Celebrating Diversity, Promoting Equality

Our Equality Commitments

At Stanford Primary School and across PACE Academy Trust we celebrate diversity in all its forms and promote equality. We recognise that we are all different and the contributions of all our adults and children are seen, heard and valued. We respect our differences and take time to understand our varied experiences. We encourage one another to challenge our assumptions.

We aim to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. We will tackle the barriers which could lead to unequal outcomes and ensure equality of access for all stakeholders. We will treat people fairly and consistently. We will treat any allegations of discrimination seriously.

We welcome our duties under the Equality Act 2010. The school’s general duties, with regards to equality are:

• Eliminating discrimination
• Fostering good relationships
• Advancing equality of opportunity

We have set out our full statement of commitment to how we celebrate diversity and promote equality here .

Our School

Stanford Primary School is a small school with a highly inclusive ethos. We are proud of our diverse community, which represents children from many different backgrounds and are committed to ensuring that the curriculum and the experiences we offer represent and celebrate this divserity.  The data below is based on the IDSR (Feb 2022).

Over 80% of children come from a minority ethnic group. The school has 13 of the 17 possible ethnic groups and those with 5% of more are:

• - 19% -Any other white background
• - 14% - Black or Black British - African
• - 11% - Asian or Asian British – Pakistani
• - 9% - Asian or Asian British – Any Other Asian Background
• - 9% - White British
• - 8% - Black or Black British – Caribbean
• - 6% - Any other ethnic group

65% of children speak a first language other than English; this is well above the national average. There are over 27 languages spoken at Stanford with Polish, Urdu, Portuguese and Spanish the highest. Many children are at the early stages of learning English when they join us.

At Stanford, we have high aspirations for all our children and are committed to ensuring that pupils with a Special Educational Need or Disability receive the best possible school experience they can. Our Additional Resource Provision meets the needs of 25 children with autism and we also have a higher percentage of children with SEND across the mainstream classes.

24% of children within the mainstream school have been identified with a Special Need or Disability (SEND). The majority of children with a special need or disability have been identified with speech, language and communication as their primary need. 

At Stanford Primary School, we have a relentless focus on reducing barriers to learning where they exist so that all children in our school can develop and progress well. 35% of children are disadvantaged, which is above the national average. Our school focuses on ensuring these children achieve well through monitoring progress closely and ensuring pupils receive interventions, support and access to enrichment opportunities.

We know how important it is to ensure gender does not become a barrier to learning in any way and make sure that we represent gender positively throughout the curriculum and in the language that we use. We currently have an equal number of boys and girls throughout the school (83 girls, 84 boys).

Monitoring

At Stanford, we regularly monitor the progress of each individual and groups of learners to ensure that are making the best possible progress.  We use assessment and pupil progress meetings to identify where children or specific groups need additional support or actions to improve outcomes and ensure gaps in progress are addressed.

Our Equality Objectives

Across PACE, we believe that equality needs to be something we are constantly focused on and have committed to having an equality objective each year. In our school, staff and governors have identified two objectives that focus on this commitment:

To ensure there is a commitment to equality and diversity across all aspects of school life.

Our indicators of success are:

• Positive representation throughout school – through display, books, curriculum and wider opportunities
• Children have a strong self of self, identity, difference and fairness
• Recruitment practices are inclusive
• All stakeholders feel valued and have a voice
• There is evidence of a commitment to training with regards to equality and diversity from staff and governors is making towards achieving this target.

To ensure the specialist provision continues to provide a curriculum which meets the needs of pupils in both content and delivery

Our indicators of success are:

• Appropriate integration with the main school
• Personalisation of timetables to ensure OT, SaLT and personal needs met.
• Children are happy and access their learning through a tailored delivery

These objectives form part of our school improvement plan. Leaders and governors regularly review how much progress our school is making towards these objectives.