Equality statement

Newton Abbot College seeks to promote equality and celebrate the diversity within our community. We welcome the Public Sector Equality Duty as set out in the Equality Act (2010).

What is the duty?

We must:

Aim to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
Advance equality of opportunity between different groups
Foster good relations between different groups

What are the protected characteristics?

The Equality Act 2010 was introduced to ensure protection on the grounds of specific characteristics (referred to as protected characteristics). For schools, this means that it is unlawful to discriminate against students or treat them less favourably because of their age; sex; race; disability; religion or belief; gender reassignment; sexual orientation; pregnancy or maternity. Marriage and civil partnerships and age are also 'protected characteristics'.

Our Equality Policy

Ivy Education Trust’s Equality & Diversity Policy can be found on the policies page on our Trust website (www.ivyeducationtrust.co.uk) and contains information about how the college complies with the Public Sector Equality Duty. We also give guidance to staff and outside visitors on our approach to promoting equality.

Equality Objectives and Progress Update

Our LGBTQ+ Pride Club, which is open to all students, exists to promote and support issues facing our LGBTQ+ community, is very well established and plays an active role in promoting LGBTQ+ issues.
We have mapped our provision against the Gatsby benchmarks for Careers guidance, to ensure that our careers information, advice and guidance provisions are effective for all students.
We are developing a skilled team of staff who work to support the targets and perpetrators of discriminatory behaviours and bullying.
To further engage our student council to improve the content of our Personal Development curriculum to best meet the needs of our context and to be involved in equality-related issues across the college.
To continue working closely with our staff to understand how respected and included they feel in their place of work as a result of their protected characteristics.
To continue to ensure swift restorative action for any prejudicial act by student or staff.
To continue to promote the value of open dialogue and encourage reporting.
To educate all members of the Newton Abbot College community on the Protected Characteristics and the Equality Act.
To ensure that the Values curriculum continues to educate our students on the protected characteristics and fundamental British values so they become an intrinsic part of their learning, behaviour, conduct, ,moral purpose and contribution to the college community.
To continue the development of the History curriculum to cover relevant topics such as decolonisation so that students at Newton Abbot College engage with an ambitious and diverse curriculum.
To place the needs of and provision for SEND and PP children at the heart of the school's improvement plan for 2023-24, making sure that SEND and PP children are proportionately represented in our extra-curricular programme of clubs and trips; and are supported to sustain their attendance at school in line with the attendance of all students.
To commission external reviews of SEND & PP to ensure we understand the strengths of our provision and have a clear understanding of what we need to improve
To establish a comprehensive programme of community engagement activities.
To promote equality, diversity and inclusive actions across our staff body.
To further develop student and staff wellbeing and positive mental health for all, particularly in response to increased demand following the pandemic.
To use performance data to monitor student achievement and respond to variations between groups of learners, subjects, courses and key stages, trends over time and comparisons with other schools.
To foster good relations between different groups through the use of assemblies, tutor time, Religious Studies lessons and the college’s Values programme.
To continue working closely with our staff to understand how respected and included they feel in their place of work as a result of their protected characteristics.