Equality Objectives
The Equality Act 2010 was introduced to ensure protection from discrimination, harassment and victimisation on the grounds of specific characteristics (referred to as protected characteristics).
For schools, this means that it is unlawful to discriminate against students or treat them less favourably because of their gender, race, disability, religion or belief, gender re-assignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity. Marriage and civil partnerships and age are also protected characteristics.
Under the act the academy is expected to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty. This requires us to:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
- Advance equality of opportunity between different groups
- Foster good relations between different groups
As a public organisation we are required to:
- Publish information to show compliance with the Equality Duty. This is done via our Equalities Policy.
- Publish Equality Objectives which are specific and measurable.
Our Academy Equality Statement contains information about how our academy complies with the Equality Duty.
Our Equality Objectives reflect the academy priorities and draw upon available data and other evidence. Analysis of this is undertaken in order to ensure that we are working to achieve improved outcomes for different groups.
Our Equality Objectives are:
To ensure that all children gain the knowledge they need to prepare them for adult life.
We will be looking in particular for evidence of attainment of children and young people with special educational needs, and those from minority ethnic communities that are currently under achieving.
To narrow the achievement gap for children and young people, including children in care, by ensuring increased opportunities and improved outcomes for those disadvantaged children in particular white British students.
We will monitor the attainment of disadvantaged children.
We will help children to fulfil their potential by supporting families and focusing support on improving the lives of vulnerable children.
We will continue to reinforce the importance of equality within the exclusion process and encourage the use of early intervention to reduce the need for exclusion where possible. We will monitor exclusion data for different groups, including those groups with a high rate of exclusion.
Our Staff Equality and Diversity Objectives are linked to our Equality and Diversity Policy and are as follows:
- Ensure that all staff involved in recruitment have completed equality and diversity training.
- Ensure that all internal promotion opportunities are worded to be inclusive of part time staff to remove the perception that part-time staff are unable to progress to senior leadership/whole school roles.