The Beaconsfield SchoolDiversity, Equality & Inclusion
The Beaconsfield School ensures every student and member of staff is appreciated, recognised, and a valued member of the school community.
We will learn, listen to, and respect individual lived experiences, providing equitable and accessible opportunities for all. We will continue to create a culture of belonging and celebration, so everyone feels safe, confident, and seen, regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, culture, heritage, or religion.
We are committed to enabling the success of every individual in our care.
Our Commitment
The Beaconsfield School are against discrimination, prejudice and hatred of any kind. Our staff, students and community are committed to ensure we actively embody and embed a culture of anti-racism, LGBTQ+ allyship, disability, neurodiversity awareness and create an environment, which promotes respect, kindness, compassion and empathy. We will continue to embed values that respect diversity of thought and identity, equality and equity so that every student and member of staff feels safe, included. Above all, we want all our students to know their sense of belonging is intrinsic to their wellbeing, mental health and their success.
Our Actions so Far
Whilst at school, we continue to educate students about equality, diversity and inclusion across the curriculum and through our extra curricular activities.
The Global Equality Collective
- We are proud members of The Global Equality Collective, the first diversity, equality, inclusion and justice app for education and workplaces.
We will be working closely with the GEC and using their fantastic resources and training to support our teaching, culture and DEI ethos at TBS. For more information on the GEC, please see: www.thegec.org
Pride Club
- We have conducted a student diversity, equality and inclusion survey to help us understand how our students perceive DEI across the school. Based on the survey and conversations with students across the school, we have launched Pride Club to support our LGBT+ community in school. Through Pride Club, we hope to create awareness around school through assembles, mentor activities and displays to encourage a culture of allyship.
DEI ambassadors
- We are launching a new student leadership initiative with our DEI ambassadors
Our DEI ambassadors are keen to ensure their fellow students feel supported within the school community. Some of our ambassadors have recently completed their mentoring training with Mind.org and will be supporting students across the school to feel confident, safe and successful at school. Not only will our ambassadors be offering emotional peer support, they will also be facilitating and leading ‘let’s talk’ sessions about race, identity and disability with students in younger years.
Resources
Diversity, equality and inclusion education is not limited to school and we have a commitment to our wider school community to work with us as we learn together. Here we will signpost useful resources and information that can be used by students and parents outside of school hours. We will also keep you updated on the work we are doing in school to support diversity, equality and inclusion in education and beyond. Metro Article /Schools Week article:
Zaraha Chowdhury writes about the importance of uncomfortable and necessary conversations we need to have with students – and why school is the best place to start.
Click the link to read more
One in five teachers uncomfortable discussing LGBT Topics with Kids
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story
//www.youtube.com/embed/D9Ihs241zeg
We recently led assemblies on the importance of diverse thought for students from all year groups and used Adiche’s fantastic Ted Talk, The Danger of a Single Story. Adiche’s Ted Talk is an engaging and candid exploration of her lived experience and the impact of stereotypes and our language on our relationships, environment and education.
After watching the Ted Talk, have a think about the following questions from the organisation, Facing History and Ourselves:
- Has someone else ever made an assumption about you because of some aspect of your identity?
- Was it a positive assumption or a negative one?
- How did you find out about the assumption? How did you respond?
The organisation Facing History and Ourselves offers some excellent and valuable resources and thinking points for teachers, students and parents to think about history and identity from a range of diverse perspectives.
Equality Objectives
- To develop further structures within the school that allows ‘student voice’ to be heard and responded to so that students’ perception of inequality can be analysed and addressed.
- To continue to narrow the difference between girls and boys academic outcomes.
- To continue to narrow the difference between non disadvantaged and disadvantaged students academic and attendance outcomes.
Our Equality Objectives Statement can be found here
