The Equality Act 2010 requires schools to publish specific and measurable equality objectives.

We believe that children need to be supported to develop a deep and meaningful understanding of ‘real equality’ and to do this there needs to be a whole school focus on developing awareness and empathy of the lives and experiences of others. Each year we choose an objective to work on which will move the whole school consciousness forward.

In making our selection each year we look at trends and patterns in behaviour, opportunities open to children in their normal day to day life and things that have arisen through the changing face of the world year on year.

Equality Objective 2019-20:

Identify opportunities in the Assembly and the wider curriculum to look at other cultures/countries, study famous people from ethnic minorities to begin a wider discussion about the values of individuals.

Impact:

• Variety of perspectives in Assemblies have been widened to give children a better experience of life other than their own
• Quality of social engagement through assembly driven whole school initiatives has deepened children’s connection to the wider world eg: support of PADFRAS as a focus for thankfulness and Harvest
• Range of visitors for children to experience has widened slightly
• Range of music from other cultures & communities as part of singing practice has developed significantly throughout the year and feedback from children has been very positive

• Introduction of new PSHE approach and CREW session throughout school to develop children’s understanding of themselves and others. (Please see PSHE page)
• Upper KS2 Life skills curriculum- passion projects and social action as a weekly part of their learning

Review the diversity or perspective in all elements of the new curriculum- Canon of Literature & Music Appreciation, PSHE

Access parent working parties to QA the provision we are delivering to see if it is fit for purpose for our developing school context.

• The Canon of Literature was reviewed by a working party of parents from a variety of ethnicities. Discussion was had about the volume and quality of some of the text choices and substitutions were made from suggestions that parents and families had used effectively in their own families. Additional texts were ordered and added to the cannon with immediate effect. A recent ‘Classroom Reading’ learning walk showed a good sample of these books in prominent position in class libraries and also a review of KS2 ‘silent Readers’ showed these books to be effective in circulation.
• Music Appreciation curriculum- Reviewed by working party of parents with music backgrounds. They surmised that the content was broadly representative but suggested the addition of black and Asian performers within the genres of music rather than the addition of new genres which could appear to be tokenistic in their inclusion. The working party is working on the document to make suggestions for artists to include in the document- this will continue into 21-22
• Crew drop in’s and review of Crew books have highlighted consistent good practice regarding learning for life. Parent drop in for Crew has been suggested for 21-22 to support parents in understanding the new approach to dialogue about self, place in the world and sense of self

• with a growing number of families of middle Eastern decent, we will run the working group again to allow for review of texts to reflect strong stories and role models from these communities. Working party group has already been constituted
• addition of new artists into the genres as per working party suggestions
• plan for parent access to CREW – parent learning sessions