Equality Information

Matthew Arnold Primary School will promote equal opportunity and will not tolerate inequality in any area of the school’s life or work. All will be treated equally and given equal access to the curriculum and life of the school. All will have equal opportunity to benefit from all that we offer. Our intention is to develop an ethos in which all will thrive. Diversity and differences will be valued and respected by all and they will contribute to the richness of our school life and learning. 

The Equality Act became law in 2010 and it covers everyone in Britain and protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

Under the Equality Act 2010, we welcome our general duty to

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by The Equality Act 2010
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

We recognise our specific duties which aims to assist us to meet our general duty -

• To annually publish information on how we are complying with the Equality Duty including to publish information on our school population.
• To publish equality objectives every four years, which show how we plan to tackle particular inequalities and reduce or remove them

The national curriculum recognises how important it is for children to understand the world in which they live in. We children to live alongside and show respect for a diverse range of people. A way in which schools can ensure they are providing children with the knowledge and skills to do this is through the teaching of the nine protected characteristics.

It is extremely important for us here at Matthew Arnold, that our children grow to be respectful, ambitious and empathetic pupils who respect the world in which they live in. 

The 9 protected characteristics are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

In Matthew Arnold, we actively promote the protected characteristics in our curriculum.  The DfE does stress that not all of these characteristics have to be taught in every year group and schools should use their professional judgement to plan their curriculum appropriately. In Matthew Arnold our PSHE/RSE lessons are taught through 3D PSHE and Medway plans (RSE).  We further adapt these plans to meet the specific needs of our children and community.