In line with our purpose of Creating Individuals, Making Futures, we are committed to ensuring the equality of opportunity for all children, staff, parents and carers, and wider community irrespective of race, gender, disability, belief, religion or socio-economic background.

Our approach to equality is based on the belief that all people are of equal value, diversity is something to be embraced and that inequality and prejudice has to be actively challenged.

As such we believe that all of our children can achieve great things. We relate this belief to the MyWays Framework areas below and look to develop these for all learners:

1. Habits of Success
2. Content Knowledge
3. Creative Know How
4. Wayfinding

In order to do this in a focussed manner we have the following objectives:-

 

Objective 1: To monitor and analyse pupil achievement for groups that are statistically more vulnerable and act on any trends or patterns in the data that require additional support for pupils. These groups include Pupil Premium, SEND, English as an Additional Language.

 

Objective 2: To raise levels of attainment in core subjects for vulnerable learners and for boys. Narrowing the gap compared to school and national norms.

 

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

 

Objective 4: To Develop our approach to careers and future possibility as a whole school approach ensuring that students leave to clearly identified opportunities

 

Objective 5: To improve the quality of provision in our studios so that less intervention is required retrospectively

 

Objective 6: To ensure that the City Council provide Disabled Parking near the school in line with planning discussions

 

Please let us know if there is something missing from this so we can adapt our actions to meet need more effectively.

 

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

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.

The information provided here aims to demonstrate that we give careful consideration to equality issues in everything that we do at Plymouth School of Creative Arts. ‘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.

As a school we do the following specific things:

• Rigorous tracking and monitoring of individuals and of all the groups of children, including progress and attainment, to inform our provision and address inequality and provide intervention if required
• Adoption of the Single Equality Scheme
• Our behaviour and anti-bullying policy ensures that all children feel safe at school and we tackle prejudice
• Report, responding to and monitoring all racist incidents
• Each Phase of the school reviews their practice (Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment) each term to consider their effectiveness and to ensure they are providing equality of opportunity
• Personal emergency egress plans (PEEPS) are in place for safely leaving the building during a fire
• Ensuring that all pupils have the opportunity to access to life experiences irrespective of their backgrounds or needs
• Listening to and monitoring views and experiences of pupils and adults to evaluate the effectiveness of our policies and procedures – student, staff and parent surveys for example
• Ensuring the participation of children, parents, staff and where relevant, wider community, in school development. We are thoughtful to try and remove barriers to inclusion and appreciate being challenged when we do not meet the mark.
• Fostering good relationships and being a central part of our community
• Connecting to groups such as Pride in Plymouth, Race Equality Council, EXIM Dance etc.
• Work with other agencies and groups that increase access such as Plymouth Information & Advice Service (PIAS)

Roles

Everyone has a responsibility towards this area. All staff are expected to have regard to this web page and to  the objectives above.

Dave, as Headteacher will:

• Promote knowledge and understanding of the equality objectives amongst staff and pupils
• Monitor success in achieving the objectives and report back to governors

Governors will:

• Ensure that the equality information and objectives as set out in this statement are published and communicated throughout the school, including to staff, pupils and parents, and that they are reviewed and updated at least once every four years
• Delegate responsibility for monitoring the achievement of the objectives on a daily basis to the headteacher

The equality link governors are Joanne Anning and Jeff Stratton. They will:

• Meet with the Headteacher, and other relevant staff members, to discuss any issues and how these are being addressed
• Ensure they’re familiar with all relevant legislation and the contents of this web page (document)
• Attend appropriate equality and diversity training
• Report back to the full governing board regarding any issues