Equality Information and Objectives

Public Sector Equality Duty

The Equality Act 2010 requires schools to publish information that demonstrates that we have due regard for 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.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

St. Mark’s Catholic Primary School is an inclusive school committed to ensuring equality of provision throughout the school community. We focus on the well-being and progress of every child within an environment where all members of our community are of equal worth.

We believe that the Equality Act provides a framework to support our commitment to valuing diversity, tackling discrimination, promoting equality and fostering good relationships between people. It also ensures that we continue to tackle issues of disadvantage and underachievement of different groups.

Our approach to equality is based on the following key principles:

1. All learners are of equal value.
2. Differences are recognised and respected.
3. Positive attitudes and relationships are fostered to create a shared sense of cohesion and belonging.
4. Good equality practices are maintained in staff recruitment, retention and development.
5. Reduction and removal of inequalities and barriers that already exist are paramount.
6. High expectations of all children are maintained.

Our objectives detail how we ensure equality is applied to:

• Improving attainment and progress for all children.
• Improving attainment and progress for children who encounter disadvantage.
• Providing an environment where discrimination of any form is addressed and eliminated.
• Advancing equality of opportunity through role models, high quality curriculum, quality CPD for staff.
• Fostering good relations with parents and carers, children, governors and the community.
• Reducing behaviour that is discriminatory or oppressive in any way.

Through rigorous tracking and monitoring of individuals and of all the groups of children, including progress and attainment, and by providing equal opportunities to access the curriculum and activities, we aim to ensure that any gap in attainment for pupils within any of the above different groups is removed, or at least remains less than the gap nationally.

We eliminate discrimination by:

• Adhering to the Equality Act (2010).
• Adopting a School Behaviour and Anti-bullying policy which ensures that all children feel safe at school and that any prejudicial bullying is addressed.
• Reporting, responding to and monitoring all racist incidents thoroughly.
• Regularly monitoring the curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of all pupils and that it promotes respect for diversity and challenges negative stereotyping.
• Ensuring teaching is of the highest quality so that children reach their potential and all pupils are given equal entitlement to success.
• Tracking pupil progress to ensure all children make good progress, intervening when necessary.
• Ensuring all pupils have the opportunity to access extra-curricular provision.
• Listening to and monitoring views and experiences of pupils and adults to evaluate the effectiveness of our policies and procedures.
• Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

We advance equality of opportunity by:

• Using the information we gather to identify underachieving groups or individuals and plan targeted intervention.
• Ensuring participation of parents/carers and pupils in school development.
• Listening to parents/carers.
• Listening to pupils at all times.

We foster good relations by:

• Ensuring that St. Mark’s Catholic Primary School is seen as a faith community school within our local area by regularly inviting members of our community into school and taking children out into the community.
• Ensuring that equality and diversity are embedded in the curriculum and in collective worship.

Equality Objectives

In order to further support pupils, raise standards and ensure inclusive teaching, we have set  the following objectives:

1. To monitor and analyse pupil achievement by race, gender and disability and act on any trends or patterns in the data that require additional support for pupils.
2. To raise levels of attainment in core subjects for vulnerable learners.
3. To review levels of parental and pupil engagement in learning and school life, across all activities to ensure equity and fairness in access and engagement.
4. To promote understanding and respect for differences.
5. To create a thorough accessibility plan for pupils new to the school with a range of needs and disabilities (see our Accessibility Plan on our SEND Information page).

Policies

All relevant policies can be found on our Policies and Documents page.