St Mary's Church of England Primary School & Nursery

Equalities, Diversity & Inclusion

The school's Equalities Policy aims to ensure the school meets its legal requirements as defined in the Equality Act 2010. However, The Governing Body views the law as only the starting point and recognises that, in seeking to fulfill the school’s Mission Statement and develop the ethos of the school, every member of our school community must be valued and will therefore be provided with equality of opportunity to develop in full their particular talents and abilities as an individual.

As a school we welcome our duties under the Equality Act 2010.  The general duties are to:

• Eliminate discrimination,
• Advance equality of opportunity
• Foster good relations

In order to meet our general duties, listed above, the law requires us to carry out 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.
• Prepare and publish equality objectives.

St Mary’s is a Church school with a Christian ethos. At the heart of the Christian faith is love. Jesus gave us the greatest commandment to love on another. Christians believe that humans are made in the image of God and as such are all of equal value. The work we do to recognize the individual is key to recognising and celebrating diversity. We teach equality, difference and diversity through our formal and wider curriculum.

The nine protected characteristics are actively promoted in school through:

• Our PSHE curriculum, which incorporates the Heartsmart Scheme covering the statutory Relationships and Health Education.
• Our Behaviour Policy.
• Active engagement and communication with parents and carers.
• Whole School Worships
• Educational visits and visitors
• We audit our resources to ensure representation from different cultures, religions and traditions.
• We visibly celebrate the heritage of our families, displaying the many different home languages spoken on our corridor.
• Children complete activities as part of Black History Month
• We use Philosophy for Children (P4C) to discuss complex issues which are generated by the children.
• Through the school’s local Linking Project with Webster Primary School, our Year4s make friends with children from another contrasting school, go on joint school trips and visit each other’s schools.
• We link internationally with a school in Uganda a further example of a contrasting setting.
• We seek external professional advice (Stockport’s Ethnic Diversity Service) to support our school with matters of diversity.