EQualities @ Highcrest

Although we currently hold the EQualities Award which recognises the academy’s commitment to treating everyone equally, we are currently working towards achieving the new Equality Quality Mark, awarded by Equaliteach.

This award provides us with support and guidance so that we can effectively promote equality, diversity and inclusion within Highcrest, and provides us with an opportunity to showcase our commitment to equality. The Award has been designed by a team of equality and education experts to allow the development of best practice around four main themes: Leadership and Management, Behaviour and Welfare, Teaching and Learning and Personal Development of Pupils. There are three levels of award: bronze, silver and gold. We are working towards the silver level, and we expect it will take approximately 12 months to achieve this award.

As a richly diverse academy, we have always worked hard to meet our statutory duties: we have numerous initiatives within the academy to promote both the diversity and disability agendas, all of which are well attended by students and supported by staff. Our Well-being Manager is Stonewall trained on how to offer LGBTQ+ support and in turn has trained a staff working group.

We are also currently working on a programme called Equally Safe to help us to reduce incidents of identity-based bullying within the academy and to in develop tailored, whole-school approaches to support equality. The programme, funded by the Department for Education, has provided training for key members of staff and has supported us in drawing up an action plan to plan out future initiatives. The programme will also train a group of students to become agents for change and the academy council will be involved in this project.

Click here to view our Equal Opportunities (Pupils) Policy.