St James CE Primary School is a vibrant, inclusive and welcoming place for everyone; we believe it always will be.  At the heart of our school are our Christian Values.  The ethos and values of our school community are underpinned by our school rules: be ready, be respectful and be responsible.  We are always here for everyone, regardless of race, sexuality, gender, religion or anything else that makes us who we are.  We seek and listen to the views of children, parents and carers and staff.

The Equality Act 2010 brought together all the legal requirements on equality that the private, public and voluntary sectors need to follow. It affects equality law at work and in the delivery of all kinds of services and, in the context of this policy, in all aspects of the provision of education.

The Act protects people from discrimination on the basis of certain characteristics, known as the ‘protected characteristics’ which are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage or Civil Partnership
• Pregnancy and Maternity
• Race
• Religion/Belief
• Sex (Gender)
• Sexual orientation

Aims

Our school aims to meet its obligations under the public sector equality duty by having due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010. We will do this by ensuring that our policies and practices are inclusive to all, and reflect and meet the needs of all our children and our community.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it. We will do this by ensuring that all children can access the academic and extra-curricular activities that we provide, particularly those children and members of our community who experience barriers to access.
• Foster good relations across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it. We will do this by celebrating the individual child, embracing our similarities and differences and recognising the rights of every child. While doing this we will ensure that diversity is embedded in the curriculum.

Roles and responsibilities

The Governing Board will:

• Ensure that the equality information and objectives as set out in this statement are published and communicated throughout the school, including to staff, pupils and parents, and that they are reviewed and updated at least once every four years
• Delegate responsibility for monitoring the achievement of the objectives on a regular basis to the Headteacher who will endeavour to ensure the objectives remain relevant and up to date.

The Headteacher will ensure that 

• Knowledge and understanding of the equality objectives are promoted amongst staff and pupils
• Monitor success in achieving the objectives and report back to the governors

Staff will ensure that

• Teaching and learning takes this policy into account
• Diversity will be recognised as a positive, rich resource for teaching, learning and the curriculum

Equality information and objectives

Schools must publish equality information and objectives. Our equality information can be found in Appendix 1 and is updated annually.

Equality Objectives June 2021 – 2025

Equality Objective 1

To ensure that our staff have the appropriate knowledge and training about good equalities practice so that we can ensure that our curriculum is diverse and accessible to all, that our behaviour management is fair and equal and that we can identify underachievement in all groups.

Equality Objective 2

To ensure that our curriculum reflects the rich diversities of the UK, our local area in order to meet the needs of our children irrespective of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation and religion.

We will do this by:

• Ensuring topics and resources used reflect diversity
• Regularly reviewing and monitoring the curriculum to ensure that topics and resources are up to date
• Ensuring that all children are accessing this diverse curriculum through high expectations and high-quality teaching to enable children to meet their full potential

Equality Objective 3

To continue to promote equality of opportunity in enrichment activities.

We will do this by:

• Regularly monitoring the uptake of activities
• Ensuring that there is a range of activities to meet the needs of our diverse community
• Identifying and targeting groups with protected characteristics to ensure they have equal access and increase their engagement

Equality Objective 4

To review our approach to behaviour management to ensure that there is no discrimination of those children with protected characteristics.

We will do this by:

• Reviewing our behaviour policy and practices
• Monitoring behaviour incidents and identifying any patterns and adapting our interventions appropriately
• Ensuring that our interventions meet the needs of all our children

Equality Objective 5

To work towards closing the attainment gap at greater depth in English and maths.

We will do this by:

• Ensuring all staff have the necessary information, training and resources to implement high quality lessons
• Regularly monitoring attainment through analysing data and tracking pupil progress
• Ensuring that appropriate early interventions are put in place where underachievement is identified