Tormead School is committed to providing a caring, friendly and safe working environment for all of its staff and a similar learning environment for its pupils so that everyone can be in a relaxed and secure atmosphere. The School supports the principle of equal opportunities and opposes discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status, age, race, disability, sexual orientation, religious belief or other irrelevant distinction. Tormead School is a committed equal opportunities employer and will take every possible step to ensure that employees and pupils are treated equally and fairly in respect of these matters. All policies and practices will conform to the principle in terms of recruitment, selection (within the constraints of a single sex school), training, promotion, career development, discipline, redundancy and dismissal.
Discrimination, of any kind is unacceptable at our school. If such behaviour does occur, everyone should be able to tell and know that incidents will be dealt with promptly and effectively. We are a TELLING school. This means that anyone who knows that discrimination is happening is expected to tell a suitable person whom they feel they can trust. For pupils this may include, for instance, their Form Tutor, or a Subject Tutor or an older pupil. This information should then be passed on to the appropriate Head of Section or Deputy Head (Pastoral). Members of staff should if possible approach their line manager for help, if this is not possible, they may wish to approach any member of the SMT.

What is discrimination?

Discrimination is treating a person less favourably on the grounds of their sex, marital status, race, disability, sexual orientation, religious belief or other irrelevant distinction. This may be offensive or objectionable to the recipient or others and create an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment. Some examples include:

Verbal abuse, name-calling, discriminatory insults and jokes
Ridicule of an individual on any of the above grounds
Exclusion from social interactions

Why is it important to respond to discrimination?

Discrimination hurts. No one deserves to be a victim of such behaviour. Everybody has the right to be treated with respect. People who behave in such a way need to learn different ways of behaving.

The School has a responsibility to respond promptly and effectively to issues of discrimination.

Objectives

To promote an atmosphere in which discrimination is not acceptable.

All governors, teaching and non-teaching staff, pupils and parents should have an understanding of what discrimination is.
All governors, teaching and non-teaching staff should know what the school policy is and follow it when discrimination is reported.
All pupils and parents should know what the school policy is on discrimination, and what they should do if it arises.
As a school we take discrimination seriously. Staff, pupils and parents should be assured that they will be supported when such behaviour is reported.

Prevention

We will use appropriate methods for helping staff and pupils prevent discrimination and other related behaviour. These may include:

Reference to the appropriate staff or pupil code of conduct
Using appropriate guidelines from suitable agencies, e.g. DFES and NSPCC
Ensuring that key members of staff have up-to-date training on such issues
Involving the pupils through the School Council in developing the policy
Signing a contract of behaviour
Using PSHE lessons to reinforce appropriate behaviour
Writing stories or poems or drawing pictures about positive behaviour
Reading stories about positive behaviour
Making up role-plays with positive behaviour

Procedures

Report all incidents to an appropriate member of staff, who will make a written record.
In serious cases a meeting should be arranged to discuss the problem.
If necessary and appropriate, police will be consulted.
The discriminatory behaviour or threats must be investigated and any inappropriate behaviour stopped immediately.
Support will be put in place to help the person who has been the victim of discrimination
Every effort will be made to help the discriminator(s) change their behaviour and they will be supported in this as appropriate.

Expected Outcomes

The discriminator(s) will be asked to genuinely apologize, or take other appropriate action and to change their future behaviour.
If possible, the antagonists will be reconciled.
In serious cases, suspension or even exclusion of pupils and disciplinary action against staff will be considered.

After the incident/incidents have been investigated and dealt with, each case will be monitored and the people involved supported to ensure repeated discrimination does not take place.