Equalities

At Saltdean Primary School, we are committed to ensuring equality of opportunity and equity for all pupils, staff, parents and carers irrespective of race, gender, disability, belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or socio-economic background.
We aim to develop a culture of inclusion and diversity in which all those connected to the school feel proud of their identity and ability to participate fully in school life. Our curriculum has been developed to ensure that this links throughout the curriculum and wider opportunities we offer.
We tackle discrimination through the positive promotion of equality; by challenging bullying and stereotypes; and by creating an environment which champions respect for all.
At Saltdean Primary School, we believe that diversity and individuality are strengths which should be respected and celebrated by all those who learn, teach and visit us.

Our Equality Objectives for 2023-2027 are:

To build and develop appropriate, positive relationships between young and older people within the community
To ensure all identified parts of the school building are accessible.
To ensure LGBTQIA+ members of our community are accepted and any instances of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia are challenged, recorded and addressed robustly
To continue to review the curriculum offer to ensure resources, materials, lessons and projects meet the expectations of the BHCC Anti-Racist Education (ARE) initiative
To improve pupils’ knowledge of different religions and beliefs and to celebrate these many facets of our community
To promote opportunities for all pupils to learn more about career opportunities which challenge gender stereotyping by embedding positive changes in our curriculum with regard to PSHE and Citizenship, as well as the Saltdean Curriculum

Equalities information

Saltdean Primary School is committed to achieving the objectives set out in Equality Act 2010 to:

Eliminate discrimination

The school is aware of its obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and complies with non-discrimination provisions.

Where relevant, our policies include reference to the importance of avoiding discrimination and other prohibited conduct.

Staff and governors are regularly reminded of their responsibilities under the Equality Act – for example, during meetings. Where this has been discussed during a meeting it is recorded in the meeting minutes.

New staff receive training on the Equality Act as part of their induction, and all staff receive refresher training every September

The school has a designated member of staff for monitoring equality issues, and an equality link governor. They regularly liaise regarding any issues and make senior leaders and governors aware of these as appropriate.

Advance equality of opportunity

As set out in the DfE guidance on the Equality Act, the school aims to advance equality of opportunity by:

Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people that are connected to a particular characteristic they have (e.g. the barriers pupils with disabilities can face on our site)
Taking steps to meet the particular needs of people who have a particular characteristic (e.g. enabling pupils to pray at prescribed times)
Encouraging people who have a particular characteristic to participate fully in any activities (e.g. encouraging all pupils to be involved in the full range of school societies)

In fulfilling this aspect of the duty, the school will:

Analyse the data referenced above to determine strengths and areas for improvement, implement actions in response and publish this information
Make evidence available identifying improvements for specific groups (e.g. declines in incidents of homophobic or transphobic bullying)
Publish further data about any issues associated with particular protected characteristics, identifying any issues which could affect our own pupils

Foster good relations

The school aims to foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it by:

Promoting tolerance, friendship and understanding of a range of religions and cultures through different aspects of our curriculum. This includes teaching in RE, citizenship and personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, but also activities in other curriculum areas. For example, as part of teaching and learning in English/reading, pupils will be introduced to literature from a range of cultures
Holding assemblies dealing with relevant issues. Pupils will be encouraged to take a lead in such assemblies and we will also invite external speakers to contribute
Working with our local community. This includes inviting leaders of local faith groups to speak at assemblies, and organising school trips and activities based around the local community
Encouraging and implementing initiatives to deal with tensions between different groups of pupils within the school. For example, our school council has representatives from different year groups and is formed of pupils from a range of backgrounds. All pupils are encouraged to participate in the school’s activities, such as sports clubs. We also work with parents to promote knowledge and understanding of different cultures
We have developed links with people and groups who have specialist knowledge about particular characteristics, which helps inform and develop our approach

Find out more:

The full Equality Objectives document can be found here.

You can also read our accessibility plan here.