We welcome our public sector duty under the Equality Act 2010 to publish equality objectives and information. Our academy is committed to:
- Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
- Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
- Fostering good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
- Promoting our academy’s curriculum to ensure it provides students with access to meaningful understanding of diversity of cultures and ethnicities, and encourage integration and shun discrimination
- Following recruitment processes with a view to openly encourage a diverse range of applicants, and that applications are considered individually and comprehensively in order to ensure equality of opportunity
- Closing the attainment gaps between “groups” of learners, with a particular
focus on gender, students with additional learning needs and students from ethnic minority groups
- Adopting proactive measures to further develop in all OSCA employees and
students a culture and ethos that embraces diversity and recognises the need for equality
- Ensuring OSCA governors are appropriately trained in equality and diversity
such that they are empowered to support and encourage the value of fairness
and difference in the academy and community they serve
We promote an appreciation of diversity and equality of opportunity at OSCA throughout our curriculum by:
Providing a wide range of curriculum and extra curricular opportunities open to all students in their time at OSCA
- By having high expectations and standards for all students – providing them the support, advice and guidance they need to be successful in any walk of life
- Our Learning for success program, and SRE curriculum, which has respect and tolerance for others at its core. This is reinforced via our assembly topics and house ethos
- Through teaching and learning in all subjects by providing a range of opportunities to explore ideas, concepts and opinions throughout our curriculum – ensuring all opinions are heard and valued, and that difference of opinion is seen as a positive aspect of our democracy and freedom
- By teaching students how to express opinions in a respectful way and to consider the perspectives of others to ensure tolerant young people
Our equality information and a summary of student population can be viewed below
Equality within OSCA
We welcome our public sector duty under the Equality Act 2010 to publish equality objectives and information. The aim for this is to:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
- Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
- Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
In all our activities we act in accordance with the equality act and our discrimination and equality policy.
As part of this we will:
- Publish information every year about our academy population
- Outline how we have due regard for equality and how we promote community cohesion
- Publish equality objectives to show how we plan to tackle particular inequalities and improve what we do
At the academy we work together to eliminate all forms of discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Progress towards meeting our equalities objectives is reviewed regularly by the senior leadership team and governing body.
Our academy population is very ethnically diverse with almost half of the students being white British. Just over 12% of our students are Indian and just over 12% are Pakistani. There are roughly equal numbers of boys and girls. 36% of our pupils are eligible for the Pupil Premium. 15% of our students have Special Educational Needs.
Our academy improvement plan is compiled each year in discussion with all staff and governors. This makes use of comments from parents and students and aims to address inequalities that are shown through our data and raised through dialogue with all our stakeholders. Our aim is always to ensure that all students reach their full potential and make good progress.
Equality information Last reviewed – 12/12/2022
Academy equality challenges:
This is a summary of the issues that we are most concerned about. We are already developing strategies and activities to address some of these challenges which is detailed under the next heading ‘how we have due regard’. For some of these challenges we have also set equality objectives listed below.
For current Y11 (Data Collection 1 Prediction)
- The progress of the High Attaining Students (HATs) as well as Disadvantaged HATs
- The progress of Year 11 students in basics subjects at both G4+ and G5+
- The progress of Disadvantaged White British Boys
How we have due regard to our duty
The information provided here aims to show that we give careful consideration to equality issues in everything that we do in the academy.
We are committed to working for the equality of all our students. To meet our duty to have due to regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct towards individuals with protected characteristics we:
- Ensure related policies are in place – including anti-bullying, e-safety and cyber-bullying, behaviour, safeguarding, more able, gifted and talented and SEN
- Give due regard of equality issues in decisions and changes we make – engaging with and consulting students, staff, parents and carers, the local community so we can improve our information, learn about the impact of our policies, develop our equality objectives and improve what we do
- Have in place an accessibility plan
- Have an induction process for new arrivals and ensure that the admission arrangements do not disadvantage groups of students
- Monitor / report on exclusions and all incidents of harassment / discrimination
- Providing adequate training for all staff members and governors including safeguarding and SEN issues
- Follow our published complaints procedure
- Adhere to non-discriminatory employment practices
- Have in place staff and student codes of conduct
- Have a balanced curriculum with an activity / enrichment programme that is accessible to all students
- Provide additional support and apply reasonable adjustments where necessary
- Involve disabled learners, their families and disabled staff in the changes and improvements we make and consult them on issues that concern or affect them
- Track and monitor identified groups and their access and performance and aim to reduce gaps between groups
- Keep a record, where appropriate of the protected characteristics of our students and employees