Equalities Information and Accessibility Plan

Introduction

St Andrew the Apostle Greek Orthodox School seeks to foster a supportive, welcoming and respectful culture, based on our Christian values, which allows us all to question and challenge discrimination and inequality, resolve conflicts peacefully, promote equality and work and learn in a safe environment.
To find out more about our school approach to equality please read our Equality Policy.

1 Contextual information

We have 527 students in seven year groups Years 7-13. Please breakdown of groups in chart below. 

Intake	Boys	Girls	BME	EAL	FSM	PP	Disabled	SEN	EHCP
2015	56%	44%	74%	10%	9%	21%	0	5%	3
2016	59%	41%	61%	14%	9%	26%	0	7%	5
2017	57%	43%	64%	21%	9%	29%	0	7%	4
2018	56%	44%	64%	23%	9%	25%	0	7%	6
2019	55%	45%	65%	24%	10%	24%	0	12%	9
2020	55%	45%	62%	22%	11%	22%	0	12%	10
2021	55%	45%	76%	25%	14%	20%	0	11%	8
2022	57%	43%	71%	28%	17%	21%	0	13%	10
2023	52%	48%	77%	31%	18%	20%	0	11%	6
2024	53%	47%	79%	29%	23%	24%	0	12%	4

 

We are also aware that there may be children in our school community who question their gender identity and may express their gender identity in a way that does not conform to stereotypical norms or the sex they were born as. We are also aware that children in our school may grow up to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. We also know that our staff and parents and carers are represented across all of the groups with protected characteristics.

2 Fostering good relations information
In our school we take pride in the range of work we do to foster good relations and in fact the vast majority of parents who filled in an Ofsted style parents survey at the Parents’ Evenings say their children felt safe in school and agreed that their children were well looked after at school.
You can read more about our approach to fostering good relations in the following policies: Curriculum, Equality and Safeguarding
We aim to foster good relations by:

• Providing annual staff training on at least one aspect of equality and diversity.
• Ensuring the whole school environment and curriculum reflects the diverse community within which we live. We aim for all students/students in our school to see themselves reflected in the stories we read, the assemblies we hold and in our displays and curriculum.
• Giving clear messages about expectations as part of British society and as part of our school value.
• Constantly reviewing and developing the PSHCE Education curriculum so that it provides opportunities to explore values and attitudes, understand similarities and differences and builds understanding of different groups and our own identities.
• We invite visiting speakers and groups to enrich student experience and encourage them to consider issues for themselves. The charity work that is led by staff and students also helps to foster good relations. Specifically the school has worked with Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice and Young Barnet Christmas Foundation, organising events to support their work.

Fostering good relations objective(s)

• Review the PSHCE and wider curriculum to ensure that equality issues including gender stereotypes are being challenged and the school is a safe space for all students including those who express their gender identity and how they wish to be viewed
• Provide regular staff training on equality including gender and transgender issues.

3 Eliminating discrimination information

• We work in partnership with parents and carers, students and students and the whole school community to prevent all forms of bullying and prejudiced based behaviour and you can read more about our approach to bullying and eliminating discrimination in our Anti-Bullying Policy, Equality Policy and Sex and Relationship Education Policy.
• Any bullying and prejudiced based incidents are recorded. These records are used to inform the assembly programme and the PSHCE education curriculum and to support and track individual students / students. Incidents are discussed during pastoral meetings and reported termly to governors’ meetings.
• Our understanding of how discrimination could affect groups of our students / students is further informed by national research complied by the Anti-Bullying Alliance and advice and resources from Educate.Against.Hate. 
• The results from the Parent Surveys provide evidence that the vast majority of students feel safe at school. The reported rate of bullying is very low. Students are encouraged to report any concerns in the early stages. They have undertaken this seriously and let us know of any concerns they have about themselves or other individuals. Older students actively monitor younger students.
• We actively encourage parents and carers to report bullying and prejudiced based incidents to us and this has happened. We are pleased to say that we have received very few complaints from parents and carers about how we are dealing with bullying and discrimination in our school. Where parents have raised issues we have been keen to work with them to work through their concerns.

Eliminating discrimination objective(s)

• To maintain low numbers of bullying incidents by reviewing the PSHCE education curriculum to include lessons on racial and sexual orientation equality and bullying.
• To continue to review the anti-bullying policy in consultation with the whole school community and in particular the School Council and to maintain the vast majority of parents reporting that our school is very good at dealing with any bullying.

4 Advance equality of opportunity information

We monitor individual student progress every half term and also monitor progress of key learner groups and compare their progress with the rest of the school population. These reports are presented to the Governing Body. Most members of these groups are performing in line or above the rest of the school population. Where there is underachievement we have put in place intervention/booster classes after school, at lunchtime or before school. The aim of these groups is to enable students to reduce the gap with the rest of the school population. We have recently added more intervention groups for literacy, social skills and numeracy for SEN students.

The SEND Policy, SEND Information Report, Pupil Premium report and More Able students Policy can be found on our website.

Advance equality of opportunity objective(s):

• To put in place careful and precise planning with RET SEND Adviser, our SENCO and families to ensure that any students joining us each year with statements are catered for and make progress in line with other students
• To continue regular liaison with specialist teams such as Hearing Impairment and Speech and Language teams so we can provide appropriate assessments and individual support.
• ;To ensure regular meetings with the School Nurse team take place to provide advice and expertise for students with EHC plans.