Promoting Equality and Diversity

As a school we welcome our duties under the Equality Act 2010. The general duties are to:

• eliminate discrimination,

• advance equality of opportunity

• foster good relations

We understand the principal of the act and the work needed to ensure that those with protected characteristics are not discriminated against and are given equality of opportunity.

There are 9 protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and all schools should be able to demonstrate that no form of discrimination is tolerated and that everyone within our school community shows respect for those who share the protected characteristics.

The 9 Protected Characteristics are:

• age

• disability

• gender reassignment

• marriage and civil partnership

• pregnancy and maternity

• race

• religion or belief

• sex

• sexual orientation

At Beechwood, rather than teaching all the protected characteristics in every year group, we ensure that our children are given opportunities to develop age-appropriate knowledge and understanding through our well-planned and delivered PSHE, Philosophy for Children (P4C) and Collective Worship curriculum.  They also form part of the cross curricular links across subjects such as RE, English and history.

The nine protected characteristics are actively promoted in school through:

• Our school HEART 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 and assemblies

• Discussion within curriculum subjects, taking a cross-curricular approach

• Promoting articulation by building appropriate language and a coherent vocabulary

• PSHE lessons (we use the PSHE Association to help us develop our curriculum)

• Religious Education (RE) lessons

• Sporting, Art and Cultural Events

• Pupil Voice

• Educational visits

• Real-life learning outside the classroom

• Guest speakers

• Developing links with our local community

• Extra-curricular activities, after-school clubs, charity work and work within the local community