Equality - Birley Primary Academy

Equality Statement

Birley Primary Academy is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for all pupils, staff, parents and carers which is free from discrimination, prejudice or harassment regardless of race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age and socio-economic background.

The academy’s culture strives to continue to develop the inclusion and diversity in which all individuals connected to our academy feels proud of their identity and ability to fully participate in all aspects of academy life. We feel, as educators, we play a crucial role in eliminating all forms of discrimination that Birley Primary Academy recognises exists in society currently.

We promote equality and diversity through challenging any discrimination and educating our pupils across a wide variety of topics without prejudice and, at Birley Primary Academy, we demonstrate that diversity is a strength to be respected and celebrated by all those connected to our academy.

Equality Information

The Public Sector Equality Duty in the Equality Act 2010 covers public bodies, including academies that belong to multi-academy trusts such as L.E.A.D. Academy Trust. At Birley Primary Academy, we take this obligation very seriously and ensure that all our pupils can take part as fully as possible in every aspect of academy life. We identify any barriers to learning that they may have and then work to overcome these so that each child can fulfil their potential.

We strive to:

Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation 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; and
Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

Our approach to equality is based on the following principles:

All learners are of equal value.
We recognise and respect differences.
We foster positive attitudes and relationships and a shared sense of cohesion and 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 our children.

Information on pupils by protected characteristics

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination based on 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 academy collects information on protected characteristics.

Roles and Responsibilities

The Governing Body will:

Ensure that the equality information and objectives as set out in this statement are published and communicated throughout the school, including to staff, pupils and parents, and that they are reviewed and updated every year.
Delegate responsibility for monitoring the achievement of the objectives on a daily basis to the Headteacher.

The Headteacher will:

Promote knowledge and understanding of the equality objectives amongst staff and pupils.
Monitor success in achieving the objectives and report back to Governors.

Pupil Information

Number of Pupils On Roll – 564

Age of Pupils: 3-11 years
Male: 277
Female: 287
Pupils with SEND: 15.1%

Race and Ethnicity

White British: 87.6%
Other White: 0.7%
Pakistani: 0.4%
Any Other Asian Background: 1.2%
Black Caribbean: 0.4%
Any Other Black African: 2.8%
Chinese: 0.2%
White and Black Caribbean: 3.5%
White and Black African: 0.2%
White and Any Other Asian Black: 0.4%
Any Other Mixed Background: 1.4%
Other Ethnic Group: 0.2%
Information not disclosed: 1.1%

Religion

No religion: 76.2%
Christian: 21.5%
Muslim: 2.2%
Other: 0.1%

Information on Other Groups

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

Pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM): 30.3%
Pupils eligible for Pupil Premium Funding: 31.3%
Pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL): 4.3%
Young carers: 0.5%
Looked after children: 0.4%

Actions

The following actions aim to demonstrate that we consider equality issues in everything that we do at Birley Primary Academy. We are committed to working for equality for all including our children, staff, parents and carers to meet our duties under the Equality Act 2010.

Eliminating discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Act

Actions taken:

Our behaviour policy ensures that all children feel safe at school and addresses prejudicial bullying.
We report, respond to and monitor all racist and homophobic incidents.
Regular monitoring of the curriculum to ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of our pupils and that it promotes respect for diversity and difference.
Provision of training and support for teachers to ensure that teaching is of the highest quality to ensure children reach their potential and all pupils are given equal entitlement to success.
Pupil progress is tracked to ensure that all children make rapid progress and intervention is planned, when necessary.
All pupils have the opportunity to access extra-curricular provision.
Views and experiences of pupils and adults are listened to so we can evaluate the effectiveness of our policies and procedures.

Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it

Actions taken:

Identify underachieving groups or individuals and plan targeted intervention.
Encourage all parents/carers to get involved with school events and activities.
Listen to parents/carers and provide support where needed.
Listen to pupils at all times and provide support where needed.

Fostering good relations across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it:

Actions taken:

Ensure that Birley Primary Academy is seen as an important part of our local community.
Provide opportunities for all members of the school community to come together and develop relations throughout the school.
Ensure that equality and diversity are embedded in the curriculum.

Equality Objectives

At Birley Primary Academy, 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: Ensure that at least 90% of children eligible for Pupil Premium Funding make good progress across the academy

Objective 2: To ensure that all children with EHCP’s (and those awaiting assessment) are making progress in a broad, transferable way across all areas of development.

Objective 3: To continue to ensure that all children thrive, aspire and reach their full potential.