- Employing strategies which create a respectful, inclusive culture with a zero-tolerance approach to incidents motivated by prejudice or discrimination and where all members are valued for their contribution to the school environment. We aim to ensure that this commitment, reinforced by our school values, is embedded in our day to day working practices within the school community.
- Providing regular equalities training to staff which supports them to deal with prejudice-based incidents, understand their role and statutory duties and enables them to actively promote Equality and Diversity with our students. This year this has included training for staff on ‘Autism’ by STARS; a session on Hate Crime and Discrimination led by STOP HATE UK; ’Attachment and Trauma’ training delivered by AC Education support and training led by Alice Minett, Teacher of the Deaf to support the teaching of hearing-impaired students.
- Systematically recording all incidents which are discriminatory in terms of race, gender, sexuality, religion or disability, and ensuring that these are sanctioned appropriately through the school’s Attitude to Learning Policy. We adopt a robust response to all forms of bullying and harassment, in accordance with our “Anti-Bullying Policy”.
- Engaging with the ‘Voices for Equality’ Anne Frank Trust workshop, which trained a group of KS3 students to act as Equality Ambassadors. Delivering an Assembly led by Women’s Health Matters focused on healthy relationships, sexual harassment and consent to Year 10 students. Providing STOP HATE UK year group sessions which explored issues related to hate crimes and discrimination, promoting tolerance and endorsing a better understanding of ways to support inclusion within our communities.
- Ensuring that our school curriculum is representative and diverse, avoiding stereotypes and tokenistic representation of groups. This includes the study of texts such as ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog’ and ‘Noughts and Crosses’ in Drama; Protest songs in Music; Women and Disability in Tudor England in History; Fairtrade, Global Equity and Human Rights in Geography and issues regarding Transgender athletes in PE. The PHSE curriculum is planned and delivered to showcase a diverse and wide range of cultures and heritages within lessons from KS3 to KS5, while assemblies this year have covered topics such as Human Rights Day; World Religions Day; Diversity week; Misogyny and Masculinity; and International Woman’s Day.
- Achieving the RED Award Certificate of Commitment to Equality and Diversity as part of our link with the Red Kite Alliance and continuing to work towards full accreditation of the RED Award through our self-evaluation and action plan: this award actively seeks to eliminate discrimination. Presentations to staff, governors and assemblies to students have promoted our commitment to these aims and our zero-tolerance approach to any acts of discrimination or prejudice. Our RED Award pledge, written with students, reiterates ‘our aspiration is to promote an environment where everyone’s school experience is inclusive, equal and diverse.’
At Benton Park School, we share a commitment to equality, diversity and community cohesion across all sections of our school community. Under the provisions of the Equality Act 2010, it is unlawful for a school to discriminate against a student or prospective student by treating them less favourably because of their:
- sex;
- race or racial group (including colour, nationality and ethnic origin or national origins);
- disability;
- religion or belief;
- sexual orientation;
- gender reassignment;
- pregnancy or maternity.
Benton Park School is committed to providing an environment free from discrimination, bullying, harassment and victimisation where all members of its community are treated with respect and dignity. The school aims to create a culture of diversity within its community, providing a dynamic working and learning environment, where all members are valued for their contribution. Our aim is to ensure that these commitments, reinforced by our values, are embedded in our day to day working practices with the school community.
At Benton Park School we are committed to building a cohesive, collaborative school community in which we:
- tackle all types of discrimination;
- celebrate the diversity within our school and the wider world;
- promote equality of opportunity;
- build good relationships between people of different groups;
- contribute to the cohesion of the local community and wider society;
- promote fundamentally the British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith;
- meet our statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010.
In accordance with the Equality Act (2010) and our Equalities Policy, we have published a series of Equality Objectives.
- To develop and embed curriculum-based work on addressing all types of discrimination, supported by staff training and the use of external expertise as appropriate;
- To reduce, and ultimately eliminate, behaviour incidents linked to homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, race, faith, gender and/or disability, by increasing students’ awareness, understanding and empathy;
- To increase community engagement in our work related to equality, diversity, social justice and global citizenship;
- To continue to narrow the gap in achievement between students from different learner groups
We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have been accredited with the Red Kite Alliance RED (Respect, Equality, Diversity) Award.
The Award provided a framework for us to evaluate our current provision in terms of equality, diversity, respect for individuals and community cohesion. It has also given us an opportunity to celebrate the richness and diversity of our whole school community, as well as acknowledging our achievements in this area of our provision.
As part of the process, we considered four key aspects:
- School-wide engagement;
- Actions to eliminate discrimination;
- Actions to advance equality of opportunity;
- Actions to foster good relations.
The RED Assessment feedback was extremely positive with a summary statement that read:
“Equality and diversity are fundamentally embedded in everything you do at Benton Park. Your RED Award ‘Self-Evaluation Progress and Impact’ review and your ‘Evidence Pinboard’ are comprehensive and demonstrate your continuous commitment to Equality and Diversity. The evidence shows your rigorous approach and indicates that the school does not view this as ‘tokenistic’ and strives to embed Equality and Diversity at the heart of all you do over sustained periods of time. Your PSHE programme is a particularly strong example – the commitment and wealth of training and development undertaken by the PSHE lead are notable. At Benton Park you strive to include all stakeholders and opportunities are maximised to create memorable learning and personal development experiences for all students. This is reflected via your curriculum, and in the pride with which your social media posts convey achievements and events. Many congratulations on all that you are doing to promote a sustained culture of equality and diversity and to offer all students an inclusive educational experience. Keep up the great work!”
Our work around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion remains a school priority moving forward as we seek to build on the work we have completed over the past two years. This has included students and staff working with organisations and charities such as:
- The Anne Frank Trust;
- Stop Hate UK;
- Women’s Health Matters;
- Mindmate;
- The Peace Project;
- My Health, My School;
- Stand Against Violence;
- SEND Careers Fair;
- Leeds University ‘E for Engineering’ Programme for girls;
- Girls Cyber First Competition;
- UK Feminista.
“Equality and diversity are central to the ethos of the school, with opportunities created to embed this consistently.” RED Award, June 2024
We are thrilled to have received the top ‘gold’ 2025 UK Feminista Action Awards.
Benton Park School received the top ‘gold’ award for our work to tackle sexism and sexual harassment. School adopted a whole-school approach to combatting these problems, transforming policies, practices and culture of school. Following these actions, we reported a decrease in the number of students experiencing sexual harassment in school from 18% to 5%.
Examples of actions taken:
- Established school leadership on tackling sexism and sexual harassment by forming a staff action group and adopting a whole-school action plan.
- Trained staff how to combat sexism and sexual harassment, using UK Feminista’s online training course.
- Surveyed staff and students on sexism and sexual harassment and acted on concerns raised.
- Delivered assemblies and workshops for students on tackling and reporting sexual harassment.
Q&A with Allana Howard, DSL:
Why did your school decide to launch action against sexism and sexual harassment?
Increasing concerns nationally and locally in safeguarding led to an initial interest in increasing our students’ understanding of what sexual harassment and sexism is – and encouraging a community whereby students at our school felt comfortable reaching out for support if they were victims of harmful behaviours.
What action has the school taken so far and what are your plans for the future?
Two years ago we completed a whole school survey on sexism and sexual harassment of our students. The findings showed us that this was an issue that a large number of our students were dealing with, both in and out of school, and this led to key actions for us to tackle it. UK Feminista resources were used to support students to recognise what sexual harassment and sexism is, and encourage them to examine their own behaviours and also report any concerns to staff. Multiple assemblies and Personal Development lessons across years 7-13 were delivered to ensure these behaviours were not normalised and to encourage students to report. Student voice was key and students were trained to support their peers and develop their own resources to tackle sexism and sexual harassment. Whole staff training was also delivered to ensure that staff felt confident in tackling these issues and that students were clear that any member of staff could support them with any concerns.
What impact has your action to tackle sexism and sexual harassment had so far?
A further whole school survey was conducted following two years of work tackling sexism and sexual harassment in our school. The impact was clear, we saw a drastic reduction in the number of students reporting that they were victims of these concerns and they also felt overwhelmingly more confident in reporting incidents. Those students who continued to report concerns were given personalised support and we will continue to highlight this problem and encourage students to reach out.
How have UK Feminista’s resources, training and Action Award scheme supported your school to take action?
The UK Feminista resources have been invaluable to our work – the posters are a clear visual of our expectations of behaviour in school, and the staff training and student resources were key to our work in increasing confidence of both staff and students in this sensitive area. The Gold UK Feminista: Action Award was the absolute icing on the cake – to the have the recognition that although issues of sexism and sexual harassment may still exist across society, we are aiming to support our students recognise and call out these behaviours.
What advice would you give to other schools about combatting sexism and sexual harassment?
Use the UK Feminista CPD resources to start out and then get as many staff members involved as possible – they will be key in driving this important message to your students. Student voice is key – listen to those concerns and set your actions from there.
We eliminate discrimination by:
We advance equality of opportunity by:
- Promoting a culture where all students are encouraged and supported to be the ‘best they can be’ by encouraging them to have a positive self-image and high self-esteem. Fortnightly ‘Aspiration for All’ lessons have included sessions on Enterprise, Charity fund-raising events, Career aspirations, discussion of world events such as the conflict in the Ukraine and media bias and propaganda concerning ethnic and racial groups.
- Supporting the personal development of all our students through extracurricular clubs such as our LGBTQ+ club, Rock Solid club; Book clubs and reading groups; Sports and Music clubs; participation as school leaders and as members of the school council or on KS5 mentoring schemes In subjects such as PE, teachers wore rainbow laces to support LGBTQ+ role models and across the school, subject displays promote a range of equal opportunity figures and suggested reading around topics such as black history, women in science and computing and multi-cultural literature.
- Providing Career Advice through targeted meetings with our Careers Advisor which explore a wide range of opportunity. This year a group of Year 7 girls have continued to take part in the ‘E for Engineering programme’ run by the Leeds University Outreach Project to support girls’ interest in engineering careers and STEM subjects. This has included two in-school sessions with visiting postgraduate women and one on campus visit. Students are given tasks that reveal the multifaceted scope of engineering and are challenged to work efficiently, effectively and collaboratively. We also participated in the Cyber First Competition run by the National Cyber Security Centre, a coding competition which aims to support girls in a career in cyber security. Our C&K Careers Advisor prioritises guidance meetings for those with SEND, Disadvantaged and CLA students and also attends any review meetings for EHCP students in order to provide a careers guidance aspect to these meetings.
- Offering enhanced provision for the transition of EAL, SEND and transgender students through supported induction sessions in the Hub, bespoke personalised timetables and teacher and student mentoring. Further staff training and guidance has allowed better understanding of key needs and individual requirements for these cohorts. Specific training for our staff during the last academic year has included:
- Teacher of the Deaf CPD for all staff within the classroom followed by specific training for Hub staff on supporting students with hearing impairments
- STARS Autism training Level 1 for all staff followed by Level 2 training for our Hub staff
- Whole school trauma and attachment training for all school staff
- Fortnightly SEND briefing with a focus on key individual students/SEND.
- Promoting staff and governor recruitment which supports the school’s commitment to equality, for example, support is given to staff with disabilities through the use of height adjustable desks, lift access and specialised equipment such as chairs and risers. Staff at any level are able to make a training request to support their role and development needs. Our school PHSE Lead has also completed the ‘Proud Leadership’ programme which aims to promote more diversity and encourage the promotion of LGBT+ teachers into leadership positions in schools.
We foster good relations by:
- Enabling all members of staff to contribute to the delivery of an inclusive and diverse curriculum through effective staff training, sharing of resources and discussion. Our ‘Aspirations for All’ and the ‘Big Read’ programmes encourage teachers and support staff to have discussions with students on topics such as identity, culture and belonging while our PHSE curriculum helps students understand their legal and moral rights and responsibilities.
- Giving students opportunities to experience and value cultural diversity through events such as ‘Diversity Week’ (June 2023) which reminded students of the need to be inclusive and respectful of others’ diverse needs and reiterated the rights of all citizens as protected through the Equality Act. Through British Values teaching in Geography, RSP and MFL lessons, students explore subjects such as Fairtrade, Global Equity, Religion and Belief and Human Rights, while in Politics and History, Democracy and the Rule of Law is studied.
- Supporting local community and national events which encourage solidarity with others and promote messages of equality and diversity such as our commitment to our chosen school charity ‘Yorkshire Cancer Research’ where a series of fund-raising events is leading to a whole-school Enterprise Day run by the students themselves, which raised over £10,000 in donations.
- Creating opportunities for students to engage with a range of positive role models from diverse backgrounds, including lunchtime Careers Talks from women in engineering and Construction industries; a STOP HATE UK sessions to students about ways to prevent discrimination and varied trips and visits to universities and colleges which promote a wide range of opportunity in inclusive and varied settings. This included prioritising KS4 disadvantaged students to participate in work-based work experience visits, and a visit for SEND students to the SEND Careers Fair at Leeds Arena. Careers Trips and Events this year were extended to increase a wider participation of all students and included a HGS Oxbridge Conference, First Event Careers Talk, Digital Recruitment Careers Talk, Bradford College Assembly, LSS Sports Presentation and a talk delivered by the UK Ambassador to Russia.
