Equality at Meadowside Academy

Equality Objectives

Meadowside Academy is an inclusive school where we focus on the well-being and progress of every child and where all members of our community are of equal worth.

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.

Our approach to equality is based on the following key principles:

1. All learners are of equal value
2. We recognise and respect difference
3. We foster positive attitudes and relationships and a shared sense of cohesion and belonging.
4. We observe good equalities practice in staff recruitment, retention and development.
5. We aim to reduce and remove inequalities and barriers that already exist.
6. We have the highest expectations of all our children.

Equality Information

Number of pupils on roll at the school: 212

Age of pupils 4-11

Information on pupils by protected characteristics

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination based on protected characteristics. Every person has several of the protected characteristics, so the Act protects everyone against unfair treatment.

To ensure that all pupils are protected from discrimination, the school collects information on protected characteristics.

Information on other groups of pupils

In addition to pupils with protected characteristics, we gather further information on the following groups of pupils:

• Pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM)
• Pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN)
• Disadvantaged group
• Pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL)
• Young carers
• Looked after children
• Other vulnerable groups

It may be possible to identify individuals from the information provided when the number of pupils with a characteristic is low and the information is sensitive personal information. In these cases we have indicated this by an asterisk*.  

Gender: 49.5% female, 50.5% male

Pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) : 20.8%

Pupils eligible for Pupil Premium Funding – Disadvantage group:  21.7%

Pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN): 18.4%   (SEN Support): 15%  (EHCP): 3.3%

Pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL): 9.4%

Young Carers: 2

Looked after children: 2

Through rigorous tracking and monitoring of individuals and of all the groups of children, including progress and attainment, and by providing equal opportunities to access the curriculum and activities, we aim to ensure that any gap in attainment for pupils within any of the above different groups is removed, or at least remains less than the gap nationally.

At Meadowside Academy, we are committed to every member of staff having a clear understanding of equality matters. The Headteacher, Rebecca Maiden, Assistant Headteacher, Helen Corkhill and Chair of Governors, Jean Carter, have been allocated special responsibility for ensuring this and have undertaken specialist training. 

Eliminating discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Act

The information provided here aims to demonstrate that we consider equality issues in everything that we do at Meadowside Academy. ‘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.

We eliminate discrimination by:

• Our behaviour policy ensures that all children feel safe at school and addresses prejudicial bullying
• Reporting, responding to and monitoring all racist incidents
• Regularly monitoring the curriculum to ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of our pupils and that it promotes respect for diversity and challenges negative stereotyping
• Ensuring that our pupil premium strategy targets the needs of our disadvantaged pupils and supports them in their learning and with wider opportunities.
• Teaching is of the highest quality to ensure children reach their potential and all pupils are given equal entitlement to success
• Tracking pupil progress to ensure that all children make rapid progress, and intervening when necessary
• Ensuring that all pupils could access extra-curricular provision

Listening to and monitoring views and experiences of pupils and adults to evaluate the effectiveness of our policies and procedures.

Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it

We advance equality of opportunity by:

• Using the information, we gather to identify underachieving groups or individuals and plan targeted intervention
• Ensuring participation of parents/carers and pupils in school development
• Listening to parents/carers
• Listening to pupils at all times.

Fostering good relations across all characteristics - between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it

We foster good relations by:

• Ensuring that Meadowside Academy is seen as a community school within our local community
• Ensuring that equality, diversity and inclusion are embedded in the curriculum and in collective worship.

Equality Objectives

At Meadowside Academy, we are committed to ensuring equality of education and opportunity for all pupils, staff, parents and carers, irrespective of race, gender, disability, belief, religion or socio-economic background.

To further support pupils, raise standards and ensure inclusive teaching, we have set the following objectives: -

Objective 1: To monitor and analyse pupil achievement by race, gender and disability and act on any trends or patterns in the data that require additional support for pupils.

Objective 2: To ensure that children who are disadvantaged achieve at least ARE with a proportion achieving GD which is in line with their peers, particularly in Reading, Writing and Maths.

Objective 3: To ensure that all children have equal opportunities to a wide, rich set of experiences through targetted support and funding. 

At Meadowside we ensure that we follow the Public Sector Equality Duty as detailed below:

The Public sector equality duty came in to force in April 2011 (s.149 of the Equality Act 2010) and public authorities like the Ministry of Justice are now required, in carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need to achieve the objectives set out under s149 of the Equality Act 2010 to:

(a) eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act 2010;

(b) advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;

(c) foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

To ensure transparency, and to assist in the performance of this duty, the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 require public authorities, named on , to publish:

• equality objectives, at least every four years (from 6th April 2012)
• information to demonstrate their compliance with the public sector equality duty (from 31st January 2012)

Meadowside Academy's Accessibility Plan

Please click here to read Meadowside Academy's Accessibility Plan

The following members of staff have undertaken training in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace (SSS Learning Qualification):

Headteacher: Mrs R Maiden

Assistant Headteacher: Miss H Corkhill

Chair of Governors: Mrs Jean Carter