Equality - Protected Characteristics

Promoting the Protected Characteristics at St Dennis Primary Academy

We work to ensure that our children understand that:

Everyone is different.

We celebrate being different.

We are all equal in our differences.

The Equality Act became law in 2010. It covers everyone in Britain and protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Everyone in Britain is protected. This is because the Equality Act (2010) protects people against discrimination because of the protected characteristics that we all have.

Under the Equality Act (2010), there are nine Protected Characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Marriage or civil partnership
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Pregnancy and maternity

At St Dennis Primary Academy, we actively promote these in our curriculum and work to embed them into our ethos, PSHE lessons and in the wider curriculum. 

This is where children learn about Protected Characteristics through our planned PSHE Curriculum.

We have also started to use the book No Outsiders in our School: teaching the Equality Act in Primary Schools by Andrew Moffatt. This book provides support and resources to schools to deliver the objectives outlined in the Equality Act  which make it against the law to discriminate against an individual because of a range of protected characteristics.

The No Outsiders resource provides lesson plans for each primary school year group (EYFS - Y6) based on a selection of picture books.

Issues addressed include: gender and gender identity, religion, race, sexual orientation, disability and age. The focus of the programme is around noticing, celebrating and developing resilience around diversity. Through discussion and activities based upon the picture books, children are encouraged to show respect and develop their understanding of diversity.