Equality Information and Objectives

Public Sector Equality Duty

Riverside Primary School aims to meet its obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty by having due regard for the need to:

• Eliminate discrimination 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 across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it

Riverside Primary School is an inclusive school where we focus on the well-being and progress of every child and 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 of pupils

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

• All learners are of equal value
• We recognise and respect difference
• We foster positive attitudes and relationships and a shared sense of belonging.
• We observe good equalities practice in staff recruitment, retention and development.
• We aim to reduce and remove inequalities and barriers that already exist.
• We have the highest expectations of all our children.

Information on pupils by protected characteristics

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics. Every person has several of the protected characteristics, so the Act protects everyone against unfair treatment.

In order to ensure that all pupils are protected from discrimination, the school collects information on protected characteristics.

Information on other groups of pupils

In addition to pupils with protected characteristics, we gather further information on the following groups of pupils:

• Pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM)
• Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
• Disadvantaged Pupils
• Pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL)
• Children in Our Care (CIOC)
• Other vulnerable groups

Eliminating discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Act

The information provided here aims to demonstrate that we give careful consideration to equality issues in everything that we do at Riverside Primary School. ‘Due regard’ ensures that we work towards eliminating discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act.

We are committed to working for equality for all our staff, parents/carers and children to meet our duties under the Equality Act 2010.

We eliminate discrimination by:

• Adoption of the Single Equality Scheme
• Our Behaviour Policy ensures that all children feel safe at school and addresses prejudicial bullying
• Reporting, responding to and monitoring all racist and homophobic incidents
• Regularly monitoring the enacted curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of our pupils and that it promotes respect for diversity and challenges negative stereotyping
• Delivering Quality First teaching to ensure children reach their potential and all pupils are given equal entitlement to success
• Regularly tracking pupil progress to ensure that all children make rapid progress and delivering Targeted Interventions when necessary
• 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
• Listening to parents/carers
• Listening to pupils at all times
• Fostering good relations across all characteristics - between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it

We foster good relations by:

• Ensuring that Riverside Primary School is seen as a community hub school within our local community
• Ensuring that equality and diversity are embedded in the curriculum and in Collective Worship.

Equality Objectives

At Riverside Primary School, we are committed to ensuring equality of education and opportunity for all pupils, staff, parents and carers, irrespective of race, gender, disability, belief, religion or socio-economic background.

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

Objective 1:  To ensure the school actively promotes and prioritises raising awareness, appreciation and celebration of diversity including: gender; sexuality, race and religion.

Objective 2: 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.

Objective 3: To maximise opportunities and achievement for all groups of pupils, including gender; sexuality, race and religion and those with SEN, including access to extra-curricular activities.

Objective 4: To raise levels of attainment in core subjects for Disadvantaged and vulnerable learners.

Objective 5: To promote the importance of good attendance amongst pupils with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities.