Nicolas Copernicus Polish Saturday School in Peterborough
Equal Opportunities Policy
It is the responsibility of the school to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all pupils, based on the programmes of study for each key stage in the national curriculum. The teacher’s responsibility is to minimalise any obstacles to effective learning and plan for all children to participate in the curriculum and achieve the best that they can. This will help to ensure an inclusive classroom.
Basic principles
1 Every member of the school is regarded as of equal worth and importance, irrespective of his/her creed, culture, class, race, gender, sexuality and/or disability.
2 A good education for all our pupils is possible only if equal opportunities practices are an integral feature of all aspects of the life of the school.
3 Equal Opportunities practices should be evident in
4 All members of the school should be aware of our equal opportunities policies. This includes pupils, teaching staff, education support staff, governors and parents.
5 Any member of the school acting in a manner contrary to the spirit of the policy should be made aware of the unacceptable nature of his/her behaviour.
Equal opportunities issues should be seen as inter-related and as applying to all aspects of our school life. This should be kept in mind when reading the points outlined below, which cover the main areas.
1 Religion
1.1 We acknowledge that members of the school come from diverse backgrounds: some have no religious faith, others are committed to a greater or lesser extent to a variety of religions. We seek to promote an ethos of tolerance based on understanding of and respect for the beliefs and practices of others.
1.2 We do not seek to make pupils religious, but to teach them about religion.
2 Culture, class and race
2.1 We acknowledge that members of the school come from diverse cultural, racial and socio-economic backgrounds and we endeavour to foster an atmosphere of mutual respect in order to help to promote a school and a society in which there is social, religious and racial harmony.
2.2 We recognise the inequalities of opportunity which exist within society for individuals and groups and are determined to take positive action to enable every individual to raise his/her self esteem, expectations and performance so as to have wider choices in life.
2.3 We understand the need to be different without being excluded.
2.4 We are happy for pupils to wear special forms of dress where these are an essential part of their religious or cultural background - sikhs' turbans, muslim girls' headscarves etc.
2.5 We value the history, experience and contribution of our multicultural community and seek to express this in the curriculum and life of our school: all members should feel that their language or dialect is valued and that bilingualism is regarded as advantageous. We try to counter negative, patronising and stereotyped views: a prime cause of prejudice is ignorance and misunderstanding.
2.6 We make use of the Multicultural Centre for advice and teaching support.
2.7 We will not tolerate racist behaviour in any form.
2.8 We actively seek the involvement of our pupils' parents and inform them of our commitment to developing mutual respect.
3 Gender
3.1 As a school, we accept that there are gender inequalities in our society which impose limits, particularly on girls' expectations and behaviour, so we constantly examine our curriculum, procedures and materials for gender bias or inequality.
3.2 We encourage pupils to be aware of the rigid sex stereotypes presented by, for example, the media. We try to ensure that our resources include non-sexist books which value the achievements of women as well as men.
3.3 We are committed to providing a curriculum which avoids unnecessary historical gender divisions. All pupils experience subjects previously considered to be suitable for a single sex e.g. rugby, netball, cooking, woodwork etc.
3.4 We try to ensure
3.5 We do not differentiate between the sexes in respect of our school uniform.
3.6 We acknowledge the importance of effective links with first and upper schools in monitoring and furthering the progress of this policy.
4 Sexuality
4.1 As a school, we make no assumptions about the sexuality of any of our members.
4.2 In our curricula, sexuality is taught within the context of loving relationships. Whilst heterosexual relationships are the most common in our society, we acknowledge that a small but significant number of our pupils will develop a homosexual or bisexual orientation. Discussion of homosexuality is therefore included (albeit briefly) in the sex education programme for our third and fourth year pupils. In addition, pupils' questions are answered, as they arise, as honestly, factually and non-judgementally as possible.
4.3 Derogatory name-calling (of any sort) is unacceptable.
5 Special educational needs
5.1 We welcome pupils with special needs. We undertake to assess and meet the needs of all our pupils as far as we are able. We aim to create a happy and educationally exciting environment in which all pupils can prosper.
5.2 We try to avoid stereotyped assumptions about the behaviour of boys and girls as these can often influence identification and assessment procedures.
5.3 Because pupils develop at different rates for different activities, we adopt a child-centred approach to learning which is based on each pupil's needs.
5.4 We try to ensure that pupils with physical disabilities are facilitated in participating in the school's curriculum to the fullest possible extent.
5.5 Pupils with special educational needs constitute a very diverse group: they include pupils with physical, emotional, behavioural or learning difficulties, those with impaired sight or hearing. We acknowledge that especially able pupils have special needs, too.
In conclusion, equal opportunities, and inclusive practice in the classroom involves careful planning, by all professionals concerned, to ensure effective learning opportunities for all children.
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Nicolas Copernicus Polish Saturday School is working towards the National Quality Framework and Peterborough City Council.
The Quality Framework for Supplementary Schools is a voluntary quality recognition scheme, which is independent, peer-assessed and self-regulated. It is run for and by supplementary schools and those who support them. It aims to recognize, celebrate, record and improve the achievements of supplementary schools.