Equality and Diversity in the Curriculum

The Equality Act 2010 act makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone on the grounds of any of the protected characteristics of:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage or civil partnership
• pregnancy

At Weston Favell Primary School a commitment to equality runs through our Curriculum offer. We comply with our duties of the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 to ensure that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are able to take advantage of the same opportunities as their peers.

At Weston Favell Primary School we are committed to ensuring that our school and curriculum truly reflect the diversity within our community and the wider world. This is a journey, and we are always looking to make things better so that equality truly becomes a reality. We do this by educating ourselves and others about the life experiences of a wide variety of people throughout history and those that have been marginalised. In addition, we make sure our resources and teaching celebrate and acknowledge the variety of experiences, cultures and families that exist all around us.

In our approach to the design and delivery of our curriculum, we take our responsibilities to comply with the Equalities Act 2010 very seriously. This is done through:

• Positive and respectful relationships between child and adult, adult and adult, child and child
• Deep awareness of children’s SEMH needs as well academic needs
• High expectations for all children
• Barriers to learning identified and planned for in collaboration with parents
• Consistent and embedded engagement strategies to ensure all children own their learning
• Scaffolds to enable learning
• High priority on talk in the classroom
• Small step teaching
• A range of techniques used to ensure learning stays in the long-term memory e.g. drama, retrieval
• Opportunities provided for pupils to relate content and learning methods to their own experiences
• Annual ‘Cultures Day’ at the start of the year to enable us all to know and understand more about each other’s cultures, traditions and beliefs.
• An inclusive, invitational and inspirational approach to daily worship
• Visitors into school from a range of cultural backgrounds
• Visits to places of worship from a range of different faiths
• Pupils empowered to take responsibility for their own, and each other’s learning.
• Learning environments which reduce cognitive load.
• Teaching methods and learning activities varied to support diverse learning preferences and to encourage active participation of all e.g. use of visual materials, coloured overlays, hearing support resources, differentiated or adapted tasks and support resources.
• Aspects of learning and teaching (content, learning activities, modes of learning etc.) adapted based on pupil learning needs.
• Fair and consistent approach to the management of behaviour
• Opportunities for children to learn appropriate behaviours for different situations in a safe environment
• Providing opportunities to develop emotional literacy skills
• Provide children with opportunities to work with diverse and mixed groups
• Integrate themes of equality, diversity and cultural relativity into material and activities, relating these to real world scenarios
• Provide opportunities for the sharing of diverse experiences, voices, and learning of pupils
• Encourage the expression of diverse perspectives and interpretations

By the end of Year 6 our aim is for our children to be compassionate, courageous, persevering, and well-informed citizens of the world and to live life in all its fullness in their community.  The very beginnings of this start in the Early Years. 

“Teach children how they should live, and they will remember it all their lives.” Proverbs 22:6.  In the Early Years, we want our children to be kind, to cooperate, regulate their emotions, know that their voice is valued, be able to articulate themselves and listen to others and develop their independence.  It is vital to us that children have a sense of belonging and this is rooted in their locality and community.  We want children to find the joy in the diversity of our world. 

By the end of the Early Years, children will have gained the skills, attitudes and passion to be able to learn and access the National Curriculum.  They will have the confidence to have a go and know that making mistakes is how we learn and they do this within the parameters of a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum.  Our vision is for children to quickly develop a love of reading and language which will unlock the world of learning.

We have high expectations for all our children so that they can access the next stage of learning through meeting key identified milestones and the Early Learning Goals.  We are tenacious in our approach to learning so that nothing is left to chance. 

 Reception Long Term Planning