Equality

Public Sector Equality Duty
The Equality Act 2010 requires us to publish information that demonstrates that we have due regard for the need to:

We have three key areas that encompass our vision and steer our moral compass for the next generation we support:

• Eliminate unlawful  discrimination, harassment, victimisation  and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 201
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

We believe that the Equality Act provides a framework to support our commitment to valuing diversity, tackling discrimination, promoting equality and fostering good relationships between people. It also ensures that we continue to tackle issues of disadvantage and underachievement of different groups.

Equality Objectives
Our approach to equality is based on the following key principles:

1. All learners are of equal value.
2. We recognise and respect difference.
3. We foster positive attitudes and relationships and a shared sense of cohesion and belonging.
4. We observe good equalities practice in staff recruitment, retention and development.
5. We aim to reduce and remove inequalities and barriers that already exist.
6. We have the highest expectations of all our children.

Equality Objectives - In order to further support pupils, raise standards and ensure inclusive teaching, we have set the following objectives:-

1. To monitor and analyse pupil achievement by race, gender and disability and act on any trends or patterns in the data that require additional support for pupils.
2. To raise levels of attainment in core subjects for vulnerable learners.
3. To review levels of parental and pupil engagement in learning and school life, across all activities to ensure equity and fairness in access and engagement.
4. To promote understanding and respect for differences.
5. To create a thorough accessibility plan for pupils new to the school with a range of needs and disabilities (see Accessibility Plan.

In order to ensure that all pupils are protected from discrimination, the school collects information on protected characteristics (see policy) as well as the following groups of pupils:

• Pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM)
• Pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN)
• Disadvantaged Group
• Pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL)
• Young Carers
• Looked After Children

Our objectives detail how we ensure equality is applied to:

• Improving attainment and progress for all children.
• Improving attainment and progress for children who encounter disadvantage.
• Providing an environment where discrimination of any form is addressed and eliminated.
• Advancing equality of opportunity through role models, high-quality curriculum, quality CPD for staff.
• Fostering good relations with parents and carers, children, governors and the community.
• Reducing behaviour that is discriminatory or oppressive in any way

Through rigorous tracking and monitoring of individuals and of all the groups of children, including progress and attainment, and by providing equal opportunities to access the curriculum and activities, we aim to ensure that any gap in attainment for pupils within any of the above different groups is removed, or at least remains less than the gap nationally.

We eliminate discrimination by:

• Adhering to the LCC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for Schools Guidance
• Adopting a School Behaviour and Anti-bullying policy which ensures that all children feel safe at school and that any prejudicial bullying is addressed
• Reporting, responding to and monitoring all racist incidents thoroughly
• Regularly monitoring the curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of all pupils and that it promotes respect for diversity and challenges negative stereotyping
• Ensuring teaching is of the highest quality so that children reach their potential and all pupils are given equal entitlement to success
• Tracking pupil progress to ensure all children make good progress, intervening when necessary
• Ensuring all pupils have the opportunity to access extra-curricular provision
• Listening to and monitoring views and experiences of pupils and adults to evaluate the effectiveness of our policies and procedures.

Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it

We advance equality of opportunity by consulting and involving those affected by inequality in the decisions our school takes to promote equality and eliminate discrimination through:

• Using the information we gather to identify underachieving groups or individuals and plan targeted intervention.
• Ensuring participation of parents/carers and pupils in school development e.g. through questionnaires, consultations.
• Listening to parents/carers.
• Listening to pupils at all times.

We foster good relations by:

• Ensuring that Orchard Primary School is seen as a community school within our local area.
• Ensuring that equality and diversity are embedded in the curriculum and in collective worship.

Equality Objectives
For more information, please click on the links below to view our policies:

www.orchardprimary.org/policy/single-equalities-policy
www.orchardprimary.org/policy/overarching-equality-scheme
www.orchardprimary.org/policy/the-equality-act-and-schools-policy
www.orchardprimary.org/policy/equality-act-statement-2022

For information on the 'Public Sector Equality Duty', please click on the link below:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-sector-equality-duty

GDPR and Privacy Policies

The General Data Protection Regulation

A notice about how and why we store personal data

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) came into force across all sectors on 25th May 2018. Click here to find out more. 

GDPR applies to ‘personal data’ meaning any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified.

As a school, we hold lots of data about staff, governors, children and families and this can include names, dates of birth, addresses, email addresses and more. This makes us a ‘data controller’ and we are registered under the ICO (Information COmmissioners Office). As a 'data controller' we are required to be careful about the way we store, share and keep safe this personal data and you are entitled to give us consent to do so. We comply with the Data Protection Act and General Data Protection Regulations.

GDPR Policies can be located on the Symphony Learning Website and the Privacy Notices are below:

Privacy Notice for Parents
Privacy Notice for Visitors
Privacy Notice for Workforce
Privacy Notice for Governors

Policies

School

Statutory

Statutory Safeguarding

Safeguarding

SEND and Inclusion

Inclusion and Equal Opportunities Statement

At Orchard Primary School we are proud to provide a safe, stimulating and inclusive learning environment where every member of our community is valued, respected and made to feel welcome within our mainstream setting.

It is our ethos that all children have an equal right to a full and rounded education and to enjoy high quality learning experiences through which they are able to achieve their full potential. We therefore have exceptionally high ambitions for all of our pupils and expect them to participate and achieve in every aspect of school life. Our commitment to equal opportunities is a crucial aspect of our overall commitment to be a fully inclusive school.

Orchard Primary School aims to:
• set suitable learning challenges;
• respond to pupils’ diverse needs; and
• overcome potential barriers to learning for individuals and groups of pupils.
• create an environment in which pupils can develop their sense of self-respect, tolerance and courtesy for others.
We are exceptionally proud of the diversity found within our school and it is our policy that everyone is treated equally regardless of gender, religion, race, nationality, social background and disability.

We believe that successful inclusion should:
• Result in every pupil feeling safe, confident and happy at school.
• See every pupil making the best progress of which they are able and enjoying their time at school - be that in lessons, during their play or lunchtimes or when involved in any of our extended school activities.
• Promote every child's belief in themselves as a learner and valued member of our school community.

Successful inclusive provision at Orchard is seen as the responsibility of the whole school community, permeating all aspects of school life and applicable to all our pupils. We are therefore committed to offering an inclusive curriculum which focuses on the well-being or every child and ensures the best possible progress for all of our pupils whatever their needs or abilities. All our systems and procedures are designed to enable all children to be included fully in the life of the school and we engage a range of strategies to issue challenge at an appropriate level, and provide support to overcome barriers to learning.

It is our responsibility to ensure that pupils with special or additional educational needs have the maximum opportunity to attain and make progress in line with their peers. Accurate assessment of need and carefully planned programmes, which address the root causes of any learning difficulty, are essential ingredients of success for these pupils.

Please see the various ‘Equalities’ policies in the School's Policy Section for more information.

SEN and Inclusion
The school’s SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) is Mrs Caldwell. The Deputy SENDCO is Miss Farrar. If you need to contact them then please ring the school office on 01332 810078 to arrange an appointment.

Please see the documents below for information regarding Special Educational Needs provision at Orchard Primary:

SEND Policy
Single Equalities PolicySEND Information Report
SEND Information Report
SEND Support Leaflet

If a parent is concerned about anything to do with the support we are providing in school for a child with special educational needs, they should, in the first instance, discuss the matter with their child's class teacher and then the school’s SENDCO. Most matters of concern can be dealt with in this way. All teachers work very hard to ensure that each child is happy at school, and is making good progress; they always want to know if there is a problem, so that they can take action before the problem seriously affects the child's progress.

Where a parent feels that a situation has not been resolved through contact with the class teacher, or that their concern is of a sufficiently serious nature, they should make an appointment to discuss it with the Headteacher. The Headteacher considers any such complaint very seriously and investigates each case thoroughly. Most complaints are normally resolved at this stage.

If the school cannot resolve any complaint itself, those concerned should contact the Chair of Governors, Mr Francis Brown.

Accessibility Plan

It is a requirement under the Equality Act 2010 that schools have an Accessibility Plan. The Equality Act 2010 replaced all existing equality legislation, including the Disability Discrimination Act. This means that “schools cannot unlawfully discriminate against pupils on the grounds of sex, race, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation”.

According to the Equality Act 2010 a person has a disability if:

(a) He or she has a physical or mental impairment, and
(b) The impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

The Full Governing Body is responsible for ensuring the implementation and resourcing of the Plan and for reviewing the Plan.

Orchard Primary School is committed to providing an accessible environment which values and includes all pupils, staff, parents and visitors regardless of their education, physical, sensory, social, spiritual, emotional and cultural needs. The school will also remove or minimise any potential barriers to learning allowing all children to achieve and participate fully in school life.

Orchard Primary School will challenge negative attitudes about disability and accessibility; developing a culture of awareness, tolerance and inclusion.

The full plan can be accessed below.
Accessibility Plan Policy

Children in Care

The school recognises the need to support Children in Care. Provision will be made to address individual needs and to work with external agencies.

EAL

All pupils need to feel safe, accepted and valued in order to learn effectively and become successful members of society. For pupils, who are learning English as an Additional Language (EAL), this includes recognising and valuing their home language and background.

English as an Additional Language (EAL) is not considered a Special Education Need. Differentiated work and individual learning opportunities are provided for children who are learning EAL as part of our provision for vulnerable learners. 

To find out more about how we cater for EAL learners, please refer to our EAL Policy.

Young Carers

Orchard Primary School is committed to supporting young carers to access and maintain their education, to which they are entitled to.

For more information about how we do this, please refer to the Young Carers Policy link.

Attachment Theory

What is Attachment Disorder?
Attachment disorder (AD) arises when a child under the age of three suffers an early life trauma like abuse, separation from a parent, or illness. They miss out on the love, comfort and nurturing that they need, and fail to form normal loving relationships with their primary carers. This is turn can delay their cognitive and social development, affecting their behaviours and their ability to form relationships later in life.

AD is just one strand of Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD), which covers all issues and developmental problems resulting from early life trauma, including attachment disorder.

There can be an assumption that AD is only associated with adopted children or children in care. While there is a strong correlation, many other children without this background are affected.

Children with attachment difficulties are often misdiagnosed as many of the characteristics are also seen in conditions like autism, ODD and ADHD.

The long-term impact is hard to predict as children have different levels of resilience to trauma in the womb or neglect after birth. However, the overall prognosis is good; children can fully recover from AD with the correct care and attention.

Causes of Attachment Disorder
If, during the first three years of their life, any of the following occur, children are at risk of attachment disorders:
• Mother smoked, drank alcohol or took drugs during pregnancy.
• They are the result of an unwanted pregnancy.
• They suffer physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
• They have been neglected. This can be anything from not having a nappy changed when it is dirty to not being fed when hungry.
• Their primary carer suffers from depression.
• They were separated from their primary carer through the illness or death of a parent, or through being taken into care.
• They suffer from persistent and chronic pain.
• Their primary carers split up or divorce.
• Inconsistent parenting.

They are raised in an emotionally empty or negative/abusive environment.

Signs of Attachment Disorder
Children who have experienced early trauma develop strategies or behaviours to help them to survive. These may include:
• Lack of expectation of care and comfort, known as the inhibited form of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
• Inappropriately affectionate and familiar towards strangers, known as the disinhibited form of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
• Become distressed when separated from carer but also resist contact when the carer returns. Known as anxious-ambivalent attachment.
• Poor eye contact.
• Difficulty showing affection. An aversion to touch and physical affection.
• Overly demanding or clingy.
• Lack of cause/effect thinking.
• Problems controlling and expressing anger, sometimes violent.
• A need to be in control.
• Erratic eating habits.
• Failure to show remorse or regret after behaving badly.
• Abnormally sociable or superficially charming.
• Tell lies or steal
• Ask persistent nonsense questions or incessant chatter
• Pseudo maturity
• Low self-esteem

How do we support pupils with attachment difficulties Orchard?
At Orchard, we recognise that an open mind and an empathic approach are essential for helping these children.

We appreciate that accepting that the child has a need they are trying to convey, requires patience.

As well as having ‘positive’ behaviour management policies and procedures, we also endeavour to implement effective provision and whole school practice and beliefs in order to provide the stability the child needs to move from a state where they perceive school to be unsafe to one of safety; only then can the child begin to build the skills to learn more effectively.

The provision that we can offer is wide-ranging but includes the following:
• Staff listen to children, are curious and empathetic and have a desire to do what they can to help a child having a tough time
• Effective tracking of behaviour to help identify patterns and changes in order for support to be given
• Structure, routines and boundaries for all pupils and adaptations to these to meet the individual needs
• Predictability of people and situations
• Planned support for transitions and changes
• The use of PACE when dealing with children (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy)
• Seeing the child and not the behaviour
• Being reflective of situations and looking at what the adult and system could have done differently and then make the changes
• Providing pupils who are struggling with attachment disorders the opportunity to work through any behavioural difficulties with an adult in a safe environment (“time in” opposed to a “time out”)
• Dedicated staff who help the child to understand their emotions through restorative questions

Resources

Mental Health and Wellbeing Provisions
Attachment Theory in Schools
Mental Health in Schools

Useful Documents To Help Manage Attachment Disorder

Attachment Classroom Strategies
Attachment Strategies
My Inner Chimp Explains

Our Governing Body

Governors are part of the largest volunteer workforce in the country; they play a key role in helping the school provide the best possible education for all its pupils.

Orchard Primary School has a very committed team of governors, who promote high standards across the school. Their role is to support and challenge the Headteacher, to help set the vision and strategic direction of the school and to ensure that our school is the very best it could be.

Governors have a wide range of responsibilities.  These include tasks such as:
• Ensuring that the school meets its legal responsibilities
• Setting the school budget
• Making decisions about the school building and premises
• Setting school policies
• Appointing staff and making decisions about current staffing
• Looking at how well groups of pupils are performing and ensuring action is taken if there are any concerns 

Our Governers are:

Parent Governors

As one of the newest members of the governing board, I am looking forward to increasing my knowledge of everything that goes into the smooth running of the school. I want to use my term as a parent governor to bring my own experiences from the world of work and home and use them to inform decisions that create and sustain a happy and supportive school environment for both pupils and staff. 

I am happily married with one young daughter currently at Orchard and I work full time as Ethical Trade Manager for a UK retailer. I see the role of parent governor as a great opportunity to use my own skills and knowledge to have a positive impact on a vital aspect of community life.

I began my role as a governor shortly after my child joined Orchard. Having worked in education my entire career, including in leadership roles, I am deeply passionate about supporting children’s progress and development, as well as promoting staff wellbeing. As a governor, I am particularly focused on fostering a supportive environment that prioritises these areas for the benefit of our whole school community.

I became a parent governor shortly after my eldest child, Daniel, started at Orchard. I felt passionately, both about being involved in his education (and my daughter's, who starts soon), but also about giving back to the community and supporting something which would be playing such an important part of our lives for many years to come. 

A particular area of interest to me is the ability to successfully engage parents so that they feel involved and informed about their child's school life, and are supportive of ensuring the success and achievement of all the children within the school.

Co-opted Governers

I am a father of two and a husband, I have joined the governing body to help contribute to the community and build my own knowledge at the same time. I work in the aerospace industry and focus on Manufacturing Engineering. In my spare time I like to run, swim and bike to try and keep fit. I also enjoy socialising with friends and family when time permits.

I was a secondary phase science teacher for over twenty years and spent the last twenty working in special education. Having taught in mainstream secondary and retrained for mainstream primary, special education was the perfect combination of the secondary phase curriculum and primary phase attainment.  I have supported schools and teachers in difficulty as an advanced skills teacher and I spent the last six years as a deputy head, helping improve my school from special measures to good (with outstanding features)

I stepped down from teaching to reduce my hours and go part-time. I am now a field officer for the Association for Science Education (ASE), and I work with the Science Council to promote professional registration. I am a Chartered Science Teacher and a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching.

I am also the secondary lead for my local Science Learning Partnership and a lead facilitator for STEM learning. I am an author of resources for lower attaining students with a major educational publisher and as such I am often recognised by teachers who have used my resources in their own lessons.

I chose to become a school governor to continue contributing to education and make sure our children have the best opportunities available to them. I hope to bring skills and experiences from secondary and special schools to this role.

Hi, I’m Sarah and I have been a governor at Orchard for about 6 months. I saw that Orchard was looking specifically for governors with HR experience. This has been my line of work for 15 years and so I was happy to put my name forward. I am really enjoying the role and learning a lot from it. Hopefully, I am contributing a bit along the way too! I am also an Orchard parent. My daughter attended for 7 years and my son is still attending Orchard. It’s a fantastic school going from strength to strength and I am very proud to be a part of that.

As one of the newest members of the governing board, I am looking forward to increasing my knowledge of everything that goes into the running of the school. I want to use my term as a governor to fully understand and support where possible.

I am married with two children, one boy and one girl, both currently at Orchard and I work full-time as an Operations Director for an electrical Contractor. I see the role of parent governor as a great opportunity to use my own skills and knowledge to have a positive impact on the school and the trust.

I love sport and spend most of my personal time, supporting my children in sport activities or watching sport live or on TV.

As a mum of two, I joined the governing body shortly before my eldest started at Orchard as I wanted to help contribute to the school community. I also felt strongly about being involved to assist with the smooth running of the school and facilitating a supportive environment for all pupils to learn in and for all staff to work in, given the long lasting impact a happy school experience has for all pupils. 

Community Governors

I am presently a primary school teacher with nine years of experience. I am also a father of two girls and reside in Castle Donington. My aim is to contribute to the school by applying the knowledge I've acquired throughout my career. I aspired to become a governor to advance my professional development and make a positive impact on the community where I reside.  

Staff Governors

I have served as a Governor since 2005, starting initially as a ‘Parent Governor’, then being appointed as ‘Chair of Governors’ until 2016. I am now sitting on the Committee as a ‘Co-opted Governor’, having stepped down due to now being employed by the School as an IT Network Manager and Teaching Assistant.

Both of my daughters have attended the School and both are doing extremely well in their studies, having been given an excellent start at Orchard Community Primary School. They were always happy and well supported by all the staff.

I have been providing IT Support for the last 35 years in different capacities, with the last 15 years specifically been in IT Education Support.

As a Governor, I am committed to ensuring that every child attending the School has an equal opportunity to receive the best possible start in their educational path. I recognise the extremely high importance that Primary Education has in helping pupils to realise their full potential.

Teacher Governor