Parents and Carers we need your help!
We ensure that all staff and Governors have a good knowledge of our Equality Statement and adhere to its tenets. We share our Equalities Statement with families and we review it with parent working parties every year.
We actively promote a whole school ethos of equality and anti-discrimination in our school, through the curriculum, through PSHE, through school assemblies and through our daily interaction with pupils.
We are committed to representing and promoting the understanding of diverse faiths, religions and beliefs.
We are committed to promoting the understanding of diverse family models.
We are committed to deliver a robust relationships education programme which represents people who share protected characteristics and people who do not share protected characteristics and which promotes non-gender bias.
We are committed to developing the equality and diversity of our provision and are in the process of completing whole-school audits of all curriculum subjects to identify areas that could be improved. This has led to the creation of an action plan that has informed the School Development Plan.
On our spring term cultural awareness day, we explored themes of:
Celebrating Difference | Diversity Empathy | Identity | Role Models | Goals.
Each year group had a different inspirational person to focus on which were taken from the book ‘Amazing Muslims who Changed the World’ by Burhana Islam.
Thank you so much to the families who donated copies to the school! It was greatly appreciated.
Please take a look at what each year group did throughout the day.
We have a whole school approach that recognises that all children and members of the school community are different, that children come from a diversity of family backgrounds and have a diversity of experience, need and learning styles.
Through our curriculum, resources and communication, we aim to give all children and members of the school community the opportunity to be represented and to have good outcomes.
One of the ways we aid our work on advancing equality is through 'Awareness Days'. Each term we hold a whole school awareness day where the focus is on a culture that is represented in our school. The past year we have had a whole day celebrating and learning about: Black British History, South Asian British History and Refugees. This is in addition to Black history being taught throughout the curriculum all year round.
Black History Month is about celebrating and sharing knowledge; celebrating the contribution Black people have made to freedoms, our culture and our society – from books, music to art. Each year group spent time throughout the month of October celebrating Black history month.
Although Black History Month only happens once a year, the teaching of Black history doesn’t begin and end there. Our curriculum at St Paul’s supports children learning about it all year round as part of our broad & diverse curriculum. We want all pupils to benefit from a high quality and diverse curriculum.
It is an essential part of our history. The English Heritage describes Black histories as ‘a vital part of England’s story, reaching back many centuries. There is evidence of African people in Roman Britain, and Black communities have been present since at least 1500.’ The stories and experiences of Black people in Britain are inseparable from the history of this country but have often been sidelined. As a school, we want to help children explore the full range of British history.
It has been often omitted from the curriculum. A report by The Black Curriculum, authored by sociologist Dr Jason Arday, states that the national curriculum for history ‘systematically omits the contribution of Black British history in favour of a dominant White, Eurocentric curriculum.’ This is especially visible when looking at secondary education, which shows that only around 11% of GCSE students study modules which refer to Black people’s contribution to Britain. Similarly, one survey of over 50,000 people found that, while 86% had learnt about the Tudors in school, less than 10% had learnt about the role of slavery in the British Industrial Revolution or about the colonisation of Africa.
It supports all students. Representation matters, both in our history and in the workforce. The Black Curriculum also states that an inclusive curriculum ‘fosters belonging while forging connectivity’ with all students.
Above is a table of where Black history and representation is currently being taught across the school over the full year. As ever, this is subject to change.
At our school, we are committed to working with our families and the wider local community to ensure that multi- cultural, multi faith and the ever-changing nature of the United Kingdom is understood and valued. We will teach all children about ‘fundamental British values’ in an age-appropriate way through a broad and balanced curriculum and also through the examples set by all members of staff. The British Values are: Democracy, The Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Mutual Respect, Tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
The Black Curriculum Report 2021: Black British History in the National Curriculum