The Equality Act became law in 2010. It covers everyone in Britain and protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Everyone in Britain is protected. This is because the Equality Act protects people against discrimination because of the protected characteristics that we all have. Under the Equality Act, there are nine Protected Characteristics:

1. Age
2. Disability
3. Gender reassignment
4. Race
5. Religion or belief
6. Marriage or civil partnership
7. Sex
8. Sexual orientation
9. Pregnancy and maternity

Hounsome Fields Primary School prides itself on being an inclusive school that cares for every individual child. In doing so, we promote and deliver a range of strategies to ensure that we comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty.

The 9 Protected Characteristics are actively promoted in our school through:

• Our school vision and ethos statements, SDP, and SEF
• Our school behaviour policy
• Conscious role modelling by all adults in the school community
• Active engagement and communication with parents and carers, embracing our diverse community
• Providing workshops e.g Internet Safety, behaviour support strategies and phonics, that are inclusive to all parents
• Hounsome Fields Primary upholds and teaches children about Fundamental British Values alongside our school values: Honesty, Empathy, Achievement, Respect and Teamwork as part of evolving curriculum and weekly assemblies.
• Our school fosters our own learning characteristics of being brave, innovative, collaborative and taking ownership through carefully planned activities that encourage children to develop as individuals alongside academic knowledge and skills.
• Promoting tolerance, mutual respect and understanding through religious festival days e.g to celebrate Diwali children and parents are actively encouraged to speak to the school community, sharing rituals and traditional stories.
• Learning about significant people who represent the protected characteristics and challenging stereotyping and discrimination is embedded within our history curriculum e.g Rosa Parks, Neil Armstrong and Amelia Earhart
• Developing a love of reading through a range of authors and genres
• Promoting articulation by building appropriate language and a coherent vocabulary
• Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) sessions and RSE lessons
• Religious Education and World Views (RAW) lessons
• Art projects and visits

Equality Objectives

The Equality Act 2010 requires us to publish specific and measurable equality objectives. Our equality objectives are based on our school’s context and analysis of data and other information.

Our equality objectives focus on those areas where we have agreed to take action to improve equality and tackle disadvantages. We will regularly review the progress we are making to meet our equality objectives.