Equality and Diversity

WR Equalities Statement

Our school makes all members of our community feel welcome and valued. Our vision and values promote inclusivity and equality and tackle discrimination. We have high expectations for all our pupils irrespective of race, creed, gender or disability.

In line with the PSED (Public Sector Equality Duty) of the Equality Act 2010 we publish the following data as at September 2024:

Characteristic	Breakdown
Number of pupils	419 (209 male & 210 female)
Number of staff inc ft and pt	40 (20% male 80% female)
Number of governors	12. 42% male 58% female
Attainment on entry	Broadly average from a large range
Pupil Mobility	Very low. We serve a very stable community
Pupil premium	14 (3%)
Ethnicity	1% 1.7% 1.7% 1.9% 2.1% 4.3% 4.8% 6.7% 6.9% 57% 11.9%	Any Other Ethnic Group Any Other White Background White and Black Caribbean White European Chinese White and Asian Any Other Asian Background Indian White Other White British Not disclosed or less than 1% (statistically identifiable)
English as an additional language	45%
Special Educational Needs not including 3.8 % EHCP	18%
Attendance rate 2022-23	95.7%

Our equality objectives and principles 2024-2028

William Ransom Primary School will actively work towards fulfilling its Equality Objectives for 2024 – 2028 and the Equality Act 2010 by following these general and specific principles:

General principles

To value all learners equally, whatever their ethnicity, culture, national origin or status, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious or non-religious affiliation or faith background, and whether they have special educational needs, a disability or they are neurodiverse.
To recognise, respect and value difference, understanding diversity as a strength. To take account of differences and strive to remove barriers and disadvantages which people may face, in relation to disability, ethnicity, gender, religion, belief or faith and sexual orientation.
To foster positive attitudes and respectful relationships throughout our school community.
To foster a shared sense of cohesion and belonging. We want all members of our school community to feel a sense of belonging within the school and wider community and to know that they are respected and able to participate fully in school life.
To eliminate prejudice, discrimination, harassment and bullying, and to increase understanding of equality through direct teaching across the curriculum. We will promote spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through all appropriate curricular and extra-curricular opportunities.
To eliminate deterministic notions of fixed ability through staff behaviour and all types of communication, developing a growth mindset in pupils and avoiding labeling. We have the highest expectations of all our pupils, in terms of progress and achieving excellence.
To work to raise standards for all pupils, but especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. We believe that improving the quality of education for the most vulnerable groups of pupils raises standards across the whole school for everyone.
To implement equal opportunities principles, monitoring and actively promoting equality in all aspects of staffing and employment, including recruitment and continuing professional development.
To take every opportunity to increase the diversity of the staff and governing body of the school, as well as visitors and work-shop leaders, to reflect the diversity of our community.

Specific to our context

Objective 1

For pupils to understand they have rights, how they can exercise their rights and understand how rights link to responsibilities.

Why we have chosen this objective: We have recently revised our behaviour policy which now focuses on the United Nations Convention on Rights of a Child (UNCRC) to help children understand the impact of negative behaviour and for adults to give strategies to bring about positive impact from behavioural choices in the future.

To achieve this objective we plan to: fully implement the behaviour policy and embed across all aspects of the school on an ongoing basis.

Progress we are making towards this objective:

Create the behaviour policy with staff and governors – May 2024
Introduce the behaviour policy to children and parents – Sept 2024
Introduce Class marble jars to all classes – Sept 2024

Objective 2

To enable the school to support the needs of diverse, vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

Why we have chosen this objective: To ensure that we are fully supporting the needs of all of our children across the school and implementing targeted and specific strategies to support identified pupils where needed.

To achieve this objective we plan to: Fully implement the Pupil Premium strategy where needed in a targeting specific children where appropriate.

Progress we are making towards this objective:

Pupil Premium Strategy being administered as planned (internally tracked) - ongoing

Introduction of Mental Health Lead role – June 2024
Weekly triaging SEND team – Sept 2024
Launch Let Grow – Sept 2024
When the Adults Change training – Oct 2024
SEND training – Nov 2024

Objective 3

For all pupils to be able to see themselves in their schooling and in the curriculum to promote inclusion.

Why we have chosen this objective: To ensure that all children feel included and have a high level of self-worth and a positive image of themselves.

To achieve this objective we plan to: ensure all children are included in displays around the school and to regularly review the curriculum to ensure it references and includes the different cultures in our school and in society.

Progress we are making towards this objective:

Inspirational quotes from a variety of cultures and gender – April 2024
Graffiti workshop for Year 5/6 – July 2024
Whole curriculum review leading to changes in specific subjects – ongoing

Objective 4

Recruitment procedures ensure equality for candidates and that the recruiting panel recruit the best person to the role.

Why we have chosen this objective: to ensure that we have fair and robust recruitment procedures.

To achieve this objective we plan to: use blind recruitment strategies.

Progress we are making towards this objective:

Is currently being used through Teach in Herts for all appointments - ongoing

Equality and Diversity Parent and Carer Questionnaire

For some of the statements on the questionnaire, a small number of parents did not know what the school provides. For this reason, here is further information:

Our curriculum is driven by the need to prepare our children for lifelong learning. It celebrates diversity and utilises the skills, knowledge and cultural wealth of the community whilst supporting the pupils’ spiritual, moral and cultural development. The uniqueness of every child is recognised and valued. We constantly adapt our learning journey to meet the needs and interests of our children; our rich and vibrant curriculum is ambitious for all learners.

In our PHSE teaching throughout school, we use an online resource: One Decision. In keystage 1, the unit called Growing in our World explores the human cycle and how our families are special and unique. In keystage 2, in Year 4, the World without Judgement unit incorporates breaking down barriers, challenging stereotypes and supporting those who have disabilities. In Year 5, we use the Inclusion and Acceptance unit, which explores the topic of a child having same sex parents, children’s and adult’s views where children and adults share their views on a world without judgement. In Year 6, the unit on British Values looks at how we can be inclusive and ensure everyone’s beliefs and needs are respected.

In our Religious Education curriculum, all six major religions are covered and we also cover some non-religious practices such as Humanism. For more information, see our RE curriculum page on the school website. https://www.wransom.co.uk/curriculum/religious-education/

Weekly Achievers’ Assemblies highlight individual successes and achievements in all areas. In these assemblies, we also award leaves for children who show the school’s values. The kindness award is also given out half termly with all nominees gaining a certificate; we believe this helps to promote kindness and tolerance of others.

We celebrate our rich cultural diversity with our annual diversity display board in the school entrance and our annual Festival of Languages. Our children are encouraged to share the knowledge, language and customs of their families to help develop a deeper awareness of self and others.

Diversity Club for Upper Keystage 2 meets weekly. The children discuss diversity related topics and prepare assemblies termly to share their work with Years 3-6. They also create a display board termly sharing the topics they have discussed.

Individual children are given the opportunity to talk about their different strengths and weaknesses and share information about neurodiversity. We also try to celebrate different national awareness days such as: Autism Day, Developmental Language Disorder Day, Hats off for Lyra Day, Children in Need, etc. Our SENDCO regularly provides teachers with resources created for children to learn about disabilities. In January 2023, all classes watched Heidi Buckell’s short puppetry films which raise awareness about cerebral palsy.

This year, we are pleased to have booked World Book Day Workshops with Gemma Keir from The Abilities in Me Foundation. The Abilities in Me books aim to raise awareness of special educational needs and conditions that children may encounter. The book series is written for young people that celebrates what these children can do, rather than what they cannot do.

During spring term 2023, all classes are participating in a Diversity and Inclusion Project across the school in English lessons. Each year group will focus on a different book with a different age-appropriate focus. In 2022, we purchased books to the value of £800 with a focus on a range of topics to celebrate diversity and inclusion to use across the school. These books are shared during whole class reading at the end of each day.

If you have any further suggestions or ideas for how we can improve our provision on this subject please email head@wransom.herts.sch.uk