Introduction

Turing House School seeks to foster a warm, welcoming and respectful culture 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.  

Equality Information and objectives

1. Contextual information

Turing House School opened in September 2015. We admitted 100 students in Year 7 split into four tutor groups and a further 125 in September 2016. There are more boys than girls in each year group - this is similar to all other co-educational schools in the area and results from the intake of girls to Waldegrave School.

2. Fostering good relations information

Fostering good relations is important to Turing House and we survey our students to establish how well we do this in terms of how safe they feel at school and how well they feel we help them get on with others.

2017 Survey Results:

You can read more about our approach to fostering good relations in the following policies; Attendance; Behaviour; Anti-Bullying; Curriculum; Extra-Curricular; Special Educational Needs; Sex and Relationships Education; 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 in our school to see themselves reflected in the stories we read, the assemblies we hold and in our displays and curriculum For example students have studied Human Rights in English & History, Immigration in Drama and World Religions and Ethics in Religion and Philosophy.
• Giving clear messages about expectations as part of school values; this includes regular assemblies e.g. in 2015/16: homophobia, homelessness, Holocaust, Brexit, hospices, overseas development, RNLI, Women In Science
• Constantly reviewing and developing the PSHE and SRE curriculum so that it provides opportunities to explore values and attitudes, understand similarities and differences and builds understanding of different groups and out own identities. This year we have planned the full 7 year SRE curriculum themes to fit with our PSHE programme. Topics include safety, CSE, FGM, Pornography and Sexting
• We use Community and Voluntary Sector visitors to enrich the curriculum. Please see our PSHE curriculum map which shows the learning by year group. For example this year we have been supported by TfL safer travel, St Marys with St Albans church, RNLI, Tear Fund and Shooting Star Chase children’s hospices.
• Charity work is led by students through our Student Council and also helps to foster good relations. As well as supporting Sport Relief the school also took part in Race for Life and raised funds for local charities. The choir practices regularly at Elleray Hall, a day centre for the elderly and supports its other activities.
• For students who struggle to understand the importance of respect for others we have a range of interventions including small groups work, counselling and discussions with the Police Neighbourhood Schools Officer.

Fostering good relations objective(s)

• As the school grows we will continue to review the PSHE and wider curriculum to ensure it meets the needs of students. In particular, we want to focus on challenging gender stereotypes and promoting responsible use of social media.

3 Eliminating discrimination information

We work in partnership with parents and carers, 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. 
All bullying and prejudiced based incidents are recorded. These records are used to inform the assembly programme and the PSHE education curriculum and to support and track individual students. Incidents are discussed during pastoral meetings and reported termly to governors meetings.  The school will conduct its own Annual Student Voice Survey and regular Parental Voice Surveys. This data is analysed and used to measure impact and inform next steps. This data is reported back to the whole school community on an annual basis. 
We actively encourage parents and carers to report any bullying and prejudiced based incidents to us.

Eliminating discrimination objective(s)

• To minimise the numbers of incidents of use of homophobic language
• To review the anti-bullying policy in consultation with the whole school community and in particular protected groups of students to ensure community engagement

4. Advance equality of opportunity information

Turing House School is completely committed to ensuring that all students make excellent academic progress. We review the progress of all students continually and collect formal progress data six times per year. This data is routinely analysed to ensure that all groups of students are performing equally well across the curriculum.

Advance equality of opportunity objective(s)

• To ensure that student progress is consistently excellent across vulnerable groups.

5. Accessibility Plan

The accessibility plan has been developed for the school’s site to ensure full access by all students, including any with disabilities, including wheel-chair users. There are no wheel chair users in the current intakes and no one with mobility problems. All students are able to access all areas of the school. The school has a medical, SEN, and disabilities register.

Increasing the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the school's curriculum:

2015-18

• Students with significant health needs have Healthcare Plans, drawn up by the school.
• The school makes appropriate provision and train staff as required to accommodate students with particular needs
• All students will access the curriculum and setting in core subjects will allow students to make rapid and sustained progress regardless of their starting point.
• Class sizes will remain low (typically 25) and additional interventions and support for numeracy and literacy supports students to access the curriculum.
• The school is inclusive in line with its philosophy and legal requirements and there are no known barriers to any child accessing classrooms, activities or any part of the curriculum.

2016-18

• The school will review at least annually the disability profile of the cohort and adjust provision and plans as required.
• In addition to this annual review the school will assess the needs of any new or prospective in-year transfer.

Admission of students with disabilities

Children are admitted to Turing House School according to our admission policy. Students with disabilities have their level of need assessed by the school in consultation with the child’s parents, the local authority and health agencies prior to entry to ensure the school’s physical environment and the appropriate resources (materials and personnel) can meet the child’s needs.

How we prevent students with disabilities from being treated less favourably than other students

By ensuring the environment and resources are appropriate after assessing their needs on admission and with regular reviews we will ensure that students with disabilities have the same opportunities as others at the school.

Improving the physical environment of the school for the purpose of increasing the extent to which disabled pupils are able to take advantage of education and benefits, facilities or services provided or offered by the school:

Actions taken this year

• The main lift was brought into service.
• The entrance was levelled to enable wheelchair access, a disabled parking space was provided and intercom communication to the main office.
• The mini-buses (used for school transport and extra-curricular activities) are to the new specification and can accommodate disabled access and seating
• New toilets installed including two more disabled toilets with alarms.

2018-20 Future plans

• Once the additional temporary site for the school has been confirmed then plans for its refurbishment including accessibility will be drawn up.
• Once the permanent site for the school has been agreed we will have detailed discussions with the architects and the EFA to ensure that the physical environment continues to be developed further.
• The needs of future cohorts and any staff appointed with disabilities will be assessed and provision made as they arise.

Improving the delivery to disabled pupils of information which is readily accessible to pupils who are not disabled.

• The website contains all of the information available to parents and students that is required and the development of the VLE is increasingly be used to communicate and support the organisation of the school day and learning including homework and assessment of students' work.
• School signage is large enough (large font) and at a height which can be read easily by any student including those in wheelchairs.
• School signs make clear where access points and exits points are including disabled signs and disabled toilets.
• Where appropriate, disabled students will be equipped with laptops, iPads and other new technologies to assist them in accessing information and learning including practical subjects such as technology and PE.
• Where appropriate and if required, specialist ergonomic furniture will be purchased to enable those with a disability to learn.