Equality and Diversity
Equality Statement
Hardwick Primary School is an established, inclusive school, providing education for pupils aged from 2 - 11 years.
Equality of opportunity is a fundamental right for all members of the Hardwick Primary School community. We are committed to developing the potential of all people associated with the school.
A new Equality Act came into force on 1 October 2010. The act requires schools to demonstrate that they are taking action on equality in policymaking, the delivery of services and public sector employment.
Our Equality Policy covers:
- Sex
- Race
- Disability
- Religion or belief
- Sexual orientation
- Gender reassignment
- Pregnancy or maternity
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Age
Age is a protected characteristic within the Equality Act (2010), but not in relation to pupils of any age in a school.
Hardwick Primary School ensures that no parent, carer, employee or anyone associated with the school is discriminated against because of their age.
The aim of the policy is to ensure that individual diversity is valued and that rights and beliefs are protected, respected and tolerated. In order to guarantee that this occurs, we must make it an integral part of our thoughts, words and deeds. This policy is intended to have a direct and positive impact on the ethos of the school.
The core values and beliefs of Hardwick Primary School are stated within our home-school agreement and within our behaviour policy.
Aims
The pupils and staff come from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. Whilst the school is a cohesive community, we recognise the need to actively promote relationships between the various sections of society represented within the school.
Hardwick Primary School aims to create a school community which has equality for all at the heart of all we do. We aim to embrace the diversity of the community we serve and as such celebrate all groups represented within it. We will eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment, promote equality of opportunity, and promote good relations and positive attitudes between all people in the school community and beyond.
For more information, please see our policies page
Equality and Diversity
Equality and diversity have always been contentious subjects; they ask us to examine ourselves in order to identify the prejudices and attitudes we hold, as well as to become conscious of the potential power our words and actions have to offend and ostracise people.
Fundamentally, Equality and Diversity are about acknowledging that everybody has a right to fair and equal treatment, irrespective of age, gender, sexual orientation, disability or any other characteristic. At Aureus Primary School, we are fully committed to doing everything we can to provide a curriculum that is equitable in offer and diverse in representation.
Equality task and finish group
In Autumn 2020, we formed the Equality and Diversity Task and Finish Group comprising of teachers, learning assistants, School Standards Board members, parents and local community members e.g. from different faith groups.
The purpose of this group is to set out how our practice and policies have due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
- Advance equality of opportunity and
- Foster good relationships between groups
- actively teach children to identify and challenge discrimination
- actively teach children how to be authentic allies
Phased Schedule (2020 – 2022)
- Autumn 2020 – Spring 2021: establish group and adopt a common framework and develop an audit tool
- Summer 2021 – Autumn 2021: conduct curriculum audits
- Autumn 2021 – Spring/Summer 2022: update curriculum, update equality statement and deliver staff training
We have referenced the following in our work:
- UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child)
- Non-discrimination (article 2)
- Best interest of the child (article 3)
- Right to life survival and development (article 6)
- Right to be heard (article 12)
The protected characteristics are not just something we reference in our policies and curriculum, rather they are the basis of our advocacy.
The 9 protected characteristics (Equalities Act):
- Sex
- Race
- Disability
- Religion or belief
- Sexual orientation
- Gender reassignment
- Pregnancy or maternity
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Age
