Statement of intent

The Equality Act 2010 was introduced to ensure protection from discrimination, harassment, and victimisation on the grounds of specific characteristics (referred to as protected characteristics). For schools, this means that it is unlawful to discriminate against students or treat them less favourably because of their gender; race; disability; religion or belief; gender reassignment; sexual orientation; pregnancy or maternity.

Under the act, the school is expected to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).

This requires us to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation
• Advance equality of opportunity between different groups
• Foster good relations between different groups

As a public organisation, we are required to:

• Have due regard to the PSED when making decisions, taking action or developing policy and practice.
• Publish information to show compliance with the Equality Duty.
• Publish Equality Objectives which are specific and measurable.

Our Equalities Statement is in line with national guidance and contains information about how the school complies with the Public Sector Equality Duty. We also give guidance to staff and the wider school community on our approach to promoting equality.

Our Equality Objectives reflect the school’s priorities, our values and draw upon available data and other evidence. Careful scrutiny of this is undertaken in order to ensure that we are working to achieve improved outcomes for different groups.

Our equality objectives are:

• To provide an environment that welcomes, protects, and respects diverse people.
• To use performance data to monitor student achievement and respond to variations between groups of learners, subjects, courses and key stages, trends over time and comparisons with other schools. Specifically, to close the gaps in attainment and achievement between students and all groups of students; especially boys and girls, disadvantaged students, students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, Looked After Children, and students from different heritage groups.
• To raise the awareness and skills of staff to promote fairness, equality, and good relations in the context of their role.
• To ensure that all students are given the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the life of the school, particularly focusing on developing leadership opportunities for all students.
• To address cultural events through assemblies to increase student awareness and understanding of issues in different communities.
• To eradicate the use of homophobic, sexist, racist and other discriminative language by students in the school.
• To review the accessibility across the school for students, staff, and visitors with disabilities, including access to specialist teaching areas.

Specific tasks relating to these objectives are covered within the school improvement plan.

These are scrutinised by Governors. Specific tasks relating to these objectives can be found within the School Improvement Plan and are celebrated via the school newsletter (The Ammonite) and the school’s social media feeds (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram)

We recognise the importance of consulting with those affected by inequality in taking steps to promote equality and eliminate discrimination.

• Student council and community action are two examples of opportunities at Wellsway for students to take a lead in promoting equality and eliminating discrimination. An example of a student-led outcome is the re-launch of the Equalities Group in term 5, 2021.
• Consultation with parents continues to be an important part of the planning and implantation of many whole-school policies and practices.
• Wellsway continues to work closely with outside groups and agencies, including SARI to develop student understanding and to promote equality and eliminate discrimination particularly through our PSHE and tutorial programme.