What initiative(s) have you put in place as a result of your participation in the Equally Safe programme?
Following on from the training we have received as part of the Equally Safe programme we have updated our recording and reporting system to include a numbered scale, which clearly identifies if there was intent to hurt and if hurt was caused by any incident (including identity-based incidents and bullying). All staff now use this when recording and reporting incidents. It has helped us to be able to track trends more clearly.
Our Agents for Change students gave a whole school assembly which was based on all their learning from the Agents for Change day. They informed the school about the nine protected characteristics and explored how identity must be respected. They worked with the Pupil Parliament and as a result a bill was debated by all pupils in the school and a vote was taken. This has resulted in a ‘concerns’ email address being created and art work being planned for the outside of the school building which promotes equality and justice for all, specifically mentioning the protected characteristics. Pupils may email the ‘concerns’ address if they have any questions, comments or worries that they would like to share with someone and discuss. This email address is only monitored by the learning mentor and the mental health lead. The pupils spoke of being able to report something without having to do so in front of their peers as being very important to them.
We have purchased many new books for the school library which have stories in them across the range of protected characteristics. Some of these are picture books and others are novels. Pupils and teachers are loving reading such a variety of books and the conversations which arise from reading them have covered many topics.
It is clearer to pupils that discrimination happens in many different ways and to many different people. They are clear that this is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.
This has been a wonderful project to be part of.
Joanna Heritage- St Edward’s Catholic Junior School
Testimonial
“St Edward’s Catholic Junior School in Aylesbury has been very impressed with the level of training and information we have received from the team at EqualiTeach. The online training sessions were informative and engaging. They were all run by clearly spoken, enthusiastic facilitators who clearly are very knowledgeable about the topics discussed.
The Agents for Change day was excellent. The children and adults loved the day and learned so much through information provided and exploratory activities and discussions.
The support from our link worker, Amy Crane, has also been very valuable. Thank you for responding promptly to any queries and for being so supportive.
The whole school staff training was well received and again it was delivered well. It would be useful to see the comments made by staff on their evaluation forms following this training.
This has been a wonderful project to be part of.
If I could improve one thing it would be adding some of the activities done by the children at the Agents for Change event into the whole staff training. Thank you so much for all you have done for us as a school.”
You can find out more about the Equally Safe programme and access free anti-bullying resources here: