Public Sector Equality Duty Statement

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The Academy at St James Equality Statement

This statement describes how the Governing Body of the Academy at St James intends to fulfil its responsibilities under the Public Sector Equality Duty with regard to its workforce and the wider community it serves.

We will have due regard to the need to:

· Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010;

· 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

The Academy at St James is an inclusive school where every child has equal value and we celebrate our diversity. All members of our school community, including staff, pupils and families are of equal worth.

We will collect, store and analyse equality information about our pupils and staff to help us to:

· Understand the effects of our policies, practices and decisions upon our staff, pupils and wider community, and any positive or negative effects they may have on groups with protected characteristics

· Proactively seek to broaden our understanding of different groups, needs, requirements and aspirations to develop policies and practices that reflect the community we serve

· Assess and understand areas where specific individuals and groups may be experiencing disadvantage and seek to improve outcomes through targeted support.

We will support the elimination of discrimination in our school by:

· Adopting an Equality Policy and objectives

· Deploying a robust behaviour policy to ensure that all children feel safe at school and address prejudicial bullying

· Report, respond to and monitor any racist incidents

· Develop and monitor a bespoke curriculum which meets the needs of our pupils and promotes respect for diversity and challenges negative stereotyping

· Track pupil progress to ensure that all children make rapid progress, and intervening when necessary

· Ensure that all pupils can access extra-curricular provision

· Making reasonable adjustments for pupils with disabilities/impairments

· Listen to and monitor views and experiences of pupils and adults to evaluate the effectiveness of our policies and procedures.

· We will work towards understanding our staffing profile by collecting data on a number of characteristics, including but not limited to roles and responsibilities, part time and full time staff, pay and remuneration, access to training and disciplinary and grievance incidents and procedures.

We will advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it by:

· Using the information we gather to identify underachieving groups or individuals and plan targeted interventions

· Ensure parents and carers participate in school development

· Listening to our pupils, families and staff, and encouraging all stakeholders to have a voice

· Promoting and encouraging positive relationships and mental health through targeted PHSCE lessons and a bespoke curriculum which reflects children’s interests and broader society.

We will foster good relations across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it by:

· Ensuring that the Academy at St James is welcoming, inclusive and seen as a community school within our local community

· Ensuring that equality, diversity inclusion and belonging are embedded in the curriculum and in all that we do (assemblies, events, sports etc).

· Ensure that our community events will be open to all and respect differences within our wider community

· Recognise that our goals, starting points and aspirations are as diverse as our school community, and ensure that we celebrate our successes together.