Inclusion and Equality

This statement sets out our commitment to promoting equality and community cohesion and eliminating discrimination and harassment.

At Shaftesbury Park Primary School, we embrace diversity and continuously strive to ensure everyone is treated with respect and dignity. Each person in our school will be given fair and equal opportunities to develop their full potential regardless of their sex, gender identity, ethnicity, race, cultural and religious background, sexual orientation, disability or special educational needs, ability, socio-economic status, or any of these in relation to their family. Because this statement supports staff and families, we are also committed to avoiding discrimination regarding pregnancy, marriage or civil partnership. Further, we acknowledge that individuals can suffer discrimination because of their perceived membership or connection to a group, which may not reflect their self-identity.

We will work actively to promote equality and foster positive attitudes and commitment to an education for equality. We will do this by:

Treating all those within the school community (i.e. pupils, staff, governors, parents and the local community) as individuals with their own particular abilities, beliefs, challenges, attitudes, backgrounds and experiences.
Creating and maintaining a school ethos which promotes equality, develops understanding and challenges myths, stereotypes, misconceptions and prejudices.
Encouraging everyone in our school community to develop and maintain a positive self-image and high self-esteem.
Having high expectations of everyone involved with the whole school community.
Promoting mutual respect, valuing each other’s similarities and differences, and facing equality issues openly and honestly.
Identifying, challenging and removing discriminatory practices, procedures and customs and replacing them with practices that are fair to all.
Monitoring, evaluating and reviewing all the above to secure continuous improvement in all that we do.

In order to make our equality aims and values a reality, we aspire to embed a positive approach to diversity in all of our policies and practice.

Equality Objectives 2022-24

We are aware that opportunities and outcomes for protected groups, as defined by the Equalities Act 2010, can vary substantially. We are working hard in order to reduce gaps between different groups and support all children to achieve their potential. Therefore, our objectives for the year are to:

Reduce the imbalance between the intake of children into the two streams

Rationale: One of the school’s priorities is to widen the accessibility of the bilingual curriculum to all groups and provide equal opportunity to all potential pupils. This will involve ensuring that we provide clear information on the benefits of both streams to reduce any perceived barriers for different sections of the community. This will require attention to our marketing strategy and the use of evidence from the existing body of students and families to challenge preconceptions.

Support pupils with SEND to improve their attainment and progress in reading, writing and maths combined.

Rationale: Internal data shows that children with SEND have been the most impacted by COVID-19 and continue to require intervention to close gaps in their learning. This involves carefully scaffolded tasks and adapted resources to improve independence and overall attainment. Our internal data also shows that able learners need to be consistently challenged within lessons. For example, this may involve adapting planning to allow children to explore concepts at greater depth at earlier points within lessons.

Ensure that children with SEND are supported to improve their attendance and punctuality

Rationale: We know that higher attendance is linked to higher levels of achievement and progress and that children with SEND are consistently over-represented when we review attendance and punctuality. We will continue working with the Education Welfare Officer and other professionals to support children and families to improve attendance and punctuality.

Monitoring

To help monitor these areas, we use a range of systems to measure progress, including Target Tracker and assessment results at KS1 and KS2 and Attendance reports using data from REU. Reports are presented to governors termly. The government publishes our KS2 attainment results on the school’s comparison website: www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/101020.