Disability Equality Scheme

StMatthew’s C of E Academy

“Together we work, play, learn and pray with Jesus”

City of Stoke-on-TrentChildren & Young People’s ServicesDirectorate

Special Educational Needs Support Service

Disability Equality Scheme

Table of Contents

1. School Ethos, Vision & Values

1.1 Mission statement or statement of intent

1.2 Background

1.3Schools Strategic Priorities

1.4Strengths & Weaknesses

2. The General Duty

3. Specific Duty- How we will meet the General Duty

3.1Involvement of Disabled People in Developing the Scheme

3.2Developing a voice for disabled pupils, staff and parents/carer

3.3The Governing Body

3.4 Removing barriers

3.5 Disability in the Curriculum, including teaching and learning

3.6 Eliminating harassment and bullying

3. 7 Reasonable Adjustments

3.8 School Facility Lettings

3.9 Contractors & Procurement

3.10 Information, Performance and Evidence

1. Pupil Achievement

1. Learning Opportunities
2. Admissions, Transitions, Exclusions (including SEBD)
3. Social Relationships
4. Employing, promoting and training disabled staff

3.11 Impact Assessment

3.12 Reviewing/Monitoring

Review Date June 2017

Senior Member of Staff Responsible Head of School & Executive Principal

School Ethos, Vision and Values

1.1 Mission Statement

At St Matthew’s Church of England (Aided) Primary School, we are committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for:

• pupils with disabilities in relation to education and associated services;
• staff with disabilities in relation to employment rights, conditions and opportunities;
• and all parents and members of the local community with disabilities in relation to additional services offered by or at our school.

At St Matthew’s we value all people and the diversity they bring to our school. Through this policy we aim to demonstrate our commitment to promote disability equality in terms access to learning, social inclusion, recruitment, facilities, attitudes and behaviours.

We aim to develop a culture of inclusion and diversity in which people feel confident about disclosing their disabilities in the certain knowledge that they will receive a positive and supportive response which facilitates their full participation in the full range of activities offered by our school.

In particular, the achievement and participation of pupils and students with disabilities will be monitored and we will use this data to raise standards and ensure inclusive teaching. In order to do this effectively we will gather a range of information pertaining to staff and pupils with any form of disability.

We will make reasonable adjustments in relation to teaching and learning and wider aspects of school life to make sure that the educational environment is as accessible as possible.

We will use our accessibility planning duty to ensure that there is a rolling programme of improvements over the next three years in relation to access to the curriculum, access to information for both pupils and their parents and access to the school buildings, its facilities and amenities for all.

We will seek to foster a positive response to disability among all members of our school community and to eliminate bullying, harassment or the less favourable treatment of people with disabilities wherever and whenever it is likely to occur.

At St Matthew’s we believe that diversity is a strength, which should be respected and celebrated by all those who learn in, work in, and visit our community. In making this assertion, we subscribe to the social model of disability.

The Disability Equality Duty (DED)

1.2 Background Information

The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 (DDA) defines a disabled person as someone who has ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial or long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’.

The Disability Discrimination Act of 2005 has extended the definition of disability as follows:

• People with HIV, multiple sclerosis and cancer (although not all cancers) are deemed disabled before they experience the long-term and substantial adverse effect on their activities.

• Section 18 has been amended so that individuals with a mental illness no longer have to demonstrate that it is “clinically well-recognised”, although the person must still demonstrate a long-term and substantial adverse effect on his/her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

The Duty

The Disability Discrimination Act of 2005 places a general duty on schools, requiring them to have due regard to the following when carrying out their functions as employers, as providers of education and associated services and as providers of services to the wider community. Therefore at St Matthew’s we will endeavour to:

• Promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and other people;
• Eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the DDA;
• Eliminate harassment of disabled people that is related to their disability;
• Promote positive attitudes towards disabled people;
• Encourage participation in public life by disabled people;
• Take steps to meet disabled people’s needs, even if this requires more favourable treatment.

1.3 School’s Strategic Priorities

The whole community of St Matthew’s will strive to meet the strategic priorities of

• Increased attainment
• Social inclusion

Through the areas identified in all areas of the School Development Plan and the Every Child matters agenda which is closely inter-related with the school’s Christian ethos, Mission Statement and aims.

1.4 Strengths & Weaknesses

The key strength of St Matthew’s is it’s Christian ethos founded in the Anglican traditions by which all people are regarded as equal and see our fundamental responsibility is in helping our fellow man. These can clearly be seen in related policies are reflected in the whole spectrum of school life.

3.How we will meet the General Duty & Specific Duty

The production of this disability equality scheme provides the whole community associated with St Matthew’s with a framework for integrating disability equality into all aspects of school life and demonstrates how we are seeking to meet the specific duty i.e. to produce a Disability Equality Scheme for our school.

These actions may include some priorities to increase access to the curriculum (such as the IEPs and specific learning aids), the physicalenvironment (to include access to the playground, Room 4, swimming arrangements and KS2 PE facilities at St Francis’s) and the provision of information(to consider Braille copies of documents).They should include measures to increase participation such as: directly asking pupils with a disability to be on the student council and advocacy support to help pupils with e.g. ASD participate in debates.

Specific actions will depend on what the school’sannual, consultative questionnaire highlights feedback and may include strategies to promote accessibility and make the environment more disabled friendly, such as creating a quiet place, improving signage, etc.

The school may, in future, also need to consider and take steps to ensure that children with disabilities can participate in lunchtime activities, school plays or school trips. Factors such as whether children are able to participate in all aspects of school life will certainly impact on Drama and PE provision for KS2 where children are walked up to the facilities at St Francis’.

Staff will need to assess how well children are achieving socially and academically in comparison with the expectations of the rest of the school community.

(See: “Implementing the Disability Discrimination Act in Schools and Early Years Settings”)

3.1 Involvement of Disabled People in Developing the Scheme

At the current time disabled staff, pupils, parents or other members of the community are not represented on any committee or involved in developing facilities and needs. This is because at the moment no-one fits these criteria; however the SMT and Governors are fully aware of this and will ensure such representation is made as soon as it becomes a necessity.

In order to develop this plan we have consulted SENSS and other schools in the locality with disabled staff or pupilsso that we could develop an awareness of how other schools carry out their duties.

At St Matthew’s pupil records need to show all students with SEN and/or a disability and any actions taken to involve pupils and the outcomes that have been achieved e.g. results of questionnaires, feedback from individual pupils and parents/carers etc.

Action plans with definitive timescales are imperative because pupils and parents will need to know what will happen, how and when. Therefore when the annual audit is completed, we will put an action plan into place for that year, highlighting what is necessary for the school to be able to fully accommodate disabled persons within the school community.

At St Matthew’s we aim to recognise the range of barriers and discrimination faced by pupils with a disability and sometimes they will have to do that bit extra to tackle these. We intend to keep including pupils, by asking them what they want on an ongoing basis.

In light of this at St Matthew’s we will endeavour to take steps – as outlined in the annual action plan- even when that involves treating disabled people more favourably than other people.

3.2 Developing a voice for disabled pupils, staff and parents/carers–

As stated at St Matthew’s we strive to ensure good practice for including pupils and parents/carers in review meetings, transition planning, etc.

3.3 The Governing Body –

A committee of Governors, staff, school council and PTFA will meet in the Autumn term on an annual basis. All Governors will be informed of the time of the meeting so that those who wish may also attend. To ensure all Governors are aware of the ongoing developments and additional requirements a copy of the minutes from the committee will be circulated.

Copies of the minutes are always displayed and accessible by all persons.

A high proportion of the Governing Body comprises people who are parents of children currently in school and so are usually available to meet parents before and after school. A very high proportion are also members of the worshipping community of the United Benefice of Meir Heath and Normacot and as such meet together very regularly on a formal and informal basis.

3.4 Removing barriers –

The key points to ensure that St Matthew’s is more accessible involve consideration of:

• The physical environment including access to Room 4
• Curriculum access particularly to PE and drama especially in KS2
• Access to all information by ensuring it can be provided to meet the needs of any disability

3.5 Disability in the Curriculum, including teaching and learning–

The school will promote a positive attitude towards disability within the curriculum. Throughits Christian, family ethos which permeates all strands of school life

3.6 Eliminating harassment and bullying –

St Matthew’s have clear policies and guidelines for dealing with all incidents of harassment and/or bullying policy. These clearly state how discrimination, bullying, harassment of disabled children and adults will be dealt with.

3.7 Reasonable Adjustments –

Staff at St Matthew’s will strive at all times to ensure that all reasonable adjustments are made to enable any disable person to make full use of breaks including lunchtimes, after school clubs and out of school visits and activities.

3.8 School Facility Lettings –

Not applicable at St Matthew’s.

3.9 Contractors & Procurement–

The CPD co–coordinator, in conjunction with the SMT, Governors and working Party will ensure all staff are aware of all relevant training opportunities and encourage them to avail themselves of them.

The SMT will, when necessary, check to ascertain whether any contractors involved with the school, on short or long term basis, are employing any disabled persons.

Catering staff and midday supervisors will all be made of disabilities especially any with regard to food allergies and associated reactions.

3.10 Information, Performance and Evidence

This falls into four broad areas:

• Information will be collected on an annual basis through a questionnaire
• This will initially be analysed by the SMT and SENCO before passing on findings to the committee.
• As a result from issues raised the policy will be changed accordingly to suit the needs of the school community

a. Pupil Achievement –It will be important to ensure that information is gathered on all disabled persons and not just those identified on the Special Needs register. The information will be used to identify trends in performance in all spheres.

b. Learning Opportunities – At St Matthew’s no person will be excluded from taking full advantage of all learning opportunities offered by the school.

c. Admissions, Transitions, Exclusions (including SEBD) –The admissions policy of St Matthew’s clearly states that “We are an inclusive school that welcomes children from all backgrounds and abilities.”

The current level of exclusions at St Matthew’s is extremely low (1 temporary exclusion in 110 years) however this will be monitored and reported on an annual basis.

d. Social Relationships –see e below.

e. Employing, promoting and training disabled staff –As outlined in Equal Opportunities Policy all staff will be made aware of and encouraged to participate in training to raise awareness regarding disabilities. Staff with specific, identified disabilities will be given access to any available training which may directly affect them and enhance and promote their role within the school community and it’s associated social relationships

3.11 Impact Assessment

The working party shall meet annually to

• Review results from questionnaires.
• Assess the impact of policies, procedures, functions and practices within the school
• Consider tokenism and omissions

Methods could include feedback from the working party (which will meet annually) and shall be comprised of various members of the school community including pupils (School Council), governors, parents, teaching and non-teaching staff. Some outcomes may be obvious, such as the increase in participation of pupils with a disability in out of school activities.However, others may at first not appear noticeable. For example, allowing pupils with e.g. ASD 'quiet time' during breaks and lunch may have a long-term impact on behaviour and anxiety.Schools should develop methods for assessing this type of impact.

St Matthew’s scheme willassess and prioritise the impact, or likely impact, of all existing and new policies and practices on disabled people through the annual meetings of the working party, questionnaires, The school currently has a ‘back catalogue’ of existing policies which will need to reviewed alongside the DEC. this will be done as a rolling programme. The Disability Equality Duty Code of Practice provides information on how to make decisions about impact assessment.

See ( and “Implementing the Disability Discrimination Act in Schools and Early Years Settings” (Copy in school).

Questions the school needs to think about are:

• Refer to 3.9 above
• Those involved in assessing impact and how will the school involve disabled people will be the working party and invited other persons with disabilities.
• The school will determine priorities through identified needs listed by the working party.
• If the school needs expertise in a field then this will be sought from appropriate sources and bodies.
• The school will report the results to the Governing Body who will then communicate to the parents in a written report.
• It will be policy to contact trade unions of any disabled persons associated with school to establish good links.

3.12 Reviewing/Monitoring

Details of how the school is going to use the information gathered, in particular reviewing the effectiveness of its 3-year action plan and preparing the subsequent scheme. Self evaluate effectiveness of the scheme

How disabled people are being consulted in the production, setting targets and monitoring of the scheme. What action is being taken and by when, how will the school know when it has achieved its objectives?

The scheme will be reviewed and publicly commented upon each year and revised at least every three years.

Oct 2017

The scheme and action plan needs to be committed to by the highest level of authority you have- the Head Of School/ Executive Principal & Chair of Governors (or equivalent). You may also want a member of staff with disability expertise to take responsibility for the day-to-day implementation.

EQUALITY DUTIES

St Matthew’s Academy CE

You will find here information about how the school ensures it meets its Specific Equalities Duties (These are things our schoolmustdo).

The Public Sector Equality Duty requires our school to publish information about Equalities. The Equality Act 2010 clearly states that the following groups must be taken into account. People identified in the following groups are considered to have a protected characteristic.

Protected Characteristics – school must take into account when publishing information

• Disability
• Sex (gender)
• Race (ethnicity)
• Pregnancy and Maternity
• Religion and Belief
• Sexual Orientation
• Transgender

There are also two other protected characteristics for which schools do not have a direct duty.

• Age
• Marriage and Civil Partnership

The information we publish and analyse must be clearly linked to the three aims (General Duties) of the Public Sector Equality Duty. General Duties are the things that schools aim to achieve)

General Duties

The three aims of the Public Sector Equality Duty are to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Protected Characteristics
Gender / 57% Girls 43% Boys / 85% female 15% male
Disability / 2% (NB disability is a wide spectrum) / 0%
Race / No / %
WBRI / 64 / 65
Indian Pakistani / 25 / 25
Mixed White Asian / 4 / 4
Asian Other / 4 / 4
Irish / 1 / 1
Not Declared / 1 / 1
/ No / %
WBRI / 12 / 100
Indian Pakistani / 0 / 0
Mixed White Asian / 0 / 0
Asian Other / 0 / 0
Irish / 0 / 0
Not Declared / 0 / 0
Religion – Non Christian / 47.5% / 0%
Age / Number of pupils
4-5 / 15
5-6 / 12
6-7 / 13
7-8 / 12
8-9 / 18
9-10 / 13
10-11 / 16
/ Number of staff
20-30 / 3
30-40 / 0
40-50 / 7
50+ / 2

Equality Objective – Action Plan