St Nicholas Equality Information 2014

Introduction

It is now widely acknowledged that inequality linked to socio-economic factors (poverty) isone of the major issues affecting educational attainment in England today. This school is committed to tackling this aspect of disadvantage, and information about the measures being taken is published separately in a report about how we spend our Pupil Premium.

This school recognises that socio-economic factors (poverty) are not the only issue affecting how pupils achieve in school, as gender, ethnicity, disability/SEN, sexual orientation and gender identity may all affect whether children fulfil their academic potential. This report highlights the measures this school is taking to address inequality that cannot solely be linked to socio-economic factors (poverty).

Gender

Our School – As a school we strive to ensure that we are fair to both genders at all times. When recruiting staff, gender is blanked out during the short listing and interview process.

The majority of ourpupils are boys. Out of a total of 69 pupils 48 are boys. Of that 48, 67% have ASD. This reflects national statistics that show more boys have ASD than girls. Due the large proportion of children with ASD we have an ASD co-ordinator and we have input from an outside agency called Positive Behaviour Solutions. The majority of our pupils with ASD are taught in the Structured Strand. Staff that work in the Structured Strand are highly trained in working with pupils with behavioural and emotional difficulties.

Assemblies

Gender is discussed in our assemblies and in classes using Persona Dolls. We have a collection of dolls, each of whom has a different ethnicity. The doll’s names have been chosen by our pupils and they are treated as if they are human.

Curriculum

Pupils are taught about gender through the PSHE SOW and they are visited by the school nurse as they progress through the school. She leads lessons on personal hygiene, puberty and sex education. Sex Education is taught to gender specific groups by the school nurse. These sessions are differentiated to suit the ability level of the class that she is visiting.

Lunchtime Clubs

All pupils are entitled to take part in lunchtime clubs regardless of their gender. Chat club takes part every Wednesday and boys and girls take it in turns to attend each week. This enables both groups to discuss things that they might not choose to do so if the opposite gender was inattendance. Lunchtime clubs take place Monday to Thursday and all pupils are welcome to take part regardless of gender or ability.

Ethnicity

Ethnic monitoring helps schools to identify those groups of pupils who may be vulnerable to underachievement,(in addition to pupils who are or who have been eligible for free school meals),so that interventions can be made to reduce or eliminate achievement gaps.

This school recognises that groups of pupils may be vulnerable to underachievement for a number of complex reasons, and is able to put the following measures in place to raise attainment:

The school ensures that all teaching staff are aware of the groups that have experienced historic underachievement
The school ensuresthat all teachers have high expectations of all pupils, and individual pupils’ progress and attainment is tracked, with a special focus on pupils who may be vulnerable to underachievement
All teachers are aware that different factors can combine to exacerabate educational disadvantage, e.g. gender, being summer born, being eligible for free school meals, having special educational needs, being a young carer, etc.
The school works closely with parents/carers to address any underachievement at an early stage, and is able to implement a wide variety of interventions. Parents are invited to attend Person Centred Planning meetings every year. During the meeting goals are set and parents are asked to contribute to the Annual Learning Goal setting. Termly Learning Goals are formed from the A.L.G’s set at the PCP meeting and these are sent out to parents at the beginning of terms 2,4 and 6.

English as an Additional Language

Our School

At St Nicholas School a small number of our pupils speak English as an additional language. To assist the smooth transition of these pupils into the school we consult EMAS and we have used translators to help support parents during meetings and induction sessions. EMAS also send regular newsletters to the class teams of the EAL pupils which detail support and courses that is available to us as a school.

As well has having EAL learners at St Nicholas we have a high ratio of pupils with language and communication difficulties. We have a Speech and Language Therapist that is based at school for two days each week. We also have anAugmentitive and Alternative Communication (AAC) co-ordinator that works at school for four days each week. As is the case with all of our pupils, the SaLT team liaise with class teams and parents of each child with EAL to formulate a programme or set of goals that are specific to the individual.

Disability/SEN

Our School –

We are accepting of all and we have disabled staff and the whole school supports them whenever necessary. Staff with a learning disability such as Dyslexia, are supported at interview and whenever they need to take part in any activities that they may find difficult during the school day.

As a Special School each of our pupils is classed as having a Special Educational Need and every pupil has a statement.

Assemblies

Each assembly is differentiated to meet the needs of each of our pupils. The majority of our pupils access some form of collective worship every day. Each assembly focuses on a particular topic or curriculum area and the assembly timetable is as follows.

Monday am SEAL assembly which is led by the SEAL co-ordinator. The afternoon assembly is class based and teachers follow the RE scheme of work. The Shared strand hold their assembly on Monday afternoons.

Tuesday pm is singing assembly. All pupils take part in this assembly which is held in the school hall.

Wednesday pm is Sensory strand assembly. Pupils based in Shared and Structured strand have their assembly based in class on Wednesdays.

Thursday pm is based in classes and the assembly follows the RE SOW.

Friday am is Celebration assembly which is led by the Head teacher. Lower School meet for a Show and Tell assembly each Friday afternoon. This enables pupils to celebrate and share their successes and achievements from the across the week with their Lower school peers.

Curriculum

Here at St Nicholas we follow a differentiated curriculum to meet each and every child’s specific educational need. As well as following the National curriculum our St Nicholas curriculum also focuses on key skills and it encourages every child to be as independent as possible. Each pupil has a personalised learning objective for every part of the day.

We have a team of teachers called PARRC which stands for Planning, Asessment, Recording, Reporting and Celebration.They meet fortnightly to focus on the curriculum and raising attainment and accessibility for all.

An Equalities group has also been set up and it consists of three teachers, Hayley McMahon, Jo Hooson and Helen Hook. The group oversee the schools three main cohorts of pupils - children with Multi Sensory Impairment, children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and children with Physical Disabilities. This purpose of the group is to ensure that the pupils within each cohort are receiving equal access to the curriculum and to provide extra support and guidance to help each class teacher achieve fair and equal access for all.

Some of our pupils take part in some form of inclusion. For pupils in Lower School, inclusion usually involves visiting a mainstream Primary school from their home catchment area. For Secondary pupils Inclusion usually means taking part in sessions at the two neighbouring secondary schools, Hardenhuish and Sheldon. Lower School pupils take part in a lunchtime club with pupils from St Pauls Primary school every Friday lunchtime.Classes also link up with other schools to hold joint events. Examples of this include Lower School inviting St Pauls pupils to join their ‘Victorian Day’. Forest Class are joined by a pupil from Hardenhuish during their PE sessions and our School Council is part of the Chippenham Children’s parliament.

Pupils with Visual Impairments and / or Hearing Impairments are supported by the Wiltshire Visual Impairment Advisory Teacher Beth Bentinck-Skinner and the Wiltshire Hearing Impairment Advisory Teacher Joanne Cooke. Hayley McMahon is the schools MSI co-ordinator and is always on hand to advise classroom teachers on how best support learners with a VI and or an HI on the classroom.

We are also incredibly fortunate that one of the Teaching Assistants at St Nicholas is also a trained counsellor. She takes pupils out of class to take part in ‘My Space’ sessions. The sessions involve pupils talking and using symbols / photographs and pictures to illustrate how they are feeling.

Faith and Belief

Data is not collected for monitoring purposes on Religion and Belief, so there is no information available to compare the attainment of pupils who have/or do not have a religion or a belief.

St Nicholas recognises how important faith and belief can be as part of a young person’s developing identity, whether this relates to a particular faith or belief, or whether this relates to wider belief systems, and moral ethics.

St Nicholas is committed to supporting all our young people as they develop a personal relationship with their particularset of values and beliefs, and to supporting, in the context of the Human Rights agenda, the role this plays in the moral and ethical choices they make in life.

This school takes incidents of prejudice-related bullying seriously and is committed to working closely with parents/carers to create a school environment which is nurturing, friendly and supportive for all our children. Our school has established a procedure for recording all incidents of prejudice-based bullying and this includes bullying relating to religion and belief.

Different Families

This is one of the fastest changing areas of society, and one that is being addressed by St Nicholas

Different families may include:

families with adopted children
families with foster children
families headed by grandparents/uncles and aunts
single-parent families
children with more than one home
step or blended families
families with two mums/dads.

Celebrating different families is one of the ways St Nicholas has been recognising the differences and similarities between pupils. Same-sex couples are now legally able to adopt children, and that this puts additional responsibility on schools to make sure that all families providing love and care for children feel welcome as part of the school community.

Jane Gibbs, the Parent Support Advisor works closely with families to provide support whenever necessary. She is available to make home visits and has mobile phone that parents can contact her on whenever needed. She also accompanies parents to meetings about their child if required.

Sexual Orientation

At interview staff are never asked about their sexual orientation and both staff and pupils privacy is always respected.

Staff at St Nicholas are very accepting and respectful of students and understanding that they may need to explore different behaviours. These behaviours are always supported appropriately and in discussion with parents. The school understands the needs of our young people as they are growing older, exploring their sexuality and their need to masturbate – when appropriate a private safe space is given to these students.

This school takes incidents of prejudice-related bullying seriously. We are committed to working closely with parents/carers to create a school environment where overt homophobia has no place, and a culture of respect and understanding for all is paramount.

Gender Identity

St Nicholas is aware of the support that we can access in relation to this equality issue, including Local Authority support, and support from the Mermaids charity(this charity supports families and schools where gender identity has been identified as a specific issue).

St Nicholas has had access to LA trainingin this area, and we are able, with the additional help of the Local Authority if required, to appropriately support pupils and their parents/carers should the need arise.

In addition, this school is aware of the changes we can make to avoid unnecessary gender distinctions. Such changes introduced by the school not only ensurethat the school is a more equal environment should there be pupils who are uncertain about their gender identity, but can also contribute to providing a clearer perspective with regard to reviewing our dataon attainment gaps between girls and boys.

This school has flexibility within the school uniform, and does not make any distinction between the sports that girls and boys can play. All pupils are free to explore their gender (including dressing up) and they can express any anxieties that they may have about their gender with staff including with Caroline Elmes during ‘Time to talk’ sessions.