we are committed to the inclusion of all pupils and community members. This includes equality of education and opportunity for all pupils, staff, parents and carers receiving services from our school, governors and other representatives who work with our school, irrespective of race, gender, disability, faith or religion or socio-economic background. Our vision of “Unlocking the Potential in All, Empowering a Community of Hope” is central to our strong commitment to equality for all.
We therefore:
• Believe that diversity is a strength, which should be reflected and celebrated by all who learn, teach and visit our school.
• Tackle discrimination by the positive promotion of equality, challenging bullying and stereotypes, creating an environment which champions respect for all.
• Provide an environment which enables every pupil to be safe and encourages health.
• Believe that every teacher is a teacher of every child or young person including those with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND).
• Value every individual and enable them to enjoy their learning, achieve their full potential and economic well-being.
• Enable every pupil to make a positive contribution to their school and community. • Identify and respond to the diverse and individual needs of our community members.
• Identify and overcome potential barriers to learning.
• Set appropriate learning challenges for every pupil – analysing data in many different ways to ensure our curriculum meets the needs of all our learners.
• Promote the development of staff to enable them to deliver an exciting, challenging and inclusive curriculum, whilst keeping abreast of local and national changes.
On the 1st October 2010, the Equality Act 2010 replaced all existing equality legislation such as the Race Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act and Sex Discrimination Act. The Equality Act 2010 was introduced to ensure protection from discrimination, harassment and victimisation on the grounds of specific characteristics (referred to as Protected Characteristics). This means that schools cannot discriminate against pupils or treat them less favourably because of their sex (gender), race, disability, religion or belief, gender reassignment, sexual orientation or pregnancy or maternity. The Act introduced requires all schools to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty and two specific duties.
Public Sector Equality Duty requires us a school to:
• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation • Advance equality of opportunity between different groups
• Foster good relations between different groups
The Two “specific duties” requires us to:
• Publish information to show compliance with the Equality Duty
• Publish Equality Objectives at least every 4 years which are specific and measurable
We recognise that these duties reflect international human rights standards as expressed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and the Human Rights Act 1998. Through our Values Based Education approach, we recognise the importance of equality for all in its widest sense, using our Church School values to promote equality across our school community.
