Equality and Diversity

^{'Children flourish in environments that promote diversity, equality and inclusion.'}

Equality and diversity at Almond Hill

Our school is committed to ‘Aim High’ and ensuring equality of education and opportunity for all pupils, staff, carers, and parents who form part of our school community and receive services from our school. We aim to promote an ethos of inclusivity and to celebrate the diversity of all those who are connected with our school to ensure all groups prosper regardless of the protective characteristics.

At Almond Hill, we aim to foster good relationship between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. We promote friendship, tolerance, and understanding of uniqueness. This may be achieved through teaching in RE and PSHCE lessons, in reading text and stories from different cultures, learning a modern language or exploring music from different parts of the world for example. We discuss world and current issues in assemblies and invite our children to lead assemblies. We promote links with our local community and welcome visitors with special knowledge to support our learning and understanding

What is equality?

Equality is ensuring individuals or groups that are not treated differently or less favourably on the basis of specific protected characteristic, including areas of race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation and age.

How is the Equality Act 2010 relevant to young people's lives?

Discriminatory behaviour often stems from ignorance. A lack of understanding of different cultures, beliefs or lifestyles is often a factor in things like bullying.

It’s essential to educate young people about equality, diversity, identity and human rights so that they learn to respect others, celebrate diversity and recognise prejudice and discrimination.

As children get older, they’ll increasingly find themselves in positions where issues of inequality and discrimination can impact them: in school, in further education, in work and in wider society.

Teaching children about their rights and the rights of others is important, and knowledge of the Equality Act 2010 will mean children can speak out on issues related to equality, now and in the future.

What is diversity

Diversity is the Superhero with an Invisible Cape | Inclusive Companies

Diversity involves promoting and celebrating the differences between us. It’s associated with promoting human rights, and is based on principles like dignity and respect. It requires taking into account and valuing people’s different backgrounds, knowledge and experiences, and creating an environment that makes positive use of these differences.

What’s the difference between equality and diversity?

Equality involves making sure everyone has equal opportunities, ensuring that nobody is treated differently because of protected characteristics.

Diversity involves considering the differences between people and valuing these differences as a positive.

What have we been doing in school?

The Abiltities in Me Foundation

Gemma Kier, author and founder of The Abilities In Me Foundation has kindly donated her entire book series to our school library. We are really proud to add these books to our library and look forward to sharing them with the children. Gemma will also be visiting our school in July to host an assembly for all year groups.

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Paralympic athlete visit

Almond Hill had the incredible Sean Rose visit year 5 and 6 for the morning recently. The children challenged themselves to take part in some exercise challenges and listened to a very inspirational and motivational assembly from Sean. He had some very important messages for the children about not giving up, persevering through difficult times and dreaming big. Here are what the children had to say:

'I couldn't believe the amazing things he's done. He's so brave!'

'I definitely want to do some of the cool things he's done when I'm older!'

'I liked how much he just kept on going and he didn't stop.'

^{May 2023}

Eplilepsy Awarness

On Monday, the school community went purple to raise awareness for epilepsy. It was fantastic to see so many people participate and I was very proud of how well the children engaged in my assembly on Monday. A big thank you to one of our parents who organised some bands to sell – I am very grateful and we raised £100!

^{March 2023}

Inclusivity Week

Last week we celebrated 'Inclusivity Week'. We discussed what being inclusive meant to us and about the meaning of the word diversity. We celebrated what makes us different and unique and how this enriches our lives. We thought about why sometimes people are not inclusive and how this makes people feel. We watched videos to help us understand which situations are not acceptable and we learnt about the definition of a hate crime. Please ask us all about how we can be more inclusive because we have lots of great ideas!

4L loved the video and diversity tasks. Here's our jigsaw all about us - differences and all. ‘I like talking about our differences this week in Inclusivity week. Some people might think being different is bad but it's not! We like to celebrate our differences at Almond Hill’.

Even though we are all different, we all fit together.’ 4O

Why are only some voices heard?

History Day
On Wednesday 8th June, the children at Almond Hill took part in a history day titled ‘Why are only some voices heard?’ which focused on how marginalised groups have faced inequality in the past and continue to do so now in the present. The children learnt about The British Empire, The Slave Trade and The Suffragettes and how these events impacted people’s lives in positive and negative ways. Some shocking facts were learnt throughout the day and the children engaged really well, creating some fantastic pieces of creative work, some of which can be seen below