Public Sector Equality Duty (Updated December 2021)

Public Sector Equality Duty

The Equality Act 2010 requires us to publish information that demonstrates that we have due regard for the need 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
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

Brinsley Primary & Nursery School is an inclusive school where we focus on the well-being and progress of every child and where all members of our community are of equal worth.

We believe that the Equality Act provides a framework to support our commitment to valuing diversity, tackling discrimination, promoting equality and fostering good relationships between people. It also ensures that we continue to tackle issues of disadvantage and underachievement of different groups.

Our approach to equality is based on the following key principles:

1. All learners are of equal value

2. We recognise and respect difference

3. We foster positive attitudes and relationships and a shared sense of cohesion and belonging.

4. We observe good equalities practice in staff recruitment, retention and development.

5. We aim to reduce and remove inequalities and barriers that already exist.

6. We have the highest expectations of all our children.

Information on pupils by protected characteristics

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination on the basis of 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 school collects information on protected characteristics.

Information on other groups of pupils

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

• Pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM)
• Pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN)
• Disadvantaged group
• Pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL)
• Young carers
• Looked after children
• Other vulnerable groups

Eliminating discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Act

The information provided here aims to demonstrate that we give careful consideration to equality issues in everything that we do at Brinsley School. ‘Due regard’ ensures that we work towards eliminating discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act.

We are committed to working for equality for all our staff, parents/carers and children to meet our duties under the Equality Act 2010.

We eliminate discrimination by:

• Our behaviour policy ensures that all children feel safe at school and addresses prejudicial bullying
• Reporting, responding to and monitoring all racist incidents
• Regularly monitoring the curriculum to ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of our pupils and that it promotes respect for diversity and challenges negative stereotyping
• Teaching is of the highest quality to ensure children reach their potential and all pupils are given equal entitlement to success
• Tracking pupil progress to ensure that all children make rapid progress, and intervening when necessary
• Ensuring that all pupils have the opportunity to access extra-curricular provision
• Listening to and monitoring views and experiences of pupils and adults to 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

We advance equality of opportunity by:

• Using the information we gather to identify underachieving groups or individuals and plan targeted intervention
• Ensuring participation of  parents/carers and pupils in school development
• Listening to parents/carers
• Listening to pupils at all times

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

We foster good relations by:

• Ensuring that Brinsley Primary & Nursery School is seen as a community school within our local community
• Ensuring that equality and diversity are embedded not only in the curriculum, but in all things that are part of the wider life of the school.

Equality Objectives

At Brinsley Primary & Nursery School, 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: To monitor and analyse pupil achievement by race, gender and disability

and act on any trends or patterns in the data that require additional support for pupils.

Objective 2: To raise levels of attainment in core subjects for vulnerable learners.

Objective 3: To review levels of parental and pupil engagement in learning and school life, across all activities to ensure equity and fairness in access and engagement.

Website Accessibility Notice

We are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. This website has been designed to be as accessible and adaptive as possible while still visually interesting. To do this we have considered a variety of features which are summarised below.

Alternate Style

The website has been designed to work with assistive technologies. We recommend that your computer or device is set up to enhance your entire computer experience. In order to achieve this the BBC My Web website provides useful hints/tips/guides to assist you if you have difficulty using the internet or have any accessibility issues.

Images and Alt Tags

We have avoided using excessive graphics within the web site where possible to ensure quick download times and access to information which cannot be read when in image format.

Where images have been used, we have normally added 'Alt' tags - text alternatives so that you can still see what the image is meant to convey even if it doesn't load or if you have chosen to browse with the images switched off or you are using something like a screen reader to read the web page rather than view.

Browser Compatibility

Our website is adaptive, meaning that no matter which device you use, the content will adapt to display in the most user-friendly way possible.
This website has been designed to work with the following browsers. If you are experiencing issues with the website it is recommended that you install the latest version of the browser. Here are some useful links to the latest versions:

Later versions of these browsers should continue to be compatible.

Coding Standards

We have ensured our site conforms to W3C standards for xhtml and css. Adhering to these standards should make our site accessible across browsers which adhere to the same standards, and should make our pages more accessible to those using screen readers and similar devices. The following sites contain useful information and advice about web accessibility:

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

RNIB Web Access Centre

Consistent Navigation

Throughout the site we have tried to keep the navigation consistent. Certain pages are available from every single page on the website. All image links normally have text alternatives. On adaptive views, there are three bars at the top of the screen for easy menu access.

Contact

If you have any comments about the accessibility of the site please contact us.