Equality and Diversity and The Berkeley

At The Berkeley we believe that every child has the ight to equality of outcome and to achieve their full potential. In order to achieve equity we embrace the principals of fairness, social justice, inclusion, global citizenship and community cohesion. We welcome our responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010. 

At The Berkeley we believe that positive actions are fundamental in ensuring all stakeholders in our school have equal chance to achieve, participate and fulfil their roles in school and the wider community. Equality for all helps us to develop a sense of identify, social justice and to be successful as individuals, as a school and as a community. 

We understand equity to mean treating everyone fairly and with dignity and by valuing their individual characteristics such as age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. 

We further understand that people have different needs, situations and goals and some people may experience additional barriers and challenges. Therefore achieving equality of outcome requires the removal of discriminatory barriers, and the recognition that the allocation and distribution of resources cannot always be distributed equally if we are to live up to our commitment to everyone being able to achieve their full potential whilst at The Berkeley. 

What is the Public Sector Equality Duty? (DSED)

The Equality Act 2010 (the Act) replaces the previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act. It simplifies the law, removing inconsistencies and making it easier for people to understand and comply with it. It also strengthens the law in important way, to help tackle discrimination and inequality. The majority of the Act came into force on 1st October 2010.

Protected Characteristics

The new Equality Duty cover the following protected characteristics:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• pregnancy and maternity
• race-this includes ethnic or national origins , colour or nationality
• religion or belief - this includes lack of belief
• sex
• sexual orientations
• It also applied to marriage and civil partnership, but only in respect of the requirement to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination 

Equality Duty aims:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act;
• advance equality of opportunity between people show share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and
• foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it. 

The Equality Objectives at the Berkeley Academy are:

• ​to promote spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through all appropriate curriculum opportunities, with particular reference to issues of equality and diversity
• to reduce prejudice and increase understanding of quality through direct teaching across the curriculum
• to increase understanding between religious groups
• to promote community cohesion, particularly those related to pupils' understanding of community cohesion in the national context
• to raise achievement and attainment in mathematics to match the levels of achievements and attainment in English for boys and girls at the end of KS1 and the end of KS2
• to ensure that groups of pupils, including those with special educational needs, are making progress in line with similar groups nationally
• to encourage all pupils to consider non-stereotyped career options

School Policies that relate to the PSED

• ​Equality Policy 
• Inclusion Policy
• P.S.H.C.E. Policy