Equality Duty

Our School Commitment

The Equality Act 2010 requires us to publish information that demonstrates that we have due regard for the need to:

• Eliminate Discrimination 
• Provide Equality of Opportunity 
• Foster Positive Relationships 

Our Aim 

At Cherry Tree Hill Primary School we aim to promote equality and develop positive relationships, by tackling any form of discrimination. We seek to remove any barriers that may prevent children from participating in all aspects of all life, making progress and achieving their full potential. We seek to remove barriers to access and participation that may prevent parents and carers being fully involved in the wider education of their child at school. 

Our aim is to:

• Ensure that everyone is treated fairly and respectfully.
• Make our school a safe and secure place for everyone.
• Recognise that people have different needs, and we understand that treating people equally does not always involve treating them the same.
• Ensure that no-one experiences less favourable treatment or discrimination because of:

• Age
• Disability
• Race
• Gender
• Gender identity 
• Religion or belief
• Sexual identity and orientation
• Marriage or civil partnership
• Pregnancy/maternity

We aim to: 

• Provide a safe environment where there is a strong focus on high expectations and challenge to improve outcomes for all our children.
• Provide a learning environment where all learners learn to be independent and resilient with the support of those around them. 
• Prepare children for life in a culturally diverse society where the children are able to be confident in understanding their place and responsibilities in their local, regional, national and international communities. 
• Include and value the contribution of all families to our understanding of equality and diversity with a clear focus on the participation of children and parents in decision-making.
• Provide positive non-stereotyping information about different groups of people regardless of protected characteristics under the law (age, disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnershipand pregnancy/maternity) 
• Plan systematically to improve our children’s understanding and promotion of diversity
• Actively challenge all types of discrimination.
• Ensure that positive messages and actions about inclusion, equality and diversity are part of our daily practice.

To achieve these aims we will: 

• Work closely with other agencies to actively promote inclusion, equality and diversity.
• Involve stakeholders in the development, review, evaluation, and impact assessment of relevant improvement plans, policies and procedures. 
• Publish and share our policies and impact assessments with the whole community.
• Collect and analyse data to ensure all groups are progressing well and no group is disadvantaged. 
• Use all available information to set suitable learning challenges, respond to children’s individual needs and support children in overcoming potential barriers to their success.
• Ensure that the broader school curriculum promotes and celebrates inclusion, equality and diversity. 
• Maintain high expectations of behaviour which demonstrate respect to others. 
• Ensure that all reasonable adjustments are made to ensure equality of opportunity with respect to disability or varying needs.
• Apply a graduated approach to identifying and supporting pupils and students with SEND. 
• Have a co-ordinated assessment process towards an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) for those children identified as having significant and complex needs, where families are fully involved in planning, commissioning and reviewing services.
• Actively promote parent/carer engagement to monitor that needs are met and provision is appropriate. 

Our School Population January 2023

• 619 children on roll from Nursery to Year 6
• 17.4% of our children are on the SEND register with a range of needs including Autism Spectrum Disorder, hearing impairment, cognition and learning needs, social and emotional needs, speech and language needs.
• 33.5% of our children are classified as disadvantaged.
• 88.1% of our children are White British. The remaining 11.9% of our children come from a range of different ethnic backgrounds.
• 94.3% of our children speak English at home as their first language

The Odyssey Collaborative Trust Equality and Diversity Policy can be downloaded below.

Our Equality Objectives 2021 -2025

Under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) the school is required to set Equality Objectives. Our published information must be updated annually and objectives published at least once every four years.

Objective 1: To narrow the gap between the progress made by ‘all’ children and that made by ‘groups’ of children such as those eligible for the Pupil Premium.

Objective 2: To ensure that future reviews of all school policies include information about, and links to, PSED. In order to eliminate discrimination all school policies will be reviewed and revised to ensure that where relevant the importance of avoiding discrimination, victimisation or harassment is expressly noted.

Objective 3: To ensure that staff induction includes raising awareness of, and staff understanding their responsibilities under, the Equality Act.

Objective 4: To eradicate the use of homophobic, biphobic, transphobic, sexist, racist and other discriminative language by pupils in the school.