Diversity and Inclusion

Rationale 

Aston by Sutton Primary School is situated in Aston. At Aston, we recognise the need to celebrate and value the diversity of society as we prepare our children to contribute to life now and in the future.

Equality of opportunity for all our children and the staff, who work within our school community, is an essential principle. Every person matters at Aston and will be given every opportunity to succeed and reach their full potential.

We seek to ensure that our school respects the individuality of all pupils, employees, governors and visitors irrespective of ethnicity, religion, attainment, age, disability, gender, sexual orientation or background, thus upholding our commitment to provide a service which ensures equality of opportunity and freedom from discrimination for all. 

Racial Equality 

We strive to eliminate all forms of racism and racial discrimination. Should an alleged racist incident occur it is investigated in line with our school Racial Equality policy, acting immediately to prevent any repetition of the incident. We also do all we can to support the victim, and if necessary their families too, in overcoming any difficulties they may have. All racial incidents will be reported on the Local Authority proforma and will be submitted when requested. 

Sexual Orientation and gender equality 

At Aston, we follow the Christopher Winter sex and relationships programme in all year groups from year 1 upwards. Parents and carers are informed before each session about the content and have the opportunity to discuss the content of the lesson with the class teacher or senior leadership team (see SRE policy and plan).

We investigate appropriate relationships with children and seek to address misconceptions that children may have. We are aware of different religious beliefs and sensitively approach this subject. This links directly to our citizenship overview where children work annually with the NSPCC to identify how to keep themselves safe and what to do if they are concerned or have worries. 

If you would like to speak to you child's class teacher regarding an LGBTQ+ issue, please contact them directly. Alternatively, if you would like to speak to a charity in confidence, you can find details below.

Mermaids - https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/ 08088010400

The Proud Trust - https://www.theproudtrust.org https://www.theproudtrust.org/proud-connections/

Cheshire Cheese https://www.cheshirecheese.org.uk/

LGBT Foundation http://lgbt.foundation/ 0345 3 30 30 30

Curriculum 

Through our PSCHE and citizenship teaching (No Outsiders and school defined objectives on school website) we provide learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make progress. We do this by setting suitable learning challenges and responding to each child’s different needs. 

Religious Beliefs 

At Aston, we recognise that people can face discrimination because of attitudes in society towards the faith communities to which they belong. In Britain, we acknowledge that faith-based hate crime has been on the increase in recent years; in our local area, this has not been an issue. Our RE scheme of work is available from the school office and follows the local agreed syllabus for RE.

The school also recognises that a person’s religious (or similar) beliefs may mean that they have different needs, demands and expectations, which require flexibility. 

Within our school we reflect the attitudes, values and respect that we have for all minority ethnic communities. 

We are proud of all our children and want them to feel happy and confident at Aston.