The Equality Act 2010 requires schools to publish information to show how we are working to:

• Eliminate discrimination
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic* and people who do not share it
• Foster good relations between groups of people

In addition to these groups, we believe it is important to consider the specific needs of other vulnerable pupils such as those who are looked after, children from refugee families, those who have a carer’s role and children eligible for pupil premium funding.

What we do:

We aim to give the best possible education to all children and make sure everyone feels equally welcomed and valued. In order to achieve this we have worked hard to ensure that the equalities agenda is threaded throughout all that we do. 

We have a carefully planned PSHCE curriculum, which includes lessons on gender and family diversity, disability education, democracy and citizenship, global education, protective behaviours, racism including Islamophobia, Young Carers and relationship and sex education.. As well as teaching the children about equality and diversity generally through the PSHCE curriculum, we regularly discuss these ideas with the children in assemblies and aim to reflect these values in our day to day interactions with the children.

We promote disability equality by:

• Recognising the different abilities we all have whilst also acknowledging that some people have specific difficulties which require adjustments to be made.
• Teaching about Disability Equality in PSHCE, encouraging all pupils to reflect on how to welcome and include everybody in our learning and play.
• Marking Disability History Month and other national events such as Dyslexia week and Autism week with special assemblies and learning in PSHCE.
• Working closely with the family of any child with a disability to plan for their additional needs at school and to review any support plan regularly.
• All children at Hasting Hill Academy have the same access to learning opportunities and to attend school visits and clubs, including residential visits.
• Working to ensure better access to our school grounds and buildings for those with physical disabilities.
• When appropriate, and with the consent of the child and parent/carer, we will support a child with disabilities, to talk to their peers about his/her specific needs, with the aim of promoting better understanding and relationships with the group.
• Children may become diagnosed with a learning disability during their time at our school (e.g. dyslexia). We have clear pathways to diagnosis of specific learning difficulties / disabilities and parents/carers will be involved with this process and given information about support offered as a result. Please see our SEND website page and policy for further information.

We promote gender and family equality by:

• Avoiding using gender as a way of grouping in class or in PE, or by referring to ‘boys’ or ‘girls’, instead using more gender neutral terms such as ‘children’ or ‘Year 1’ etc.
• We are careful to use gender equal language when speaking, using terms such as firefighters, and also to ensure our resources do not promote gender stereotypes in either pictures or language. In addition, we mark International Women’s Day, and use assemblies to help children learn about the history of gender inequality and the need to continue to challenge this in everyday life.
• We analyse all our data by gender to check if there is a gender imbalance in any subject (e.g. improving the attainment of boys in writing).
• We offer mixed sports teams and extra-curricular sporting activities for all pupils.
• We respectfully challenge any stereotyping or gender based comments made, and our pupils are also encouraged to challenge and report any sexist comments or behaviour.
• Our PSHCE curriculum includes learning about gender and family diversity and same sex relationships.
• We celebrate family diversity through marking LBGT month in February with a range of assemblies and class based work.
• We try to talk about our ’grownups’ rather than our ‘mums and dads’ to acknowledge the different family groupings our pupils live in.
• We recognise that children who are adopted or fostered often have specific needs and may need additional care. A key adult will be assigned to a child when they start at our school, and this adult will provide the consistent link between school and home throughout the child’s time at our school.
• We have access to a family support worker and a Mental Health Nurse, who can both offer support 1-2-1 support.

We promote race, religious and cultural equality by:

• We regularly encourage pupils to share details about their identities and cultural links and share this with our whole school community via  PSHCE work, assemblies and displays and family events.
• Planning a  balanced programme of assemblies throughout the year to celebrate important festivals from all religions, key national events such as Holocaust week, Black History Month, Refugee week, and other local community and cultural events.
• Making sure toys, displays, books and other topic resources etc. reflect a range of people from different cultures and avoid stereotypes.
• Regularly reviewing our behaviour policy and processes and reminding children of the importance of reporting any racist or religiously motivated incidents. These would be recorded on CPOMS , shared as part of the council monitoring process, and used to help us inform future staff training and PSHCE curriculum planning
• Aiming to ensure signage in schools is clear and supported by visuals to add understanding. We have close links with Ethnic Minority Advisory Service (EMAS) to provide support and translation for pupils for whom English is not a first language.
• Linking our pupils with English as an additional language with someone else in the school who is able to speak their home language, where possible, or providing another system of translating to help them communicate especially when they are new to the UK.
• Teaching children about migration, and why families may leave their home countries and travel so they have an understanding of the challenges refugees would face.
• Celebrating Gypsy, Roma, Traveller month in June and learning about Gypsy Roma Travellers and the discrimination this community face.
• Following an RE curriculum, which includes visits and visitors from a range of religions, and take care to ensure a balance of displays celebrating different religious festivals over the year.
• Linking with a local church and having regular assemblies led by Wearside Youth for Christ, and also by other members of our school community from a range of faiths.
• Embedding children’s rights and responsibilities through the work of our Rights Knights, our Rights Respecting Schools work, and our PSHCE curriculum.