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Diversity & Equality

Diversity and Equality at Norwich Road Academy

 

 

 

At Norwich Road Academy, we see our diversity as one of our key strengths. Everyone who enters our academy (whether they be children, parents, staff and visitors) brings with them a unique experience and perspective and by allowing these experiences to be shared, we believe we are made stronger.

Schools are required to publish information which is updated annually showing how they comply with the equality duty and to set at least one equality objective every 4 years (this can be found on our policies page here

The need to advance equality of opportunity is defined in the Equality Act 2010 as having due regard to the need to:

  • Remove or minimise disadvantages.
  • Take steps to meet different needs.
  • Encourage participation when it is disproportionately low.

The public sector equality duty extends to the following protected characteristics:

  • Race
  • Disability
  • Sex
  • Age (as an employer, not regarding pupils)
  • Religion/Belief
  • Sexual Orientation
  • Pregnancy and Maternity
  • Gender Reassignment
What we do:

Our curriculum has been developed to ensure that children are taught about a wide range of topics from all round the world. When planning a unit of work, we ensure that we take into consideration the impact on the protected characteristics listed above. This could include ensuring that a history topic includes learning on the role of women in Anglo Saxon society or the impact of empires on the indigenous people.

We have developed an open culture in the school where children feel comfortable asking questions. We feel this is a key part of misconceptions being challenged.

Our Cultural Society organise collaborative events with St Michael’s Junior School in Norwich. This includes work on Black History Month and Christmas. The society’s aim is to ensure that cultural diversity and inclusion is embedded throughout our curriculum.

The Norwich Road Academy Young Interpreters involves a group of pupils who have an empathetic outlook in welcoming new arrivals to the school and supporting them during their induction period, as well as with ongoing social situations around school.

We have an ongoing relationship with the Norwich-Dedza partnership. This provides the opportunity to work with schools in Malawi, sharing experiences and resources. More information can be found here: Norwich Dedza Partnership. Our Year 2 children are working to raise money to fund a latop at our partner school so that we can then arrange online meetings with them.

We are working on diversifying our selection of books – including whole class texts that reflect diversity and are informative. Examples of this include, ‘Diversity’ and ‘What is racism?’ As part of this ongoing process, Our New Chapter wishlist allows books to be donated to the school. Our wishlist reflects our commitment to diversifying the selection of books available to our children and can be found here:  Norwich Road Academy Wishlist

Our assembly timetable ensures that world issues and events (from religious festivals to Chinese New Year and Black History Month). Our weekly ‘Picture News’ assembly ensures that children have the opportunity to hear the news from a reliable source as well as having the opportunity to ask their own questions. Every week our Daily Mile takes us around the world so we can explore new places virtually.

We celebrate cultural diversity through events like European Day of Language – where children get the opportunity to immerse themselves in a European language for the day. This also includes learning on the history and culture of the country as well as trying some food.

We have developed our Norwich Road Academy community through our mission statement, ‘Building our love of learning together’ which is emphasised in our academy prayer that is recited in each assembly as well as and through weekly messages and displays around the academy.