Equality and Diversity Policy

Legal Status:

• Prepared with regard to the Equality Act 2010, Race Relations Act 1976, Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, Sex Discrimination Act 1986, Children’s Act 1989 and Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001

   

Applies to:

• Whole college

To be read with:

• Employment Manual

• Anti-Bullying Policy

• Admissions Policy

• Inclusion Policy

• Behaviour and Discipline Policy

• Curriculum Policy.

Available from:

• The college office

Monitoring and Review:

• • To be continuously monitored and reviewed by no later than two years from the date shown below.

 

Signed: Date: Oct 20th 2011

Proprietor and Principal

 

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Equality and Diversity Policy

Statement of Intent

Albion College is committed to providing equality, opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice for all children and families.

Introduction

This Equality and Diversity Policy provides a framework for our college to promote equality, inclusion and good community relations, and to tackle prejudice, discrimination and their causes in a holistic and proactive way.

Our Scheme is based on the core principles that its effectiveness is determined by:

• active involvement with key stakeholders, not just in developing this Scheme but also in its review and implementation;

• proactive leadership;

• prioritising activities that produce specific, tangible improved outcomes;

• removal of attitudinal and cultural barriers.

Definition of Disability

“A person has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day to day activities.”

Aim

In our college we aim to tackle discrimination and promote equality of opportunity and good race relations across all aspects of college life. In particular, we aim to:

• provide a secure environment in which all our pupils can flourish and in which all contributions are valid;

• include and value the contribution of all families to better our understanding of equality and diversity;

• provide positive non-stereotyping information about different ethnic groups and people with disabilities;

• improve our knowledge and understanding of issues of equality and diversity;

• make inclusion a thread which runs through all our activities in College;

• create an ethos in which pupils and staff feel valued and secure;

• building self-esteem and confidence in our pupils, so that they can then use these qualities to influence their own relationships with others;

• removing or minimizing barriers to learning, so that all pupils can achieve;

• ensuring that our teaching takes into account the learning needs of all pupils through our schemes of work and lesson planning;

• actively tackling discrimination and promoting equality through our School Prospectus, Code of Conduct, newsletters to parents and displays of work;

• making clear to our pupils what constitutes aggressive, discriminatory and racist behaviour;

• identifying clear procedures for dealing quickly with incidents of discriminatory and behaviour;

• making pupils and staff confident to challenge discriminatory, racist and aggressive behaviour;

• promote equality of opportunity between Disabled People and non-Disabled People;

• eliminate harassment of members of the school that is related to protected characteristics until the Equality Act 2010.

• encourage participation by those across all groups in public life;

• take steps to meet Disabled People’s needs, even if this requires more favourable treatment.

Our Commitments

The College has set out its commitment to equal opportunities in this policy statement, and it continues to do all it can to ensure that all members of the college community are treated fairly and with equality.

• We do not discriminate against anyone, be they staff or pupil, on the grounds of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, nationality, ethnic or national origins, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership or pregnancy and maternity.

• We promote the principles of fairness and justice for all through the education that we provide in our college.

• We ensure that all pupils have equal access to the full range of educational opportunities provided by the college.

• We constantly strive to remove any forms of indirect discrimination that may form barriers to learning.

• We ensure that all recruitment, employment, promotion and training systems are fair to all, and provide opportunities for everyone to achieve.

• We challenge stereotyping and prejudice whenever it occurs.

• We celebrate the cultural diversity of our community and show respect for all minority groups.

• We are aware that prejudice and stereotyping is caused by low self-image and ignorance. Through positive educational experiences and support for each individual’s point of view, we aim to promote positive social attitudes and respect for all.

• We seek to ensure that people with disabilities are not discriminated against when applying for jobs at our college. We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the school environment gives access to people with disabilities.

• We welcome all applications to join the College, whatever background or physical disability a child may have.

• We ensure that no member of the College is discriminated against whilst in our college on account of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnerships and pregnancy and maternity.

• It is the right of all pupils to receive the best education the College can provide, with access to all educational activities organised by the school. We do not tolerate any forms of racism or racist behaviour. Should a racist incident occur, we will act immediately to prevent any repetition of the incident.

• We endeavour to make our college welcoming to all minority groups. We promote an understanding of different cultures through the topics studied by the children, and we reflect this in the displays of work shown around the College.

• Our curriculum reflects the attitudes, values and respect that we have for minority ethnic groups.

• Should anyone at our college be a victim of racism, we will do all we can to support that person in overcoming any difficulties they may have.

National and Legal Context for Equality & Diversity

We have duties to promote equality on the ground of ‘protected characteristics’ under the Equality Act 2010, namely age, disability gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity.

The general duty to promote race equality means that we must have due regard to:

• eliminating unlawful racial discrimination;

• promoting equality of opportunity;

• promoting good relations between people of different racial groups.

The specific duties require us to:

• prepare a written policy on racial equality (we have integrated this into this Equality and Diversity Policy);

• assess the impact of our policies, including this policy, on pupils, staff and parents of different racial groups including, in particular, the impact on attainment levels of these pupils;

• monitor the operation of our policies through the impact they have on such pupils, staff and parents, with particular reference to their impact on the attainment levels of such pupils.

The general duty to promote disability equality means that we must have due regard to:

• promoting equality of opportunity between disabled people and other people;

• eliminating unlawful discrimination;

• eliminating disability- related harassment;

• promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people;

• encouraging participation by disabled people in public life;

• taking steps to take account of disabled peoples’ disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled people more favourably than other people.

The disability equality general duty reinforces the reasonable adjustment duties of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). In particular, it builds upon the anticipatory duty to make adjustments.

The general duty to promote gender equality means that we must have due regard to:

• eliminating unlawful discrimination and harassment;

• promoting equality of opportunity between men and women.

Colleges also have specific duties under these three promotional duties and this Policy demonstrates our response to both the general and specific duties.

Colleges have a duty to promote community cohesion, developing good relations across different cultures, ethnic, religious and non-religious and socio-economic groups. Although there are no statutory requirements for colleges to have a policy or action plan for promoting community cohesion, we do have one in place.

Although there are no equivalent promotional duties in relation to age, sexual orientation and religion or belief, we must ensure that we do not discriminate on these grounds. This Scheme includes our priorities and actions to eliminate discrimination and harassment for these equality areas.

Associative Discrimination

The Equality Act 2010 makes it clear that discrimination occurs if an employer discriminates against an employee because of a protected characteristic, whether or not the employee possesses that protected characteristic. This brings UK law in line with the recent case of Attridge Law v Coleman where the employee was treated less favourably due to the fact that her son was disabled and it was determined by an Employment Tribunal that this was disability discrimination.

Perceptive Discrimination

The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone because they are perceived to possess a particular protected characteristic, even if person does not actually possess that characteristic. The definition of harassment has also been extended to include harassment based on association and perception. Therefore, employees will now be able to complain of behaviour that they find offensive even if it is not directed at them, and the complainant need not possess the relevant characteristic themselves.

Third Party Harassment

The Equality Act extends protection against third party harassment to all protected characteristics (other than pregnancy/maternity and marriage/civil partnerships). The Act makes colleges potentially liable for harassment of their employees by people (third parties) who are not employees of the college, such as parents. A college will only be liable when harassment has occurred on at least two previous occasions, the college is aware that it has taken place and have not taken reasonable steps to prevent it happening again. The third party can be the same or a different person on each occasion. Nevertheless, it is clearly important that schools take a serious attitude to Third Party harassment and have a zero tolerance policy toward bullying and harassment of pupils and staff.

Methods

We will use the following methods to achieve our aims:

Admissions

See our separate policy.

• We advertise our service widely.

• We reflect the diversity of members of our society in our publicity and promotional materials.

• We provide information in clear, concise language, whether in spoken or written form.

• We can provide information in a different language if required.

• We base our admissions policy on fair systems and within the framework of our Statement of Purpose.

• We do not discriminate against a child with a disability or refuse a child entry to the college as a pupil because of any disability. We are able to admit a pupil who is wheelchair bound.

Employment

See employment policies.

• Posts are advertised and all applicants are judged against explicit and fair criteria.

• The applicant who best meets the criteria is offered the post, subject to references and checks by the Criminal Records Bureau. This ensures fairness in the selection process. All job descriptions from the date of this policy include a statement which specifically requires a commitment to equality and diversity as part of their specifications.

• We monitor our application process to ensure that it is fair and accessible.

Training

• All members of staff are entitled to appropriate training, in order that they can play their full part in ensuring that our school promotes racial equality.

• We seek out training opportunities for staff and volunteers to enable them to develop practices which enable all children to flourish.

Activities

The college ethos and activities in college encourage children to develop positive attitudes to people who are different from themselves. We work to encourage children to empathise with others.

We do this by:

• making children feel valued and good about themselves;

• ensuring that children have equality of access to learning;

• reflecting the widest possible range of communities in the choice of resources;

• avoiding stereotypes of derogatory images in the selection of materials;

• celebrating a wide range of festivals;

• creating an environment of mutual respect and tolerance;

• helping children to understand that discriminatory behaviour and remarks are unacceptable;

• ensuring that the activities offered are inclusive of children with special educational needs and children with disabilities.

Teaching and learning style

We aim to provide all our pupils with the opportunity to succeed, and to reach the highest level of personal achievement. To do this, teaching and learning will:

• ensure equality of access for all pupils and prepare them for life in a diverse society;

• use materials that reflect a range of cultural backgrounds, without stereotyping;

• promote attitudes and values that will challenge discriminatory and racist behaviour;

• provide opportunities for pupils to appreciate their own culture and celebrate the diversity of other cultures;

• seek to involve all parents in supporting their child’s education;

• provide educational visits and extra-curricular activities that reflect all pupil groupings and that disabled pupils can participate in;

• take account of the performance of all pupils when planning for future learning and setting challenging targets;

• make best use of all available resources to support the learning of all groups of pupils.

Valuing Diversity in Families

• We welcome the diversity of family life and work with all families.

• We encourage children to contribute stories of their everyday life into school.

• We encourage parents/carers to take part in the life of school and to contribute fully.

• For parents who have a first language other than English, we value the contribution their culture and language offer.

• We offer a flexible payment system for families of different means i.e. bursaries and school residential trips.

Racial Equality

Tackling racial harassment

Any incident of racial harassment is unacceptable in our college. Incidents could take the form of physical assault, verbal abuse, damage to a pupil’s property or refusal to co-operate in a lesson, due to the ethnicity of a pupil. Any adult witnessing an incident or being informed about an incident must follow these agreed procedures:

• stop the incident and comfort the pupil who is the victim;

• reprimand the aggressor and inform the victim what action has been taken;

• if the incident is witnessed by other pupils, tell them why it is wrong;

• report the incident to the Principal and inform him of the action taken;

• inform the class teacher(s) of both the victim and the aggressor, then record what happened in a Behaviour Book (kept in the college office);

• inform both sets of parents, if appropriate.

The college has implemented the recommendations of The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: MacPherson Report (1999). The diversity of our society is addressed through our schemes of work that reflect the programmes of study of the National Curriculum. Teachers are flexible in their planning and offer appropriate challenges to all pupils, regardless of ethnicity. All racist incidents are now recorded and reported to the governing body by the Principal.

Gender Equality

What we have already achieved:

• Equality and gender issues are part of the PSHCE programme of study.

• All subject areas are promoted inclusively and at the time of option choices pupils are spoken to about their potential for subjects. Pupils’ likes and aptitudes are considered with them irrespective of gender.

We want to do more by:

• continuing to review attainment data by gender.

We will also continue to encourage staff to use a range of teaching approaches and to adapt these according to a variety of circumstances, including gender, where appropriate.

• All college documentation makes it clear that any kind of discrimination is unacceptable. We have also:

• • implemented government sex and relationship guidance to support teachers to deal honestly and sensitively with sexual orientation issues and questions;

  • made explicit within our anti-bullying policy that homophobic or faith bullying and harassment will not be tolerated.

We want to do more by:

• providing specific training to support staff to implement this policy.

Disability Equality

Tackling Disability Harassment

Any incident of disability harassment is unacceptable in our college. Any adult witnessing an incident or being informed about an incident must follow these agreed procedures:

• stop the incident and comfort the pupil who is the victim;

• reprimand the aggressor and inform the victim what action has been taken;

• if the incident is witnessed by other pupils, tell them why it is wrong;

• report the incident to the Principal and inform him of the action taken;

• inform the class teacher(s) of both the victim and the aggressor, then record what happened in a Behaviour Book (kept in the school office);

• inform both sets of parents, if appropriate.

Accessibility for Disabled People

• At Albion College we have taken every step to ensure that staff, parents/guardians, pupils and visitors with a disability have the same access to our environment, education and other associated services as non-disabled people.

• As far as resources allow, we ensure Disabled children have the same opportunities as non-disabled children in their access to education.

• We do not treat Disabled children less favourably for a reason related to their impairment.

• We make reasonable adjustments for Disabled pupils, so that they are not at a substantial disadvantage.

• We do not discriminate against a Disabled pupil in relation to admissions to our college.

Applications are considered in line with the admission arrangements for all children. An applicant’s disability does not prevent him/her from being offered a place and integrated into the college unless:

• • the content, structure and delivery of the curriculum are such that the child would be prevented from fulfilling a major part of it;

  • the college would be unable to provide suitably trained staff, facilities or resources to allow the requirements of our Curriculum are met;

  • the applicant’s primary need is not a learning delay in line with the criteria of all applications.

• We have an ongoing commitment to disability equality within our school and through a positive approach, actively work alongside The Proprietors, parents, staff and pupils of the college and engage with the local Disabled community to monitor and review our existing resources and continue to revise, enhance and improve accessibility for Disabled people. We will work towards:

• • increasing the extent to which Disabled pupils can participate in the college curriculum and associated services;

  • improving the physical environment of the college in order to increase the extent to which disabled pupils are able to take advantage of education and the associated services offered by our college.

  • improving the delivery to disabled pupils of information that is provided in writing to non-Disabled pupils by ensuring that a range of different formats and communication

  • aids are used where necessary ensuring all information is accessible to everyone within our college.

Responsibilities

• All Albion College staff have a duty to work to this policy to ensure inclusion of pupils with disabilities.

• Wherever practicable, the college will:

• • consider and seek to employ disabled people in jobs suited to their aptitudes, abilities and qualifications in line with the Disability Discrimination Act (2005).

  • ensure that employees with disabilities are considered for promotion according to their aptitudes, abilities and qualifications.

  • ensure that disabled employees are not disadvantage when renewal of fixed-term contracts is being considered.

 Members of staff, who become disabled, so far as is practicable, should continue to remain employed by the college at the discretion of the Principal and the Board of Proprietors, dependent on their ability to carry out the duties of their post. Help from related professional organisations should be sought when considering not only the possible effects of the disability but also other consequential disadvantages, such as loss of status or financial loss.

 The college endeavours to make any reasonable adjustments to enable the employee to continue in post. However, options might include:

• • continuing in the same post;

  • a gradual return to work;

  • a reduction in hours;

  • redeployment;

  • premature retirement on grounds of incapacity;

  • termination of employment.

• In cases where a disability is a degenerative, progressive condition that develops over time, careful consideration should be given to the selection of the most appropriate option(s).

• The college makes reasonable changes to work practices and, where possible, the workplace to enable disabled people to work successfully, including those members of staff who become disabled whilst employed.

• The school ensures that a programme of training is offered to staff to increase their awareness of children with disabilities and inform them of appropriate action to be taken when delivering the curriculum.

Impact Assessment

All school policies are impact assessed with regard to disability, gender, and race at the time of review and any issues arising form part of our relevant Equality Action Plans.

We have a rolling programme for reviewing our college policies. We regularly review the impact of our policies on the needs, entitlements and outcomes for pupils, staff and parents with differing protected characteristics. We pay specific reference to the impact that our policies have on the attainment of pupils with differing protected characteristics.

We make regular assessments of pupils’ learning and use this information to track pupils’ progress, as they move through the college. As part of this process, we regularly monitor the performance of pupils from different groups within the college, to ensure that all groups of pupils are making the best possible progress. We use this information to adjust future teaching and learning plans, as necessary. Resources are available to support groups of pupils where the information suggests that progress is not as good as it should be.

As well as monitoring pupil performance information, we also regularly monitor a range of other information. This relates to:

• exclusions;

• incidents of racism, racial harassment and bullying;

• parental involvement;

• community involvement.

Our monitoring activities enable us to identify any differences in pupil performance. This allows us to take appropriate action to meet the needs of specific groups and to set targets in our strategic plan, in order to make the necessary improvements.

Working in Partnership

We recognise that achieving equality, inclusion and good community relations involves working effectively and in partnership with others.

Putting the Policy into practice and Raising Awareness

This policy is included in Induction Meetings for staff, parents/guardians and pupils and added to the agenda of class meetings.

We review our practices regularly to ensure that we are fully implementing our policy for equality and diversity.

We recognise that our Policy is a public document that should be available to any interested stakeholder. We promote and publish our Policy by:

• informing parents and other stakeholders about the scheme on our website and making it available on request

• providing relevant training for staff

• providing a summary in our prospectus, including our vision and key priorities

• discussing with pupils via School Councils

• ensuring that all new staff have working knowledge of all policies and procedures

Food

• We work in partnership with parents to ensure that the medical, cultural and dietary needs of children are met.

• We help children to learn about a range of food, cultural approaches to mealtimes and eating and to respect the differences among them.

Meetings

• Meetings are arranged to ensure that all pupils and families can contribute their views and talents to the life of the college.

• Information about meetings is communicated in both written and verbal forms to ensure that all parents/guardians have information about access to the meetings.

Roles and responsibilities

Proprietors, staff and stakeholders should recognise that they have a specific role and responsibility in their day-to-day work to:

• promote equality, inclusion and good community relations;

• challenge inappropriate language and behaviour;

• tackle bias and stereotyping;

• respond appropriately to incidents of discrimination and harassment and report these;

• highlight to the senior leadership team any staff training or development that they require to carry out the above role and responsibilities.

Proprietors, staff and stakeholders also ensure that pupils are encouraged to recognise that they have a role and responsibility to themselves and others so that they understand and are able to:

• promote equality, inclusion and good community relations;

• challenge inappropriate language and behaviour;

• tackle bias and stereotyping;

• work to promote anti-bullying strategies;

• respond appropriately to incidents of discrimination and harassment and understand the action needed to report these.

The Role of the Principal

• It is the Principal’s role to implement the school’s Equality Policy.

• It is the Principal’s role to ensure that all staff are aware of the college policy on equality, and that teachers apply these guidelines fairly in all situations.

• The Principal ensures that all recruitment and selection processes give due regard to this policy, so that no-one is discriminated against when it comes to employment or training opportunities.

• The Principal promotes the principle of equal opportunity when developing the curriculum, and promotes respect for other people in all aspects of college life, for example, in the assembly, where respect for other people is a regular theme, and in displays shown around the college.

• The Principal treats all incidents of unfair treatment and any racist incidents with due seriousness.

The Role of the Class Teacher

• The class teacher ensures that all pupils are treated fairly, equally and with respect. We do not discriminate against any child.

• When selecting classroom material, teachers’ pay due regard to the sensitivities of all members of the class and do not provide material that is discriminatory in nature. Teachers strive to provide material that gives positive images of ethnic minorities, people with disabilities etc. and that challenges stereotypical images of minority groups.

• When designing schemes of work, we use this policy to guide us, both in our choice of topics to study, and in how to approach sensitive issues. So, for example, history topics in our school include examples of the significant contributions women have made to developments in this country’s history. All our teachers challenge any incidents of prejudice or racism. We record any serious incidents in the College Behaviour Books, and draw them to the attention of the Principal.

Monitoring and review

• It is the responsibility of the Principal to monitor the effectiveness of this Equality and Diversity policy. The Principal does this by:

• • monitoring the progress of pupils of minority groups and comparing it to the progress made by other pupils in the college;

  • monitoring the staff appointment process, so that no-one applying for a post at this college is discriminated against;

  • taking into serious consideration any complaints regarding equal opportunity issues from parents/guardians, staff or pupils.

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