Equalities policy guide: Equalities policy case studies

Health and Wellbeing is at the heart of our ethos and culture . We understand the importance of positive relationships and the impact they have on children’s experiences in school.

We are currently refreshing our Positive Relationship Policy with pupils, parents and staff to ensure all voices are heard and valued. This will also include an updated anti-bullying strategy in which all stakeholders will have an opportunity to participate in its development.

Background information

When we began we looked at the term ‘bullying’ with our focus groups. Children were beginning to explain that some may be bullied in different ways and for different reasons, which can include their colour, country and gender, to name a few.

We have always recognised and celebrated differences in school but there is a need to explore and deepen children’s understanding of non-discrimination and all of the protected characteristics.

We want our children to have an understanding in how this impacts on their rights, as outlined in the UNCRC. Our school community is diverse in culture, language and religions, and we want to recognise and celebrate this.

Setting survey

Across our school, children regularly self-report using the eight Wellbeing Indicators. Our pupil forums were made up of Primary 5-7 pupils, we were intentional about ensuring we had a range of pupil voice represented within these groups. Some of these pupils had indicated through their self-reporting that they do not feel ‘included’ or ‘respected’, we wanted to hear and include their voices during the pilot.

All children in the different groups acknowledged that they learn about rights in school, most said they were treated fairly in school and most knew where to go if they were being or feeling bullied.

The language used to describe bullying around the protected characteristics was limited, in terms of definitions and making direct links to the impact on their rights, which provided us with our next steps and informed our action plan.

Focus groups

Children in our school are passionate about sharing the importance of equal rights.

‘’Equal rights means to treat people the same, everyone should be kind to everyone, we should treat others equally, everyone has the same rights and they should get all of the rights they deserve. Equal rights mean treating everyone fairly and with respect, so then the children know what is fair and right.’’

‘’Children's rights and equalities are important to me because we're all the same and shouldn't be treated differently because of our identity. Rights keep us safe and they make me feel happy"

‘’It is important for every child under the age of 18 to learn about the rights of the child so that they know what they are and what they mean, they should know how to defend themselves with this evidence in some situations.’’

Pupil forums

During our pupil forums children explored the meaning of discrimination as a form of bullying.

‘’Discrimination is when people bully others because of the culture or the way they are or where they are from.’’

‘’Picking on people, mocking, physical conflict, racism, discrimination, treating someone differently based on their looks or identity.’’

‘’My view of discrimination is treating someone else poorly or worse because of who they are.’’

Developing the policy

Following the pupil and staff forums, all acknowledged the importance of treating others with respect and dignity. We celebrate differences. Pupils recognised some of these as culture, language and race. Diversity Week has always been part of our yearly calendar, moving forward we want to extend this to include the language and understanding of equalities and non-discrimination.

Children and staff recognised that children’s rights should be at the heart of our policy. We want children’s rights and our school values to weave their way through every aspect of our new policy.

We recognise that information can be shared to audiences in many creative ways. Our pupil forums gave our pupils the opportunity to speak and share their opinions, their voices came across passionately and we wanted to capture this. Working together, pupils and staff have created a podcast, our very first. Voices can be heard describing the UNCRC, exploring what rights mean to them and sharing their views on discrimination. Our podcasts sit at the bottom of our policies as a QR code.

Some of our primary pupils have helped to write songs to teach our Early Years pupils. These special songs teach the children the importance of #beingme, which is integral to our values.

What happens next

We are very excited to present our new Equalities Policy to our whole school community. An assembly and a special focus day is being planned for our children and families to celebrate our policy.

We have already shared the Podcasts with a focus group of parents who are helping us with our Anti-bullying strategy, they were very positive about this and the format in how it was presented.

We are planning to launch our new policy and podcast with our wider parent body at an upcoming conference. we really look forward to welcoming feedback from our school community. Moving forward we would like to include voices which represent all of our pupils.

Staff from both the primary school and Early Years Centre will regularly review and evaluate our policies and set new targets in our action plans, which will include the voices of our Pupil Equity Champions.

Promoting equality is fundamental to the vision and ethos in Pinewood school. In Pinewood we focus on the well-being and progress of every child and we are committed to ensuring all members of our community are of equal worth.  

Together with the WLC Promoting Positive Relationships policy, The Equality Act (2010) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provide us with a framework to support our commitment to valuing diversity, promoting equality and tackling discrimination.  

The Pinewood School Equality Policy (westlothian.org.uk) is based around our school values: 

Included 

All learners are of equal value – there is no discrimination based on disabilities, ethnicity, culture, economic background, national origin or status, gender identity, religious/non-religious affiliation or sexual orientation.  

We work hard to ensure that all pupils are able to fully access our curriculum in order to be happy and thrive.

Respected

We recognise, respect and celebrate differences and understand that diversity is a strength for supporting our pupils.  

Whole school ethos of respect has as collective impact on our pupils.  

Independent

We acknowledge and challenge all the potential barriers for our young people and strive to remove them to ensure that all learners have the same opportunities and can develop skills for life, learning and work.

We have the highest expectations of all of our children. We expect that pupils can make good progress and reach their full potential.

Pinewood's equality policy journey video

Pinewood School have also created a video capturing their equalities policy journey.

In 2020, Cawdor Primary School begun their journey in reimagining their curriculum. Developing their shared purpose, vision, values, and aims as the basis for their vision for 2030, following a year-long participatory consultation across the community, they launched their values in June 2022: kindness, teamwork, belonging, and respect.

Through their self-evaluation whilst embedding their values into the life and ethos of the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) setting and school as a community, it was identified that aspects of wellbeing were being considered as discrete strands, and the community would benefit from a cohesive approach to wellbeing underpinning their curriculum rationale.

The Way to Wellbeing policy was launched by the Young Leaders of Learning in March 2024.

The setting wide survey

Working with the Northern Alliance and Education Scotland, Cawdor used the Equality survey to better understand the experiences of children, whilst also providing feedback to enhance the survey for other users.

The data showed that most children felt:

• Cawdor is safe
• Cawdor is fair
• Cawdor enables confidence to try new things
• they knew what to do if they felt bullied or unfairly treated

Almost all children felt they learned about their rights.

Focus groups

Cawdor’s Young Leaders of Learning explored the data and identified that, whilst the initial data showed a positive picture for most children, there was work to do to ensure that their vision for 2030 could be achieved:

“Cawdor 2030 will be a safe, welcoming, happy and fun place for everyone to achieve their goals.” 

It was identified that the following areas needed further thought:

• What does equality mean, and why is it important?
• What is bullying, and what do we do if we feel we are being bullied or unfairly treated?

Themes explored in the learner conversations

Working alongside the Equality Workstream Lead for the Northern Alliance, Cawdor’s Young Leaders of Learning created a policy written by children for children and adults. It was important that the words were written in a way which children would understand. The group tested these words with their peers.

Alongside the words, children identified that there were visuals to support each of the areas. The Equality Workstream Lead for the Northern Alliance supported the Young Leaders of Learning to create visuals, alongside digital icons, and included these in the policy. An adult section of the policy was developed by the staff team in Cawdor.

The policy included six interwoven areas of wellbeing:

• Cawdor’s values
• the wellbeing indicators (SHANARRI)
• children’s rights (UNCRC)
• equality
• positive relationships
• anti-bullying

What will happen next

The Young Leaders of Learning also worked with Education Scotland to record audio for national resources. They are proud of this achievement.

As part of the launch the Young Leaders of Learning shared with

• children through classroom visits, and the development of a display within the school which explores each thread of the policy in detail
• parents through presenting the policy at a parent council meeting
• the community through the school’s newsletter

It is important that the policy is living and breathing for all. To support next steps the Cawdor community are:

• using their assemblies throughout the 2024/2025 session to embed the six interwoven areas of wellbeing, with pupil leadership groups shaping improvements
• engaging with the Rights Respecting Schools Award, working towards their silver accreditation in the 2024/2025 session
• further developing their curriculum to strengthen equality and diversity across learning alongside their ethos

If you are developing or reviewing equalities policies in your setting and looking for opportunities to collaborate, learn and access support, you can Join the Education Scotland Equalities Policy Guide Network (office.com). We will hold monthly drop-ins and offer professional learning opportunities relevant to policy development.