St Mary's aims to foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it by:

• Promoting tolerance, friendship and understanding of a range of religions and cultures through different aspects of our curriculum.  This includes teaching in RE, RSE, citizenship and personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, but also activities in other curriculum areas.  For example, as part of teaching and learning in English/reading, pupils will be introduced to literature from a range of cultures;
• Holding assemblies dealing with relevant issues.  Pupils will be encouraged to take a lead in such assemblies and we will also invite external speakers to contribute;
• Working with our local community.  This includes inviting leaders of local faith groups to speak at assemblies, and organising school trips and activities based around the local community;
• Encouraging and implementing initiatives to deal with tensions between different groups of pupils within the school.  For example, our school council has representatives from different year groups and is formed of pupils from a range of backgrounds.  All pupils are encouraged to participate in the school’s activities, such as sports clubs.  We will also work with parents to promote knowledge and understanding of different cultures;
• We have developed links with people and groups who have specialist knowledge about particular characteristics, which helps inform and develop our approach.

EQUALITY OBJECTIVES

• Objective 1: Promotion of cultural understanding, awareness and respect of different religious beliefs between different ethnic groups within our school community;
• Objective 2: Monitor and promote the involvement of all groups of students in the extra-curricular life of the school, including leadership opportunities, especially students with special educational needs and disabilities;
• Objective 3: Actively close gaps in attainment and achievement between students and all groups of students especially students eligible for free school meals, students with special educational needs and disabilities, looked-after children, and students from minority ethnic groups;
• Objective 4: Continue to improve accessibility across the school for students, staff and visitors with disabilities, including access to specialist teaching areas;
• Objective 5: Endeavour to ensure that the staff body and representation of staff in leadership roles is reflective of the local community;
• Objective 6: Reduce the incidence of the use of homophobic, sexist and racist language by students in the school.