Equalities Statement and Objectives
At St Anne’s Catholic Primary School, we are committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for all pupils, staff, parents and carers irrespective of race, gender, disability, belief, sexual orientation, age or socio-economic background. Through our mission statement and Catholic beliefs we aim to develop a culture of inclusion and diversity in which all members of our school and parish family feel proud of their identity and ability to participate fully in school life.
We tackle discrimination through the positive promotion of equality, by challenging bullying and stereotypes and by creating an inclusive environment which has ‘no outsiders in our school’.
Our school mission statement "Christ at the Heart of all we Do", talks of valuing the individuality of all of our children. We are committed to giving all our children every opportunity to achieve the highest of standards. We do this by taking account of pupils’ varied experiences and needs. We offer a broad and balanced curriculum, and have high expectations of all children. The achievements, attitudes and well-being of every child matter.
We will have due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct rohibited by the Equality Act;
- Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and
- Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it.
We will collect and use equality information to help us to:
- Identify key issues;
- Understand the impact of our policies, practices and decisions on people with different protected characteristics, and thereby plan them more effectively;
- Assess whether we are discriminating unlawfully when carrying out any of our functions;
- Identify what the key equality issues are for our organisation.
- Assess performance
- Benchmark our performance and processes against those of similar organisations nationally or locally.
- Take action
- Consider taking steps to meet the needs of staff who share relevant protected characteristics;
- Identify if there are any actions we can take to avoid discrimination and harassment, advance equality of opportunity or foster good relations;
- Make informed decisions about policies and practices which are based on evidence about the impact of our activities on equality;
- Develop equality objectives to meet the specific duties;
- Have due regard to the aims of the general equality duty by ensuring that staff have appropriate information for decision-making.
We will work towards developing an equality profile of staff to help us to understand key equality issues in our workforce, including any evidence of pay gaps or ‘occupational segregation’ i.e. staff with certain protected characteristics being over-represented in particular roles, for example, women as cleaners, or at certain grades. In addition, we note that it is likely to be useful to collect and consider information, appropriately disaggregated, about:- Recruitment and promotion
- Numbers of part-time and full-time staff
- Pay and remuneration
- Training
- Return to work of women on maternity leave
- Return to work of disabled employees following sick leave relating to their disability
- Appraisals
- Grievances (including about harassment)
- Disciplinary action (including for harassment)
- Dismissals and other reasons for leaving.
Publication of Equality Information
We will collect and use enough workforce information to effectively meet the general equality duty. Where relevant and proportionate we will publish on our website some information about the impact of our employment functions on people with the different protected characteristics in order to demonstrate compliance with the general equality duty.
Equality Objectives
There are a number of statutory duties that must be met by every school in line with legislation from the Race Relations (Amendment) Act (2000), Disability Equality Duty (2005) and Equality Act (2010). St. Anne's Catholic Primary School is committed to meeting its public sector duties and acknowledges that we have a statutory duty to:
- Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
- Promote equality of access and opportunity within our school and within our wider community;
- Promote positive attitudes to difference and good relationships between people with different backgrounds, genders, cultures, faiths, abilities and ethnic origins.
The Leadership Team and Governors will review the progress we are making to meet our equality objectives with regard to the protected groups (age, sex, sexual orientation, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation or marital/civil partnership status, gender reassignment, pregnancy or maternity), under the Equality Act (2010).
At St. Anne's Catholic Primary School we are committed to ensuring equality of education and opportunity for all pupils, staff, parents and carers, irrespective of race, gender, disability, belief, religion or socio-economic background.
In order to further support pupils, raise standards and ensure inclusive teaching, we have set ourselves the following objectives:
Objective 1:
To monitor and analyse pupil achievement by race, gender and special educational need or disability and act on any trends or patterns in the data that require additional support for pupils.
Objective 2:
To promote cultural development and understanding through a rich range of experiences through both in and beyond school.
Objective 3:
To raise levels of parental and pupil engagement (particularly for vulnerable pupils identified in Objective 1 and 2) in learning and school life, across all activities including regular attendance to ensure equity and fairness in access and engagement.
Objective 4:
To develop pupil knowledge of equalityand diversity (colour, race, ethnicity) by weaving it through our school ethos and practices.
The school has a separate Equal Opportunities Policy. Please CLICK HERE to read our Equal Opportunities policy.
