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Equal Opportunities and Inclusion Policy

BUTE HOUSE PREPARATORY SCHOOL

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND INCLUSION POLICY

This policy applies equally to the Foundation Stage (Reception Class), Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 as taught at Bute House

Status

This policy accords with national legislation as follows:

Aims

This school recognises that direct and indirect discrimination could take place and therefore sees the need for a positive and effective equal opportunities policy and will:

Promote the concept of equality of opportunity throughout the organisation, both for those adults within the community of the school and for all pupils

Seek to develop an understanding of, and promotion of, human equality and equal opportunities and hold all people in equal esteem

Promote good relations between members of different racial, cultural and religious groups and communities

Promote and value diversity and differences

Enable pupils to take responsibility for their behaviour and relationships with others

The Legal Background

The main statutory provisions covering discrimination are the following:

Equal Pay Act 1970

Sex Discrimination Acts 1975 and 1986

Race Relations Act 1976

Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

Disability Discrimination Act 1995

Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001

Race Relations Act 1976 (General Statutory Duty: Code of Practice) Regulations 2002

Also relevant are: Employment Rights Act 1996

Equal Pay (Amendment) Regulations 1983

Human Rights Act 1998

Employment Relations Act 1999.

Part‑time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000

Statutory Duty to Promote Racial Equality

Employment equality (age) regulations Oct 2006 Additional

Responsibilities

The governing body will monitor and review the working of the policy and procedures.

The Head has responsibility for the equal opportunities policy, and for delegating responsibilities and tasks to other staff, and for ensuring that the policy is known and understood by staff and pupils.

The Head must also present incident reports to the Governors.

The Director of Studies is responsible for ensuring equal opportunities in the curriculum.

All staff are responsible for following the policy and reporting incidents of unequal treatment to the appropriate senior member of staff.

Employment of Staff

Age, sex, ethnic origin, disability, married or single status shall not be a consideration in the recruitment of staff, but simply qualification, experience and suitability to the proper discharge of relevant duties.

People with disabilities will be offered facilities at interviews to enable them to demonstrate their suitability for employment.

Candidates for vacant posts will be assessed against relevant criteria only, ie skills, qualifications and experience, in selection for recruitment

Requests by interviewees will be taken into account and reasonable adjustments made

Staff Development

All employees have equal chances of training, career development and promotion

All staff, and in particular those concerned with selection and promotion, are given equality awareness information

People becoming disabled while in employment will be given positive help to retain their jobs or to be considered for redeployment if that is necessary

Pupils

Pupils have equal access to the National Curriculum programmes of study (unless disapplied) throughout EYFS and each Key Stage, and non‑compulsory courses, according to aptitude and ability

The school is committed to full educational inclusion (see SEN policy)

The Code of Conduct and the Bully Book have been produced by the children with the help of their teachers and all children understand that any verbal abuse or vocalisation of discrimination on any grounds are not tolerated at Bute House

Positive attitudes and awareness development for equality of opportunity is specifically taught through the Citizenship and RE programmes. All subjects will have equality of opportunity at their core

GENDER As a girls’ school we are aware of a possible female bias. Care is taken that resources such as books, videos etc. present a balanced picture.

NATIONALITIES, ETHNIC BACKGROUND AND RELIGION

Children of all nationalities, backgrounds and religions are welcomed as pupils .

DISABILITIES

Bute House is aware of the potential for the enhancement of the school’s education and life by inclusive policies .

Bute House has a three year rolling accessibility plan as is required under SENDA.

ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE

Pupils with English as a second language are immediately integrated within the classroom and extra support is given as required. Prior to entry, parents complete a form indicating the languages spoken at home. Staff are thus alerted to any child who may need support and help with EAL. Any extra help is given by school staff within the normal school day.

Racist or Homophobic Bullying

All staff have a legal duty not to bully or otherwise harass anyone else

Where staff come across incidents involving racist, ageist or homophobic bullying they must report these to the appropriate senior member of staff

All incidents of bullying amongst pupils will be taken seriously, and must be dealt with appropriately and reported to the appropriate senior member of staff

Administration

Venues for meetings will take account of the needs of all participants

Interviews will take into account any requests from interviewees

Venues for teaching and learning will take into account the particular needs of the pupils and teacher/teaching assistant

Documents

Access to documentation for parents will if necessary include alternative formats such as tape, disk, large print and languages other than English

Inclusion Policy

Inclusion is concerned with the learning, participation and equal opportunities of all children, all of whom have a right to access the entire curriculum. It has wider implications than the identification of children with special educational needs. It could apply to any or all of the following:

Minority ethnic and faith groups
Children who need support to learn English as an additional language
Children with LDD and SEN including those with learning, emotional, behavioural or social difficulties
Children with physical difficulties
Bereaved children or those suffering difficulties at home
Sick children
The gifted and talented

Promoting inclusion will help all children to realise their potential in terms of achievement, learning through access to curricular and extra-curricular activities both in and out of school, with due regard to the preferences and rights of individuals.

Inclusive principles highlight the importance of meeting the individual needs of all children and young people.

Bute House endeavours to meet the individual needs of each child through partnership with the child, her parents or carers, all her teachers and outside agencies, where necessary.

The school endeavours to:

Set suitable learning challenges and has high expectations
Respond to pupils’ diverse needs
Overcome potential barriers to learning and channels resources towards early intervention and the supporting of IEPS
Recognise that adequate resourcing is essential to the confidence with which staff feel able to include all children whatever their needs
Differentiate lesson planning for those whose attainment significantly falls below or exceeds the expected level
Support staff in gaining a wider understanding of disability/ equality issues
Ensure that the language and images used to describe children with any disability are positive and provide positive role models
Disseminate information on best practice
Ensure flexible and prompt arrangements for identifying, reviewing and providing for the needs of all pupils
Develop children’s communication skills so that their views may be heard and taken into account
Ensure that the adults in the school represent the wider community and that they provide positive role models.

Teachers do their best to:

Use approaches appropriate to different learning styles
Create an effective learning environment
Encourage the concentration and motivation of pupils
Provide equality of opportunity through teaching approaches
Use appropriate assessment procedures
Set individual targets for learning as appropriate
Provide a rich variety of resources and reading matter including ICT
Build on pupils’ own experiences
Use materials that are free from discrimination and stereotyping

DISABILITY

Admission to the school depends upon at 4+, a ballot and at 7+ an assessment that the prospective pupil meets the criteria required to maintain the educational and general standards for all its pupils commensurate with the ethos to which the school aspires.

The school must also feel reasonably sure that it will be able to educate and develop the prospective pupil to the best of his or her potential and in line with the general standards achieved by the pupil’s peers, so that there is every chance that the pupil will have a complete, happy and successful primary school career, and emerge a confident, well-educated and well-rounded 11 year old ready for transfer to a suitable senior school. [These criteria must continue to be met throughout the pupil’s time at the school.]

The school’s policy is to apply these criteria to all pupils and potential pupils regardless of any disability of which it is aware, subject to its obligation to make reasonable adjustments not to put any disabled pupil or potential pupil at a substantial disadvantage compared to any pupil who is not disadvantaged because of his or her disability.

The school asks parents to complete a form in respect of a prospective pupil at the time of application. In assessing any pupil or prospective pupil the school may take such advice and require such assessments as it regards as appropriate. Subject to this, the school will be sensitive to any requests for confidentiality. [The school believes that there is great enhancement of school education and life by this inclusive policy but with equal importance being given to ensuring that no pupil’s education is impaired.]

Some or all of the following may be relevant:

One of the obvious problems which the school has is its lay-out but there is one lift available which gives access at the west side of all three levels. Another is the system, again common to many schools, of having fixed classrooms for each subject, based on the valid ground of having all the facilities for one subject in one place. This requires pupils to go from classroom to classroom, often up steps or stairs.

It is not hard to conclude that any pupil with impaired mobility is going to be put at a disadvantage by these problems. Nor can these matters be remedied in any substantial way by reasonable adjustments short of making major alterations to physical features of the school at prohibitive cost.

The school has set up a Disability Policy Review Group which consists of the Bursar and the SENCO a and may co-opt additional members whose expertise in any field would be of assistance. The committee’s terms of reference are:

to review the school’s policies, procedures and facilities as they are likely to affect pupils and prospective pupils who are disabled;

to make recommendations with a view to improving the accessibility of its education in its many aspects to pupils or prospective pupils with disabilities and by planning for the future and to prepare this Disability Policy;

to prepare and review the school’s Disability Policy;

to prepare the school’s Accessibility Plan (Bursar);

to review such plans and policies as necessary and at least every 2 years.

The following areas have been considered in detail by the Committee with the results set out below:

Admissions

The Committee has reviewed the school’s admissions literature, policy, examinations and procedures and has introduced a form (to be treated as confidential if the applicant or parents require) giving the school details of the nature and effect of any disability so as to enable it to consider any adjustments it might need to make.

This refers to adjustments made, or which can be made as the case requires, in this area as a result of the findings of the Committee, particularly preliminary discussions with parents, aids which may be used in exams etc.

Physical lay-out of the school

At the moment the School allows for most physical disabilities because of the lift.

Education

Consideration has been given to

The problems of physical access caused by the fixed classroom system.

The difficulties of ‘access’ to the education generally for specified types of disability eg sight or hearing-impaired, dyslexia, etc.

Recreational Activities

The difficulties of ‘access’ to the particular activities for some types of disability: these will be addressed on a case by case basis

Sporting Education and Activities

The difficulties of ‘access’ to education generally for specified types of disability: These will be addressed on a case by case basis

Welfare

The difficulties which might arise for specified types of disability:

eg bullying, non-integration, physical and mental welfare, health,

This will be addressed on a case by case basis

Awareness and Observance of the Policy

Through the existing machinery in the school for ensuring awareness and observance of the policy:

eg talks, written guidance for staff, discussions, codes of behaviour,

ButeHousePreparatory Schoolwelcomes its responsibilities and duties under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. This policy is consistent with the Code of Practice on the Duty to Promote Equality (2001) and Preparing a Race Equality Policy for Schools (Commission for Racial Equality 2002).

The school recognises and values cultural diversity and seeks to celebrate it.

The school does not have a significant number of pupils from ethnic minority groups, but recognizes the positive role it must play in developing an understanding of the importance of racial harmony so that our pupils are well equipped to play their part in a multi-cultural society.

Other relevant policies:

Race Relations

Anti-Bullying

Disability Discrimination

Accessibility Plan

Policy for the Administration of Medicines

Monitoring and Review

This policy and the practices contained within it will be reviewed annually.

Reviewed September 2004, September 2005, September 2006, September 2007, September 2008, May 2009