Everyone is entitled to be treated fairly and without prejudice in every aspect of school life

Equal Opportunities

Springfield School recognises that all individuals are different and have different needs. We believe in equal opportunities for all pupils, whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, religion, attainment and background and aspire to promote community cohesion.

This policy is designed to assist ALL at Springfield to contribute to the long-term goals of developing ‘the pupil's knowledge, experience and understanding, and equipping the pupil for active participation in society'. It is therefore the responsibility of the whole school community. The Springfield School Charter (reviewed 2009) promotes and upholds the values of this policy.

The continuing development of extended services, in partnership with other agencies, aims to improve the well being of all pupils by providing access to a wide range of activities in and beyond the school day, to targeted and specialist services and to parenting support. The school is committed to enabling all pupils to achieve their potential and to preparing all pupils to access and enjoy the full range of life opportunities in the future.

The order used below does not imply priorities.

Curriculum

The Springfield curriculum will:

• Promote and communicate a sense of personal respect for all.

• Ensure that all individuals have entitlement to the best curriculum experiences that the school can offer, appropriate to their needs.

• Promote fair and balanced images of other people’s cultures and traditions.

Lesson content and resources should be reviewed regularly with a view to identifying bias and removing prejudice and stereotyping wherever possible.

Behaviour

The Springfield community will:

• Treat any form of harassment as unacceptable.

• Deal sensitively with inappropriate behaviour, including language, whether intended or not.

• Promote the use of positive images avoiding stereotypes.

• Ensure everyone knows that any complaint will be listened to sympathetically and be dealt with in a supportive and consistent manner.

Organisation and Administration

• There will be an explicit statement of EO policy in the school prospectus and other appropriate school documents.

• All new members of the community should be familiarised with the EO policy as part of their respective induction processes.

• The EO dimension of the school's ethos, vision and philosophy should be shared through such opportunities as Induction Evenings, Options Evenings, Trident presentations, the School Council, Citizenship, tutor time, assemblies, notice boards and Springfield News.

• All staff should look for ways of promoting and sharing examples of good practice and identifying how and where we may enrich the experience of all pupils.

• All personal data should be framed in terms that allow for the diversity of society. This includes forms of address and references to personal circumstances. Information on ethnic origins should be by self-definition.

• The school will endeavour to ensure that all parents have access to clear and appropriate channels of communication and relevant information.

• EO should be considered within the context of agenda items, where appropriate.

Racial Equality

Springfield School fully endorses the concept of racial equality and understands that in everything we do we must aim to:

Work towards community cohesion by:

• Eliminating unlawful racial discrimination;

• Promoting equality of opportunity; and

• Promoting good race relations between people of different racial groups.

• Showing pupils how different communities can be enriched by their differences and

united by shared values

Objectives

We will move towards these aims by ensuring that the school considers the following objectives in our work with young people. Springfield School will prepare pupils for life in a diverse society and world by:

• Respecting and valuing linguistic, cultural and religious diversity in the community;

• Developing in students a sense of personal and cultural identity which is respectful and receptive towards the cultural identity of others;

• Trying our best to meet the diverse needs of all our pupils;

• Ensuring that an inclusive ethos is established and maintained;

• Acknowledging the existence of racism and being proactive in tackling and eliminating racial discrimination;

• Making Springfield a place where everyone, irrespective of their race, colour, ethnic or national origin or their citizenship, feels welcome and valued;

• Ensuring that issues related to racism and racial equality are recognised across all areas of the schools activity; and

• Ensuring that race equality is an integral part of all planning and decision making within the school.

Implementation

Springfield will be proactive in promoting racial equality, good race relations and tackling unlawful racial discrimination. Some ways of doing this in practice might include taught content in specific subjects such as Religious Education, Citizenship, Geography, History and English. In addition these values are often promoted in assemblies by visiting speakers, Year Office staff and members of the School’s Senior Leadership Team. At Springfield we will also ensure that:

• Appropriate support is put in place for isolated pupils of different ethnic groups;

• We will work in partnership with others to tackle racial discrimination and establish, promote and disseminate good race equality practice;

• We will encourage, support and enable all pupils and staff to reach their full potential; and

• We seek to ensure an environment which respects and values cultural, linguistic and religious differences by creating a sense of belonging by all communities and ensuring community cohesion.

• Any behaviour by members of the Springfield community reflecting racist attitudes will be dealt with appropriately.

• We consult with EMAS about appropriate support and resources for individual pupils with English as an additional language (EAL).

Springfield School will ensure that the principles and procedures above feature in all our policies and practices. In particular they feature in the aims of the school contained within the prospectus. In addition, policies such as those listed below need to take racial equality into account when they are being monitored and reviewed:

• Admissions and attendance

• Curriculum

• Teaching and Learning

• Pay

• Behaviour

• Citizenship

• Differentiation

• Gifted and Talented Pupils

Monitoring

This policy will be monitored by members of SLT and a register of reported incidents, considered to be motivated by racial or ethnic intolerance, will be kept. Such incidents will be reported to the SLT, Governing Body and LA and will follow the Portsmouth Racial Harassment guidelines for schools on monitoring and responding to such incidents.

The progress of ethnic minority pupils will be monitored in the same manner as all other pupils to ensure that they achieve at least their expected progress (based on national data). The results of such monitoring will be reported to parents and where appropriate the wider school community through the Springfield News and the School Profile to Parents.

Both sections of this policy will be formally reviewed every two years.

Review Date: Spring 2011