Equality Statement

Legal Duties

The Equality Act 2010 provides a single, consolidated source of discrimination law.  This act replaces all other existing equality legislation such as the Race Relations Act and the Disability Act.  As a school, we welcome our duties under the Equality Act 2010 and we are proud of our diversity, plus inclusive environment.  Fleetdown Primary Academy strongly opposes all forms of prejudice that could act as a barrier to achieving our legal duties and to being a cohesive, plus inclusive community.   The general duties are to:

· Eliminate discrimination

· Advance equality of opportunity

· Foster good relations.

All staff and governors at Fleetdown Primary Academy are expected to:

1. Follow and uphold our Core Values and Community Code.
2. Treat all learners and staff with equal value.
3. Promote equality and inclusion in their classrooms, amongst colleagues and with visitors to Fleetdown Primary Academy.
4. Deal with any prejudice related incidents that may occur.
5. Plan and deliver a full inclusive curriculum that enables everyone to achieve their full potential.
6. Recognise, respect and celebrate differences.
7. Foster positive attitudes and relationships.

We understand the principle of the Act, plus the work needed to ensure that those with protected characteristics are not discriminated against and are given equality of opportunity. A protected characteristic under the act covers the groups listed below:

• Age (for employees not for service provision)
• Disability
• Special Educational Needs
• Race & xenophobia (dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries)
• Sexism and homophobia
• Gender reassignment
• Maternity and pregnancy
• Religion and belief
• Travellers, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
• Sexual orientation
• Marriage and civil partnership (for employees)

In order to meet our general duties, listed above, the law requires us to carry out some specific duties to demonstrate how we meet the general duties. These are to:

1. Publish equality information – to demonstrate compliance with the general duty across its functions (we will not publish any information that can specifically identify any child/staff member)
2. Prepare and publish equality objectives

To do this we will collect data related to the protected characteristics above and analyse this data to determine how well we are doing to meet our equality objectives. The data will be assessed across our core provisions as a school. This will include the following functions:

• Admissions
• Attendance
• Attainment
• Exclusions

• Prejudice related incidents.

• Recruitment

Our objectives will detail how we will ensure equality is applied to the services listed above; however where we find evidence that other functions have a significant impact on any particular group, we will include work in this area.

Addressing Prejudice Related Incidents

This Academy is opposed to all forms of prejudice and we recognise that children and young people who experience any form of prejudice related discrimination may fair less well in the education system. We provide both our pupils and staff with an awareness of the impact of prejudice in order to prevent any incidents. If incidents still occur we address them immediately and report them to the Local Authority using their guidance material. The Local Authority may provide some support.

Responsibility

We believe that promoting Equality is the whole school’s responsibility.

We will ensure that the whole school community is aware of the Single Equality Scheme. Equality information and equality objectives will be published on school’s website.

Breaches

Breaches to this statement will be dealt with in the same ways that breaches of other school policies are dealt with, as determined by the Head of School and the Governing Body.

Monitor and Review

We will formally review our Single Equality Scheme every three years. We will also review our progress and performance in achieving our priorities on an annual basis. We will update our equality data annually in the light of our review of activities and information gathered throughout the year.