Equality Objectives

Equality Objectives

“In the most effective schools, the Head teacher and governors establish a clear vision, rooted in an unwavering commitment to ensure the success of every pupil. Equality of opportunity is at the heart of this vision, with an insistence that all pupils will do well.” Ofsted

Legal Requirements

The Equality Act 2010 replaced all previous equality legislation such as the Race Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act and Sex Discrimination Act. Deyes High School seeks to promote equality and we celebrate the diversity within our community. We welcome the public sector equality duty as set out in the Equality Act (2010).

What is the duty?

We must:

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• Advance equality of opportunity between different groups
• Foster good relations between different groups

What are the protected characteristics?

The Equality Act 2010 was introduced to ensure protection on the grounds of specific characteristics (referred to as protected characteristics). For schools, this means that it is unlawful to discriminate against students or treat them less favourably because of their sex; race; disability; religion or belief; gender reassignment; sexual orientation; pregnancy or maternity.

Our Deyes commitment

At Deyes High School, we wish to create and maintain a trusting, secure and happy environment where everyone can work as equals. All members of the school community have responsibilities to promote equality of opportunity, experience, and treatment, and to challenge stereotypes. Our wider school community consists of a diverse range of people – employees, visitors, students, and parents/carers. We need to celebrate our differences, by understanding them and enjoying the diversity this brings.

As a public organisation, we are required to:

• Publish information to show compliance with the Equality Duty. This is done via our Equality Policy
• Publish Equality Objectives which are specific and measurable

Deyes Equality Policy

Our Equality Policy contains information about how the school complies with the Public Sector Equality Duty. We also give guidance to staff and outside visitors on our approach to promoting equality.

Deyes Strategic Equality and Diversity Plan

The Deyes Strategic Equality and Diversity Plan is an important and detailed document that identifies the areas of diversity, equality, and inclusion we intend to focus on over the next 3 years.

Deyes Equality Objectives

We publish equality objectives which show how we plan to tackle particular inequalities and reduce or remove them. Our Equality Objectives reflect the school's priorities and draw upon available data and other evidence. Careful analysis of these objectives is undertaken in order to ensure that we are working to achieve improved outcomes for different groups.

The schools chosen equality objectives are:

1. To ensure the schools commitment to equality is evident in its strategic development planning, operations, promotion and self-review
2. To promote equality and diversity amongst school stakeholders in order to raise awareness and encourage understanding and contributions from all
3. To achieve inclusivity and cohesion between all student groups, through education, understanding and celebration of different cultures, religions, sexualities and ethnicities
4. To improve the levels of attendance and attainment across all key stages and respond to variation between groups of learners, as identified by internal and local authority data. In particular, high ability boys and disadvantaged
5. To ensure all pupils have equal access to the curriculum, free from limitations, discrimination and barriers
6. To further improve accessibility to learning and participation for students, staff and visitors; removing barriers in order to ensure full engagement in school life

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Audit

At Deyes we annually review how well we achieve our equality commitment with regards to the protected groups under the Equality Act (2010). We do this through conducting a detailed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Audit. This is completed by the Senior Leadership Team and quality assured by the Governing body, before being published to key stakeholders. This audit provides a framework to support our commitment to valuing diversity, tackling discrimination, promoting equality and fostering good relationships between people. The results ensure that we can continue to tackle issues of disadvantage and underachievement of different groups at Deyes.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion progress made to date:

• We have been awarded with the bronze award as a Unicef Rights Respecting School
• We were invited to join the Careers Hub in 2019 and have utilised this partnership to meet 6 of the 8 Gatsby benchmarks for Careers guidance at 100%
• We have conducted partnered work with Stonewall, including staff and pupil training
• Personal development, behaviour and welfare was judged to be ‘good’ by Ofsted in December 2019
• Our data tracking systems have enabled teachers to focus even more precisely on identifying and addressing gaps in progress between boys and girls
• We have a uniform which was designed by the students themselves
• Increased student leadership opportunities, with a particular focus on engagement of underrepresented and vulnerable groups.
• Introduced a Junior Leadership Team for lower school, to replace the Junior Head Boy and Junior Head Girl, gender specific roles
• Greater use of the student leadership group on particular equality related issues in school, including refurbishment of toilets and uniform
• We have established an active LGBTQ+ club
• The development of progressional and bespoke Personal Development programme; incorporating all aspects Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)
• The introduction of three externally-led ‘deep learning days’ for students across all year groups
• The development of a Community Enterprise Team who raise money and donate to local charities including food banks
• The training of a teacher and non-teacher in mental resilience programmes, culminating in the creation and school wide use of student vulnerability pyramids
• Recruitment of a ‘Community Engagement Leader’ to reach out to and include local community groups in to life at Deyes
• A regular and robust pupil voice and parent/carer voice schedule which collects the views of all groups and is addressed with ‘You Said, We Did’ responses
• Enhanced transition process for SEND, disabled and disadvantaged pupils and their families
• Created non-binary/gender neutral changing rooms for PE
• We have improved accessibility to the school/learning through:

- The building of a new Maths Centre which includes automatic entrances and accessibility using a lift

- Additional disabled car parking by the main building

- Portal ramps for students requiring wheelchair access

- Providing individuals with individualised assessment of equipment and furniture upon entry to Deyes, in order to provide adequate desks, IT equipment, seating, stationary, overlays

*Further improvements to whole school accessibility will be achieved through the new school build which commenced in 2022.

To view the Lydiate Learning Trust Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy CLICK HERE

To view the Lydiate Learning Trust Diversity & Equality Statement CLICK HERE

To view the Deyes High School Strategic Equality Plan CLICK HERE

To view the Deyes High School Rights Respecting School Charter CLICK HERE

Further Guidance

For further information, please see the Equalities Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty.

• Equalities Act 2010

• Public Sector Equality Duty