Equality

PROMOTING THE NINE PROTECTED CHARACTERISTICS

The Equality Act became law in 2010. It covers everyone in Britain and protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Everyone in Britain is protected. This is because the Equality Act protects people against discrimination because of the protected characteristics that we all have. Under the Equality Act, there are nine Protected Characteristics:

Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Race
Religion or belief
Marriage or civil partnership
Sex
Sexual orientation
Pregnancy and maternity

Under the Equality Act you are protected from discrimination:

When you are in the workplace
When you use public services like healthcare (for example, visiting your doctor or local hospital) or education (for example, at your school or college)
When you use businesses and other organisations that provide services and goods (like shops, restaurants, and cinemas)
When you use transport
When you join a club or association (for example, your local rugby club)
When you have contact with public bodies like your local council or government departments

The 9 Protected Characteristics are actively promoted in school through:

Our school vision and ethos statements, SDP, and SEF
Our school core values
Our school positive behaviour policy
Conscious role modelling by all adults in the school community
Active engagement and communication with parents and carers
Whole school and year group assemblies
The promotion of British values in school life
Developing a love of reading through a range of authors and genres
Discussion within the Connected Curriculum, taking a cross-curricular approach, for example when we learn about Black History month and when we learn about relationships in RSHE
Promoting articulation by building appropriate language and a coherent vocabulary
PSHE and RSHE lessons
Religion and World Views (RaW) lessons
Sporting competitions –inter and intra competitions
Art projects and visits
The work of the School Council
Educational experiences and visits
Real-life learning outside the classroom
Guest speakers
Developing links within the local community
Extra-curricular activities, after-school clubs, charity work and work within the local community
Safer recruitment, retention and staff development

We collect and analyse the following data to assess the impact of our Single Equality Policy. The data is recorded on our CPOMs system and the main areas we assess are:

Admissions
Attendance
Exclusions
Outcomes
Racial incidents
Bullying incidents
Homophobic incidents
Any other prejudice related incidents

Embedding Protected Characteristics into the whole ethos of Ravenscote Junior School promotes:

Self-esteem, self-knowledge and self-confidence
Understanding that everyone is wonderful and everyone has wonderful talents and attributes
Respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic process
Acceptance of responsibility for their own behaviour and teaching children to make good choices
Respect for their own and other cultures
Every member of the community knowing that whatever they report it will be dealt with appropriately and followed up
Understanding of how they can contribute positively to school and home life and to the lives of those living and working in the locality and further afield
An understanding of Equality, Human Rights and Protected Characteristics
An appreciation that living under the rule of law protects individual citizens and is essential for their wellbeing and safety
An understanding that the freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law
An acceptance that other people having different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour
An understanding of the importance of identifying and combating discrimination
Parents taking an active part in identifying barriers and informing school leaders of actions that can be taken to eradicate these
The highest expectations for all our children and staff, and the wider community

Our Equality Objectives 2026-2030

Ravenscote Junior School aims to meet its obligations under the public sector equality duty by having due regard for the need to:

Eliminate discrimination and other conduct that is 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 across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

Our Equality Objectives are:

To reduce attainment gaps in reading, writing and mathematics between disadvantaged children (including those eligible for Pupil Premium), children with SEND and their peers.

To achieve this, we will:

Rigorous termly progress tracking and data analysis.
Targeted evidence-based interventions and adaptive teaching strategies.
Regular review of intervention impact by SLT and governors.
Regularly monitor attainment and progress data of specific groups to identify areas of focus
Assess the effectiveness of our current interventions on supporting the progress of children with SEND and make adjustments as necessary to develop the provision
Prioritise key groups of children for extra-curricular provision, for example children on the Inclusion Register prioritised for after-school clubs
Discuss every child’s progress in pupil progress meetings
Carry out SEND case studies to monitor the impact of our provision on individual children
Compose provision maps and inclusion targets for children on the Inclusion Register
Report to the governors and the Trust on the attainment and progress of all groups within in school

To ensure that our Connected Curriculum and wider school life reflect and celebrate diversity, including different cultures, faiths, backgrounds, family structures and positive role models.

To achieve this, we will:

Continue to implement Jigsaw as a significant component of our PSHE (with RSE embedded) curriculum
Continue to develop our RAW (Religion and Worldviews) curriculum and monitor the impact of the move to RAW from RE on the children’s understanding of the views of others
Ensure all subject leaders have reflected on opportunities to promote British values and protected characteristics in their subjects
Use a range of sensitive teaching strategies when teaching about different cultural and religious traditions
Develop children’s advocacy skills so that they can detect bias and challenge discrimination
Whole-school curriculum audit to identify and address representation gaps.
Hold themed events and enrichment opportunities.
Use inclusive assemblies to foster positive attitudes towards one another, and a sense of cohesion and belonging
Offer opportunities for competition and celebrations, for example in sporting competitions and art displays
Use Pupil Voice as a mechanism for exploring children’s understanding of diversity and equality and to monitor understanding and sense of belonging.
Promote engagement of visiting speakers to broaden children’s perceptions of equality and diversity
Ensure the school calendar and displays create opportunities to reflect and remember the importance of diversity, for example:
Little Big Hair Assembly
School Diversity Week
Anti-Bullying Week
Religious celebrations such as Diwali and Christmas
Review the books and texts used across the curriculum to ensure a diverse range of role models are explored
Ensure teachers of varied genders work with children in each year group
Uphold our safer recruitment procedures, which includes applicants completing equality monitoring forms

To reduce persistent absence for disadvantaged children, children with SEND and other identified vulnerable groups so that attendance remains above national average.

To achieve this, we will:

Robust attendance monitoring and early intervention.
Close partnership working with families and external agencies where appropriate.
Governor oversight of attendance data and trends.
Have staff regularly trained on EBSNA practice and share this practice with wider support staff and teaching staff.
Attendance team to meet weekly to discuss patterns, trends and support which can be put into place for any persistent absentees.
Implement a staged response to absence
Provide personalised attendance support plans for pupils at risk of persistent absence.
Build strong, supportive relationships with parents and carers.
Offer practical support where appropriate (e.g. referrals to external agencies, Early Help, or the Local Authority Attendance Team).
Provide pastoral and emotional support where anxiety or wellbeing impacts attendance.
Celebrate and recognise good and improved attendance.

To ensure all staff are confident and skilled in delivering inclusive teaching and promoting equality.

To achieve this, we will:

Deliver annual equality and inclusion training for all staff.
Provide ongoing professional development in adaptive teaching and unconscious bias awareness.
Complete a review of recruitment and employment practices to ensure fairness and transparency.
Deliver targeted CPD on adaptive teaching, SEND inclusion, trauma-informed practice, cultural competence, and unconscious bias.
Include equality and inclusive practice as a standing element of safeguarding and statutory training.
Monitor the use of adaptive teaching strategies to support disadvantaged children, children with SEND, and EAL learners.
Regularly review school policies to ensure they promote equality and eliminate discrimination.
Align appraisal objectives, where appropriate, with inclusive teaching standards.