Equalities and Community Cohesion Policy

Sprowston Infant School Policy to Promote Equality and Community Cohesion

The curriculum for all maintained schools should promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and prepare pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. (Education Act 2002, Section 78)

Schools have a duty to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between people of different groups. (Race Relations Amendment Act 2000)

  1. This Equality Policy statement sets out:
  • Rationale
  • The school’s context
  • Aims and values
  • The school’s overall approach to promoting equality: community cohesion,recognising and celebrating diversity and tackling discrimination
  • Specific reference to community cohesion, race equality, disability equality,gender equality
  • Roles and responsibilities
  • Monitoring, reviewing and assessing impact
  1. Rationale

This Equality and Community Cohesion Policy sets out the school’s approach to promoting communitycohesion, equality and diversity. It covers disability, gender and race/ethnicity, inresponse to the statutory duties on schools to publish disability and gender equalityschemes and a race equality policy.

From September 2007 all schools are under a duty to promote community cohesion. Every school, whatever its intake and wherever it is located, is responsible for educating children and young people who will live and work in a country which is diverse in terms of cultures, religions or beliefs, ethnicities and social backgrounds. As all children and young people can benefit from meaningful interaction, schools need to consider how to give their pupils the opportunity to mix and learn with, from and about those from different backgrounds, for example through links with other schools and community organisations.

Community cohesion means working towards a society in which there is a common vision and sense of belonging by all communities; a society in which the diversity of people’s backgrounds and circumstances is appreciated and valued; a society in which similar life opportunities are available to all; and a society in which strong and positive relationships exist and continue to be developed in the workplace, in schools and in the wider community

  1. The School Context – What sort of school are we?

Sprowston Infant School is an average size infant school with children aged 4 – 7.

Most children have some form of pre-school experience, mainly at local play groups. On admission they are broadly average in their attainment, but with a significant number wit speech and language problems.

There are very few children of ethnic minority origin although the number has increased in the last few years.

There are more than the national average of children with special needs and statements. The school also has a specialist unit for children with autistic spectrum disorders.

Attainment is slightly above national averages at the end of Key Stage 1.

The school is well supported by an active Friends Association, who organise social events and raise funds for the school.

There is an After School and Breakfast Club at a nearby school which also provides holiday child care. The school also hosts a Children’s Centre and outreach workers and a privately run Nursery on site.

  1. Aims and Values

At Sprowston Infant School we:

  • Aim to raise levels of attainment for all pupils, enabling them to achieve their personal best by means of a broad, balanced, high quality curriculum.
  • Aim to develop confident, disciplined and enquiring learners, able to make informed choices and foster a love of learning
  • Aim to foster self-esteem and personal responsibility, linked to respect for the needs and feelings of others and to value and respect all cultures.
  • Value the individual personality and unique gifts of each child entrusted to our care and ensure equal opportunities in relation to gender, race, class, special needs and belief.
  • Are committed to working in partnership and will facilitate considerate and positive relationships between all members of the school community. We will actively promote good parent/school relationships in order to enhance the children’s learning.
  • Seek to provide a safe and happy work place in which all members of, and visitors to, our school feels at ease.
  • Aim to promote a thoughtful attitude towards the immediate and wider environment.
  • Aim to be efficient and cost effective, putting our resources both human and financial to the best possible use and try to achieve best value for the school.

We encourage all children to become responsible members of society by the development and implementation of the following values: -

  • To be polite, honest and truthful
  • To keep promises and agreements
  • To be charitable to others
  • To be respectful to others and their property
  • To be considerate to all living things
  • To be responsible for all personal actions by developing a self-discipline

These aims are designed to ensure that the school meets the needs of all, taking account of gender, ethnicity, culture, religion, language, disability, ability, sexual orientation, age, and social circumstances. We strive to include and engage all pupils and to prepare them for full participation in a diverse society. This school will take steps to:

  • promote equality of opportunity and access
  • promote racial equality and good race relations
  • oppose all forms of prejudice and negative discrimination
  • ensure pupils, parents and visitors with a disability have access to the school buildings, to the curriculum or other business they may have with the school.
  1. The role of our school in promoting:

Community cohesion

We believe our school has a key part to play in promoting community cohesion.

In order to achieve a cohesive community, we endeavour to:

  • Promote understanding and engagement between communities
  • Encourage all children and families to feel part of the wider community
  • Understand the needs and hopes of all our communities
  • Eliminate discrimination
  • Increase life opportunities for all
  • Ensure teaching and the curriculum explores and addresses issues of diversity

Our school’s role is crucial. By creating opportunities for pupils’ achievement and enabling every child and young person to achieve their potential, our school makes a significant contribution to long term community cohesion.

Cohesion is about how to avoid the corrosive effects of intolerance and harassment; how to build a mutual civility among different groups, and to ensure respect for diversity with a commitment to common and shared bonds.

Race and faith are often seen as the most frequent friction points between communities. However, discrimination and prejudice can be experienced by other groups including the disabled, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities and different age and gender groups.

Our school will plan its curriculum to recognise, where possible, where other strands of the equalities agenda are interconnected with the aspiration to promote community cohesion. However, in our school the main focus is across different cultures, ethnic, religious or non-religious and socio-economic groups.

  • Within the school

Working with a range of visitors of different faiths, having visitors from various agencies and community groups to work with the pupils

Encouraging community groups to use school facilities

Charity support (selected by pupils and staff)

  • With other schools

Sharing good practice (through CPD)

Collaborative working on projects

Working with international partners (global link) with parents and the local and wider community

Allowing community groups to use school facilities

Enabling parents and community members to feed into SDP and make suggestions for improvement

  • Teaching, learning and curriculum

Our teaching and curriculum provision supports high standards of attainment, promotes common values and builds pupils’ understanding of the diversity that surrounds them

Lessons across the curriculum promote common values and help pupils to value differences and challenge prejudice and stereotyping

There is a programme of curriculum based activities whereby pupils’ understanding of community and diversity is enriched through fieldwork; visits and meetings with members of different communities.

Support for pupils for whom English is an additional language and other minority groups enables them to achieve at the highest possible level

  • Equity and excellence

In school there is a focus on securing high standards of attainment for all pupils from all ethnic backgrounds and of different socio-economic status

There are effective approaches in place to deal with incidents of prejudice, bullying and harassment.

LA and school admission arrangements promote community cohesion and social equity

  • Engagement and extended services

School to school

Partnership arrangements enable us to share good practice and offer pupils the opportunity to meet and learn from other young people from different backgrounds

Links are built into existing schemes of work and grounded in the curriculum with pupils working together on a joint project or activity

Shared use of facilities provides a means for pupils to interact

School to parents and the community

Strong links are fostered and encouraged, enabling multi-agency working between the school and other local agencies eg social care and health professionals

We promote engagement with parents through Friends of the School, curriculum evenings, parent and child courses, family learning etc

We provide access to or signpost extended services and community use of facilities for activities that take place out of school hours, including family and adult learning

Race Equality

The school is fully committed to meeting its obligations under the Race Relations

Amendment Act 2000 and this is reflected in the policy statements above. To meet thespecific duties of the RRAA 2000 we will:

  • ensure that all pupils and staff are encouraged and able to achieve the best ofwhich they are capable
  • respect and value differences between people
  • prepare pupils for life in a diverse society
  • make the school a place where everyone, taking account of race, colour, ethnicor national origin, feels welcomed and valued
  • promote good relations between different racial and cultural groups within theschool and within the wider community
  • ensure that an inclusive ethos is established and maintained
  • acknowledge the existence of racism and take steps to prevent it
  • oppose all forms of racism, racial prejudice and racial harassment
  • be proactive in tackling and eliminating unlawful discrimination
  • report racist incidents to the LA via the approved system (on line through the Norfolk Schools website)

Disability Equality

The aim of our school is to ensure that wherever possible disabled people have thesame opportunities as non-disabled people in their access to education and to preventany form of unlawful discrimination on the grounds of disability.

Appropriate measures will be taken to ensure that statutory duties are met:

  • not to treat disabled pupils and prospective pupils less favourably than othernon-disabled pupils
  • to take reasonable steps to avoid putting disabled pupils at a substantial disadvantage

In addition, steps will be taken to ensure that employees and those working with theschool's authority:

  • support the governing body in meeting their duties
  • do not act in such a way that renders the governing body liable to a claim ofdiscrimination
  • Staff and those working with the authority of the school are made aware of the basicrequirements of the Disability Discrimination Act and Disability Code of Practice for Schools.

There will be occasions where the treatment of disabled children is different fromnon-disabled students. In such cases the school will be able to demonstrate that suchtreatment is justified. The reason for the different treatment will be both material tothe circumstances of the particular case and substantial (e.g. health and safetyreasons). The school will also demonstrate that all reasonable steps have been taken toavoid the disabled pupil being placed at a significant disadvantage.

We recognise that the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students isanticipatory. To meet this duty we will review policies, practices and procedures toensure that we do not discriminate against disabled pupils. We will do this by:

  • ensuring our policies and procedures for bullying cover issues of disability
  • working closely with parents and disabled pupils to identify potential barriersto participation and devising reasonable adjustments to overcome them
  • ensuring that staff are briefed on the Disability Code of Practice for schoolsissued by the Disability Rights Commission

We will also take reasonable steps to find out whether prospective or existing pupilshave a disability. This will include:

  • creating an ethos and culture which is open and welcoming so that parents andpupils feel comfortable about sharing information about the disability
  • asking parents during the admissions process about the existence of anydisability
  • providing continuing opportunities to share information
  • monitoring levels of participation, achievement and behaviour that mayindicate a disability that has not been identified and referring the matter to specialist agencies

Our school believes that improving access to education and educational achievementby disabled pupils:

  • ensures equality of opportunity
  • encourages full participation in society
  • improves the likelihood of independent living and economic self-sufficiencyin the future

We believe that disabled people should be valued for what they can do rather thanlabelled for what they cannot.

We improve the accessibility of the physical environment within the resourcesavailable in response to needs arising.

We identify and monitor the performance of different groups of pupils:boys/girls; minority ethnic groups; SEN; disabled pupils; “Looked After”pupils; EAL; chronic medical conditions.Assessment procedures take into account the SEN Code of Practice (2001) andits Toolkit; the needs of EAL pupils; the needs of minority ethnic pupils.

We have procedures for involving all parents/carers in their children’s learningand we monitor this involvement and the outcomes.

We have procedures for involving all pupils in their own learning and wemonitor this involvement and the outcomes.

Educational inclusion is an integral part of the school developmentprogrammes, continuous professional development and governors’ meetings. Further information can be found within the Special Educational Needs policy.

Gender Equality

The school promotes equality of opportunity between males and females andendeavours to eliminate all unlawful sex discrimination and harassment. Conditionsfor learning (eg. environment, teaching and learning, resources, social and emotionalaspects of learning) provide equal access and opportunities to both boys and girls.

Roles and responsibilities

All who work in the school have a responsibility for promoting equality andinclusion, and avoiding unfair discrimination.

Our governors are responsible for:

  • Making sure the school complies with all current equality legislation
  • Making sure this policy and its procedures are followed

The Headteacher is responsible for:

  • Making sure the policy is readily available and that the governors, staff, pupilsand their parents know about it
  • Making sure its procedures are followed
  • Producing regular information for staff and governors about the policy andhow it is working, and providing training for them on the policy, if necessary
  • Making sure all staff know their responsibilities and receive training andsupport in carrying these out
  • Taking appropriate action in cases of harassment and discrimination

All our staff are responsible for:

  • Dealing with racist, sexist and homophobic incidents, and being able torecognise and tackle bias and stereotyping
  • Promoting equality and good community relations and avoidingdiscrimination against anyone for reasons of race, colour, nationality, ethnic ornational origins, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation orsocio-economic circumstances
  • Taking training and learning opportunities

Responsibility for overseeing equality practices in the school is as follows:

  • Coordinating and monitoring work on equality issues (Headteacher andDeputy Head)
  • Dealing with and monitoring reports of harassment, including racist andhomophobic incidents (Headteacher and Deputy Head)
  • Monitoring the progress and attainment of vulnerable groups of pupils (SENCO)
  • Monitoring exclusions (Headteacher)

Monitoring, reviewing, assessing impact

We will undertake an audit of our current practice, identify any gaps and devise an action plan to address these in order to promote community cohesion. We will monitor our progress towards our aims and review our provision on an annual basis thereafter. This policy will be regularly monitored and reviewed by staff and governors to ensurethat it is effective in tackling discrimination, promoting access and participation,equality and good relations between different groups, and that it does notdisadvantage particular sections of the community.

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