Southborough Church of England Primary School
Southborough Church of England Primary School
Equality & Protected Characteristics
Protected Characteristics and Equality
At Southborough C of E Primary School, we promote an inclusive environment where we ensure all children gain an understanding of the world they are growing up in, and learn how to live alongside, and show respect for, a diverse range of people. We pride ourselves on a curriculum that teaches the importance of personal development, uniqueness and celebrating differences which can often be found in the protected characteristics.
The nine protected characteristics are:
age
disability
gender reassignment
marriage and civil partnership
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief
sex
sexual orientation
Our approach to teaching of the protected characteristics, allows us as a school to:
eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation.
advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
All staff teach and actively promote ‘The 9 Protected Characteristics’ at Southborough through:
- Our school vision and ethos statements, our SDP and our SEF
- Our core school values
- Our school behaviour policy
- Conscious role modelling by all adults in the school community
- Active engagement and communication with parents and carers
- Collective Worship & Assemblies
- The promotion of British values in school life
- Developing a love of reading through a range of authors and genres
- Discussion within the wider curriculum, taking a cross-curricular approach
- Learning for life, PSHE/RHSE lessons, and modelling respect and positivity in all aspects of school life. Specifically, Coram SCARF planning (EYFS to Year 6), scaffolds and underpins our curriculum and ensures that we teach protected characteristics at the appropriate age and stage.
We have a term’s unit specifically on ‘valuing differences’ for each year group, but our teaching and learning of protected characteristics is interwoven for age-related appropriateness across the whole academic year through the 6 units of SCARF planning - Me and my Relationships - Valuing Difference - Keeping Safe - Rights & Respect - Being my Best - Growing & Changing.
- Promoting articulation by building appropriate language and a coherent vocabulary
- RE lessons to learn about our faiths and cultures
- Sporting competitions, within and outside of school, varied competitions are organised by our PE and Healthy Lifestyles Lead
- Art projects and visits
- Pupil leadership Teams, Global Citizen Team and our school ambassador groups
- Pupil voice
- Educational experiences, residentials (incl. abroad) and visits
- Real-life learning outside the classroom
- Guest speakers
- Developing links with the local community
- Extra-curricular activities, after-school clubs, charity work and work within the local community
- Safer recruitment, retention and staff development
We collect and analyse the following data to assess the impact of our Equality Policy. The data is recorded on our CPOMs/Arbor system and the main areas we assess include: Admissions, attendance, exclusions, outcomes, racial incidents, bullying incidents, homophobic incidents and any other prejudice related incidents.
Protected Characteristic | Core Learning |
Age | Where this is referred to, it refers to a person belonging to a particular age (for example, 32-year-olds) or range of ages (for example, 18- to 30-yearolds). |
Pregnancy and Maternity | Pregnancy is the condition of being pregnant or expecting a baby. Maternity refers to the period after the birth, and is linked to maternity leave in the employment context. In the nonwork context, protection against maternity discrimination is for 26 weeks after giving birth, and this includes treating a woman unfavourably because she is breastfeeding. |
Marriage and Civil Partnership | Marriage is no longer restricted to a union between a man and a woman but now includes a marriage between a same-sex couple. Same-sex couples can also have their relationships legally recognised as ‘civil partnerships’. Civil partners must not be treated less favourably than married couples (except where permitted by the Equality Act). |
Race | Refers to the protected characteristic of Race. It refers to a group of people defined by their race, colour, and nationality (including citizenship) ethnic or national origins. |
Disability | A person has a disability if she or he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on that person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. |
Religion or Belief | Religion has the meaning usually given to it but belief includes religious and philosophical beliefs including lack of belief (such as Atheism). Generally, a belief should affect your life choices or the way you live for it to be included in the definition. |
Sexual Orientation | Whether a person’s sexual attraction is towards their own sex, the opposite sex or to both sexes. |
Gender Reassignment | The process of transitioning from one gender to another. |
Sex | A man or a woman. |
Equality Policy & Accessibility Plan
What is discrimination?
Discrimination is the unfair or prejudicial treatment of people and groups based on protected characteristics. It often stems from negative stereotypes. e.g., stereotypes about sex and gender can lead to sexism, and stereotypes about race can lead to racism. Acts of discrimination may include persecution, harassment or bullying.
Prejudice is the judgement of someone or something without knowing enough information about that person or thing. This might include dislike or hostility based on preconceived and unfounded opinions. For example, stereotypes about sexual orientation can lead to homophobia. Prejudice may also lead to discrimination.
A hate crime is any criminal offence that is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity.
Types of disability:
Invisible disabilities (or hidden disabilities not visible from the outside). ‘Invisible disability’ exists as an umbrella term that captures a whole spectrum of hidden disabilities, chronic medical conditions and other challenges (also includes auditory or visual impairment).
Other types of discrimination include but are not limited to:
Racism; xenophobia; discrimination based on religion or beliefs; sexism; gender pay gap; gender discrimination based on biological sex, gender/identified gender; homophobia; transphobia; biphobia; and members of marginalised groups etc.