St Elphin's CE Primary School

St Elphin's CE VA Primary School will promote equal opportunity and will eliminate inequality in any area of the school's life or work. All will be treated equally and given equal access to the curriculum and life of the school. All will have equal opportunity to benefit from all that the school offers. Our school is proud of its ethos in which we foster excellent relationships between all, so that all can thrive. Diversity and difference are valued and respected and provide opportunities to enrich our school life and learning.

Under the Equality Act 2010, we welcome our general duty to

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by The Equality Act 2010
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic (Sex (gender), race, disability, religion or belief, gender reassignment, sexual orientation or pregnancy or maternity. Age and marriage and civil partnership are also protected characteristics) and people who do not share it.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

We recognise our specific duties which aims to assist us to meet our general duty -

• To annually publish information on how we are complying with the PSED (Public Sector Equality Duty)
• To publish equality objectives every four years, which show how we plan to tackle particular inequalities and reduce or remove them.

In fulfilling the legal obligations above, we are guided by the following principles:

Principle 1: All learners are of equal value.  We see all learners and potential learners, and their parents and carers, as of equal value:

• whether or not they are disabled
• whatever their ethnicity, culture, national origin or national status
• whatever their gender and gender identity
•  whatever their religious or non-religious affiliation or faith background
• whatever their sexual identity.

Principle 2: We recognise and respect difference. Treating people equally (Principle 1 above) does not necessarily involve treating them all the same. Our policies, procedures and activities must not discriminate but must nevertheless take account of differences of life-experience, outlook and background, and in the kinds of barrier and disadvantage which people may face, in relation to:

•  disability, so that reasonable adjustments are made
• ethnicity, so that different cultural backgrounds and experiences of prejudice are recognised
•  gender, so that the different needs and experiences of girls and boys, and women and men, are recognised
•  religion, belief or faith background
•  sexual identity.

Principle 3: We foster positive attitudes and relationships, and a shared sense of cohesion and belonging. We intend that our policies, procedures and activities should promote:

• positive attitudes towards disabled people, good relations between
•  disabled and non-disabled people, and an absence of harassment of disabled people
•  positive interaction, good relations and dialogue between groups and communities different from each other in terms of ethnicity, culture,  religious affiliation, national origin or national status, and an absence of prejudice-related bullying and incidents 
• mutual respect and good relations between boys and girls, and women and men, and an absence of sexual and homophobic harassment.

Principle 4: We observe good equalities practice in staff recruitment, retention and development. We ensure that policies and procedures should benefit all employees and potential employees, for example in recruitment and promotion, and in continuing professional development:

•  whatever their age
• whether or not they are disabled
•  whatever their ethnicity, culture, religious affiliation, national origin or national status
•  whatever their gender and sexual identity, and with full respect for legal rights relating to pregnancy and maternity leave.

​Principle 5: We aim to reduce and remove inequalities and barriers that already exist. In addition to avoiding or minimising possible negative impacts of our policies, we take opportunities to maximise positive impacts by reducing and removing inequalities and barriers that may already exist between:

• disabled and non-disabled people
•  people of different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds
•  girls and boys, women and men

Principle 6: We create measurable objectives We gather a range of information which shows our compliance with the public sector equality duty (PSED) set out in clause 149 of the Equality Act 2010, and from this we decide on specific and measurable objectives which forms part of our school self-evaluation documentation. The objectives which we identify, take into account national and local priorities and issues, as appropriate. Our equality objectives are integrated into the school improvement plan. We keep our equality objectives under review and report annually on progress towards achieving them.