At Round Hill Primary School we welcome our duties under the Equality Act 2010.  The general duties are to:

• eliminate discrimination,
• advance equality of opportunity
• foster good relations

We understand the principal of the act and the work needed to ensure that those with protected characteristics are not discriminated against and are given equality of opportunity.  Protected characteristics make up the part of a person’s identity that makes them who they are, such aspects or characteristics are protected from discrimination. Everyone in Britain is protected from unlawful behaviour by the Act.

The protected characteristics are as follows:

• age
• disability
• race
• sex
• gender reassignment
• maternity and pregnancy
• religion and belief
• sexual orientation
• marriage and civil partnership (for employees)

We recognise that these duties reflect international human rights’ standards as expressed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and the Human Rights Act 1998. In developing our policy, we have therefore also taken them into consideration.

To meet our general duties, listed above, the law requires us to carry out some specific duties to demonstrate how we meet the general duties.

These are to:

• Publish Equality Information – to demonstrate compliance with the general duty across its functions (We will not publish any information that can specifically identify any individual)
• Prepare and publish equality objectives which we will review on an annual basis
• Consult all our stakeholders in the development of our equality objectives and report on progress against our objectives on an annual basis

To do this effectively we will collect data related to the protected characteristics above and analyse this data to determine our focus for our equality objectives.  The data will be assessed across our core provisions as a school, but we will also analyse available data relating to the context of our local community, including hate crime data and demographic information. In relation to school provision, we will pay particular attention to the following functions:

• Admissions
• Attendance
• Attainment
• Exclusions
• Prejudice-related incidents
• Curriculum
• Complaints/compliments

Our equality objectives will detail how we will ensure equality is applied to the services listed above, however where we find evidence that other functions have a significant impact on any group, we will include work in this area.

We also recognise that our work on equality is central to the successful promotion of Fundamental British Values, especially in relation to the values of respect and tolerance and the rule of law. We will therefore ensure that our curriculum helps to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain. We will work proactively to address all forms of prejudice and discrimination, including derogatory and discriminatory language. We will mainly do this through the delivery of our statutory Relationships Sex Education (RSE) and Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) and Citizenship. We will also utilise all other subject areas to foster positive relations and to ensure that we consciously cultivate opportunities to challenge stereotypes and support positive identity development for all our pupils. We will regularly audit our resources, displays, lesson content, curriculum and assessment processes to ensure that they meet the needs of all groups. We will scrutinise outcomes across a range of measures, analyse the results and address any identified areas of concern.

In endeavouring to fulfil our legal duties, we will:

• Recognise and respect diversity
• Foster positive attitudes and relationships, and a shared sense of belonging
• Observe good equalities’ practice, including staff recruitment, retention, and development
• Aim to identify, reduce, and remove existing inequalities and barriers
• Consult and involve widely
• Regularly review our progress

Please see below for more information in the Equality Policy and our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion objectives. 

Please also see here for some suggestions of wonderful books that can be used for the promotion of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. We have a wealth of EDI books available from our school library for the children to use and access too.