Equalities & Accessibility

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. We actively celebrate diversity and encourage our students to develop as strong, confident individuals.

To find out more about our school approach to equality please read our Equal Opportunities Policy.  

Contextual information

Turing House School opened in September 2015 with 100 Year 7 students split into four tutor groups. We admitted a further 125 in September 2016, 100 in 2017 and 125 in 2018 and 2019. From September 2020 onwards we have admitted 150 in each intake. There are more boys than girls in each year group – this is also the case for other co-educational schools in the area due to the proximity of Waldegrave Girls' School. Our latest published population data can be found on the Government’s Compare Schools website.

Fostering Good Relations: 

Fostering good relations is imperative to Turing House. We ask our parents and students to take part in surveys to tell us how safe they feel at school and how well they feel we help them build positive relationships. There is more information on our Parent Feedback page.

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; Relationships and Sex Education; Safeguarding.

The work we do to fulfil our aim to foster good relations includes:

• Providing staff training on equality and diversity, at least once per year.
• Our 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 study human rights in English & History looking at the Holocaust and other genocides, and they study world religions and ethics in Religion and Philosophy.
• We give clear messages through a huge range of topics in regular assemblies promoting our Turing House School values including:

• Alan Turing; including the way his homosexuality was treated.
• Animal welfare, linked to ‘Veganuary’.
• Anti-bullying.
• Black History Month; including how much progress there has been but also the problems that still exist, focusing on racism in football, and statistics of black students attending universities.
• Charity project: food bank.
• Racism; including the difference between explicit/implicit racism or ‘casual racism’.
• Gender equality and gender stereotypes.
• Hearing impairment/sign language.
• Holocaust Remembrance Day.
• Literacy: focusing on access to books, education and literacy levels across the globe with particular focus on low global literacy levels in women and girls.
• Looking after our planet/environmental awareness; including the plastic pollution campaign.
• Mental health awareness week.
• Multiculturalism and diversity.
• Pride month, homophobia and the history of homophobia in schools; including the damage that Section 28 did to education.
• Remembrance of the slave trade.
• Remembrance Day; including the role of the whole empire in the war.
• Women and girls in science/engineering.
• Special educational needs, including autism and World Autism Awareness day.
• Please see our recent work on diversity in literature on our homepage

 

• Guest speakers are invited into school to enrich students’ understanding of equality through history to the present day. The list of visitors we have welcomed into school includes: Lesley Urbach, Kindertransport Speaker, Kemal Pervanić, Bosnian Genocide Survivor Testimony, Sophie Masereka, Rwandan Genocide Survivor Testimony. Sokphal Din Talk, Cambodian Genocide Survivor Testimony, Dr Claire Kennan, Medieval Historian from Royal Holloway University Lecture.
• The PSHE and RSE curricula are constantly reviewed and developed so that they provide opportunities to explore values and attitudes, understand similarities and differences and build understanding of different groups and our own identities.
• We use community and voluntary sector visitors to enrich the curriculum. For example, 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. For example, during 2019-20, we supported the Food Bank as our main external charity. We also supported Children in Need.
• For students who struggle to understand the importance of respect for others we have a range of interventions including small group work, counselling and discussions with the Police Neighbourhood Schools Officer.

Fostering Good Relations Objectives:

• To focus on ensuring the highest quality of education around gender equalities,
• To raise student confidence and skills in challenging prejudice and usetheir voices to actively contribute towards positive change in our community and society.
• To create a culture where sexism in all forms is not tolerated and where students understand what constitutes harmful sexual behaviours, working towards a community where mutual consent and respect form the foundations of healthy relationships.

Eliminating Discrimination:

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 Objectives:

• To review the anti-bullying policy in consultation with the whole school community and, in particular, protected groups of students, to ensure community engagement.
• To reduce the number of incidents in which homophobic language is used.

Advancing Equality of Opportunity:

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 three 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 a higher percentage of students from vulnerable groups make good progress.

Equality Objectives - Review of Previous Targets 2020

 

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Fostering Good Relations Objectives: 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.

Target Achieved Full review of PSHCE Programme and changes made in advance of the statutory implementation of the new RSE curriculum Lessons and assemblies delivered on gender stereotyping & E-Safety Parent briefing on responsible use social media well received Regular updates on these issues in the school newsletter Work currently being completed as a response to the murder of Sarah Everard, leading to new target in this area. GCSE RP unit on Human Relationships

Eliminating Discrimination Objectives: 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.

Target Achieved in Part A lot of work has been done here but, due to Covid, the data is not robust enough to indicate a reduction in numbers of incidents. The reduced time in school would clearly indicate a reduction but this would not be a reason to replace this target in 2021. Promotion of Alan Turing in the school culture Anti-Bullying Policy reviews by the trust, additions made by JA based on training provided Staff training and adoption of ‘Be Yourself’ mantra Diversity initiative through history and curriculum changes Diversity in literature project with Penguin Transgender support document produced by the trust Liaison with AFC regarding these issues with the idea to develop a working party Equalities group set up in Post 16 Previous LGBTQ+ set up (disbanded due to site swap) One member of staff training by LGBTQ+ provider Assemblies on gender identity and LGBTQ+ issues + Black Lives Matter Openly gay staff Clear consequences for students using homophobic, racist, misogynistic etc. language Working groups set up in response to the Sarah Everard case GCSE RP unit on Human Relationships

Advance Equality of Opportunity Objective: To ensure that student progress is consistently excellent across vulnerable groups.

Working Towards: The impact of the pandemic should be acknowledged in this area. It is problematic to compare grades between 2020 and 2021 because different grading approaches were used. The school will continue to work on this target. Nevertheless: Gaps between SEND and Non-Send reduced between the Centre Assessed Grades (CAGs) in 2020 and the Teacher Assessed Grades (TAGs) in 2021. Gaps between PP and Non-PP reduced between the 2020 CAGS and the 2021 TAGS Achievement was high in both TAGS and CAGS enabling students to move to their next destination

Parent Survey Results

Accessibility Plan – this will be updated for our new site following our Easter move:

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 wheelchair users or students with mobility problems in the current intakes. All students are able to access all areas of the school. The school has medical, SEND, and disabilities registers.

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 at both sites:

• The entrance at Teddington has been 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.
• We have disabled toilets with alarms at both Teddington and Hampton.

• Our Hampton site is accessible on the ground level.

Future plans:

• We have had detailed discussions with the architects and the ESFA to ensure that the physical environment of our new school site in Hospital Bridge Road is accessible.
• 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 the information available to parents and students that is required. The development of the VLE and other school systems are used to communicate with parents and students, to support the organisation of the school day and students’ learning including homework and assessment of their 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.

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

• Students with significant health needs have Healthcare Plans, drawn up by the school.
• The school makes appropriate provision and trains 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 are relatively low (typically 25). 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.
• 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.
• We review our Extra-Curricular provision to ensure we offer an inclusive programme