EQUALITY & DIVERSITY
Bedford High School recognises that certain groups in society have historically been disadvantaged on account of unlawful discrimination that they have faced on the basis their ethnicity, race, gender, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic background, gender and gender identity. We put in place a range of actions to eliminate prejudice, unlawful discrimination and victimisation within the school community we serve and our workforce.
We want to see a strong, sustainable and cohesive community in our school. We will continue to develop and promote policies and systems that make sure that the school community and our workforce are not unlawfully discriminated against.
Our aims are to:
- promote equality of opportunity
- eliminate unlawful discrimination, and
- promote good relations between people from different backgrounds.
We aim to provide all our students with the opportunity to succeed, and to reach the highest level of personal achievement. To do this, teaching and learning will endeavour to:
- Ensure equality of access to the whole school experience for all students and prepare them for life in a diverse society.
- Use materials that reflect a range of cultural backgrounds, without stereotyping.
- Promote attitudes, values and skills that challenge discriminatory behaviour.
- Provide opportunities for students to appreciate their own culture, religion and beliefs and celebrate the diversity of other cultures.
- Use a range of sensitive teaching strategies when teaching about different cultural and religious traditions.
- Develop students’ advocacy skills so that they can detect bias, and challenge discrimination, leading to justice and equality.
- Ensure that the curriculum covers issues of equality, diversity, religion, human rights and inclusion.
- Prepare students for living in a multicultural society and promote good relations between different racial groups.
- Celebrate diversity and promote (where appropriate) the positive contribution of different ethnic minority groups to the curriculum area, as well as profiling the positive contributions made to society by other minority groups.
- Seek to involve all parents/carers in supporting their child’s education.
- Provide educational visits and extra‐curricular activities that involve all student groupings.
- Take account of the composition of individual teaching groups.
- Take account of the different learning needs of different groups of students, using an appropriate range of teaching strategies to enable all students to progress.
- Provide a balanced and positive range of images for all groups regardless of gender, religion, ethnic origin, age or ability.
- Screen the reading and audio-visual resources to ensure that positive images of women, people of different races and cultural backgrounds and people with disabilities are promoted.
- Utilise seating plans to foster effective learning.
- Take account of the current performance of all students when planning for future learning and setting challenging targets.
- Ensure staff use correct pronunciation of names and correct terminology e.g. mixed heritage rather than mixed race.
- Make best use of all available resources to support the learning of all groups of students.
- Identify resources that support staff development – see Teaching and Learning Toolkit or EEF website to support staff in their planning for inclusion and equality.
- Ensure that our planning reflects our commitment to equality in all subject areas and cross‐curricular themes, promoting positive attitudes to equality and diversity.
- Ensure that students have opportunities to explore concepts and issues relating to identity and equality.
- Ensure that steps are taken to ensure that all students have access to mainstream curriculum by considering the cultural and lifestyle backgrounds of all students, their linguistic needs and their learning styles.
- Ensure that all students have access to qualifications which recognise attainment and achievement and promote progression.