Upham CE Primary School is committed to equality and valuing diversity and we actively seek to promote equality for all of our children, our families, our staff and our governors. This is intrinsic within our ethos where 'Love and Care' is for everyone to everyone and in 'Value all achievement', the small word 'all', is the most powerful.

The Equality Act 2010

We recognise our obligations under the Equality Act 2010 to promote the equality and diversity of all those we work with. We challenge and oppose all forms of unlawful and unfair discrimination, bullying and harassment and will make every effort to fully comply with the requirements of the Act.

To meet our obligations under the public sector equality duty, we have due regard to:

• challenge and eliminate any discrimination, harassment and victimisation or any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010.
• Advance opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not,
• Foster positive relationships between all people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The Protected Characteristics

The  protected characteristics under the Equality Act are:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

How do we teach these Protected Characteristics

In order to teach children about these characteristics, we take relevant opportunities across the curriculum and school life where there are meaningful contexts, such as:

• Embedded across the RSHE curriculum, where elements, for example, such as friendships and families represent the full diversity that could be represented so all children can identify.
• Opportunities to give context to the protected characteristics are identified in RSHE curriculum intent documents
• During collective worship, opportunities are taken to challenge perceptions and highlight diversity, such as where angels and Santa Clause are shown as different races. Planning identifies these links.
• Where other cultures are explored, such as during multicultural week, care is taken to not stereotype and positive diversity is promoted.
• Carefully chosen class texts to challenge, inspire and question the world, such as 'Refugee Boy' by Benjamin Zephaniah in Class 4.
• Displays around school
• Careful gender, racial and belief modelling from staff and through visitors
• Any homophobic, racial or other prejudicial language or behaviour is challenged with the HT taking a lead role and trends documented carefully. A climate of children protecting each other and not standing for prejudicial behaviours is key to elimination.
• Opportunities to display all family and friendship types are taken:

Within our Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) curriculum, aspects of the protected characteristics have obvious points where it would be appropriate and meaningful to explore more fully. These opportunities are identified within the curriculum map: 

Here is a summary table of where these opportunities appear across the RSHE curriculum:

Equality Policies

The following policies contribute towards ensuring equality:

Some Examples of Resources Used:

Here are just a few examples of some resources used within school to raise the context of the protected characteristics (and equaity) in the context of other teaching and input.