OFSTED rated our Personal development as Outstanding in 2022

'Pupils take on important roles, such as house captains and school councillors. They contribute to decision-making, such as organising ‘Rainbow Day’. This event promoted diversity and tolerance for the work of different artists.'

'Leaders’ promotion of pupils’ personal development is exceptional. They have designed a curriculum that ensures pupils leave the school with the skills, knowledge and understanding to be highly valuable members of society. Pupils are bold when explaining their acceptance of each other’s differences. They are committed to celebrating the diversity in their world, without hesitation.'

Inclusion Award

We work closely with the ‘Educate and Celebrate’ programme, which aims to ‘transform schools and organisations into LGBTQ+ friendly places, creating a safe environment for staff, students, governors and parents to thrive and achieve, enabling everyone to be themselves without fear of discrimination.’ 

We are working closely with Dr Elly Barnes MBE to achieve our gold and silver Inclusion Award. 

‘Educating through the curriculum is key to creating an enlightened environment where we can begin to build cohesive communities with social justice at its core. On the other side of fear lies freedom’ Dr Elly Barnes MBE.

At White Court we believe that all pupils have an equal right to develop and achieve their potential. Equality of opportunity underpins the school curriculum and the work of the school. We aim for every pupil to fulfil their potential no matter what!

Our School is committed to anti-discriminatory practice to promote equality of opportunity and valuing diversity for all children and families.

Educate and Celebrates values include:

• Empower

  We EMPOWER others to address the social injustices that exist.

• Knowledgeable

  We are KNOWLEDGEABLE on current legal developments and best practice

• Open-Eyes

  We OPEN-EYES and provide transformational insights that motivate others to join our vision for inclusion

• Reassuring

  We are REASSURING and provide a safe space for open discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity

• Confident

  We are CONFIDENT to have perceived difficult conversations

• Support

  We SUPPORT schools through the change process

Equal Opportunities at White Court School

Teaching and Learning 

We aim to provide all our pupils with the opportunity to succeed, and to reach the highest level of personal development.

To do this, we will:

● Use contextual data to improve the ways in which we provide support to individuals and groups of pupils;

● Take account of the achievement of all students and prepare them for life in a diverse society;

● Ensure equality of access for all students and prepare them for life in a diverse society;

● Use materials that reflect the diversity of the school population and local community without stereotyping and expose students to a range of thoughts and ideas;

● Promote attitudes and values that will challenge racist, sexist, homophobic, biphobia, transphobic and other discriminatory behaviour or prejudice;

● Provide opportunities for all pupils to appreciate their own culture and celebrate the diversity of others cultures;

● Seek to involve all parents in supporting their child’s education;

● Encourage classroom and staffroom discussion of equality issues which reflect on stereotypes to encourage social cohesion, expectations and the impact of learning;

● Include teaching and classroom-based approaches appropriate for the whole school population which are inclusive and reflective of our students.

● Seek to involve the community around the school in the celebration and raising awareness of cultural issues.

Equal Opportunities and Objectives Policy

Jigsaw PSHE scheme

Jigsaw nurtures positive and healthy relationships across the school community. It is concerned that all children understand what makes a relationship positive and healthy and can recognise and get help if they are experiencing something unhealthy etc. The starting point is building a positive, respectful relationship with self, engendering a sense of belonging and inclusion.

This work begins in the Being Me in My World Puzzle (Autumn Term 1) in all year groups and is reinforced throughout. Therefore, there is minimal focus on sexual orientation and gender identity in the age 3 -11 programme; enough to enable children to understand the meaning of the words lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and heterosexual. At no point in this work is there any mention of sexual activity. It is about people and who they love, are attracted to and may want to marry or spend their lives with. This work is about alleviating stereotyping, accepting and respecting all people and celebrating differences of all sorts. In this way we aim to value and include all children and all family compositions, not to mention all teachers and members of the school community, thus equipping children for life in the UK today.

Rainbow Pride Day

As a whole school we celebrate PRIDE month in June by holding a Rainbow Pride Day which promotes equal rights and an end to LGBTQ+ discrimination. The children learn the significance of PRIDE and celebrate differences, challenge gender stereotypes (there are no ‘boys jobs’ and ‘girls jobs’ we can be whoever we want to be!) and celebrate significant figures in history who were LGBTQ+. We will be raising awareness of 'Pride' which simply means having a feeling of being good, worthy and proud. 

What is Pride?

Pride is a feeling of honour and self-respect. 

It is the feeling of being worthwhile. 

It is having self-esteem. 

We can all feel pride by expressing ourselves in a way that makes us happy or makes us feel beautiful, or a way that feels right in our hearts.

Simply put, self-expression is the art of being yourself, always.

Self-expression has no limits.

You can be who you are no matter your age, race, orientation, identify, gender, financial status, class, disabilities or abilities.

You can like rap music or pop music.

You can have long or short hair. You can wear dresses or shorts. 

There is no right or wrong way to be yourself. 

Written by Desmond Is Amazing

Pupils views about Rainbow Day

'Pride Day at school made us happy because we are celebrating people and their differences. Everyone should feel special and we think Pride makes people feel more confident and cheerful to be who they are. We feel happy and proud that our school celebrated it as I didn’t think we would. We loved learning about the new words, particularly diversity. We learnt to be accepting of others and that everyone deserves love. It doesn’t matter about your age, race, gender, religion or disability. Everyone should feel loved. We would really like to celebrate it again next year.'

By Gracie  and Harry 

'I have learnt that we should all be our self, being different is good.' 

'I think it is very important to celebrate Pride Month in schools so that young people can grow up to learn that being part of LGBTQ+ is totally normal and that being yourself never goes out of fashion.' By Sophia

'I am unique and special.' 

'It was fun and a nice way to show Pride with the rainbow colours.' By Sienna

'It is important that teachers teach children about Pride or LGBTQ+ so children learn that it is ok to be gay or LGBTQ+. What is important is that you love who you are.'  By Amelia

'I have learnt that we are all different and special. Rainbow Day has been the best day ever!'

'I think everyone should support LGBTQ+ and should be taught about it because people should have equal rights. We made colourful butterflies to show our support and learn more about it.' By Patrick.

'We are all equal no matter what.'

Parents thoughts about Rainbow day

'I think the idea is wonderful and I whole heartedly trust that your staff will deliver child appropriate lessons on how to be tolerant and celebrate the diversity of our real world. In fact I’m really proud that our school have that vision, making all the children prepared to be non-judgemental for life outside of the classroom. 

A massive thank you for tackling a taboo subject and getting the children (and parents) to talk.' 

'Both myself and his Dad are really impressed and excited about the Pride day you have arranged for tomorrow. We very much support and champion inclusivity within our family and feel that it is an important part of all childrens’ lives and education to understand other people’s lived experiences and celebrate different forms of love in our beautiful society. We think it’s a great idea to have this as part of the school curriculum.'

 

'I just wanted to say how amazing and important I think this is and to thank you and  White Court for promoting this message of acceptance and pride. It is so important and will, I am sure, have a really positive affect on the mental health of the children and on their ability to accept themselves and others.'

Great Rainbow Bake Off

This year we held our first ‘Rainbow Bake Off’ for all the budding chefs at White Court. You will see from the photos how talented our children are! We had rainbow cupcakes, tray bakes, fudge, swiss roll, cookies, biscuits and lots more! They were judged by our governors and Mr Robinson our catering manager. 

Art in Politics

This year it is the 50^th anniversary of the very first Pride March in the UK in 1972 and the theme is ‘Politics in Art.’ The children learnt about the lives of LGBTQ+ artists, past and present. Artists such as: Keith Haring, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Yayoi Kusama, Marlow Moss and Robert Rauschenberg. Every child produced a piece of art in the style of a LGBTQ+ artist. Each year group then exhibited this fantastic work for everyone to see during our Open Afternoon. 

Inclusion and Equality Books at White Court

Reflective statements linked to the books we have shared in school

Diverse Families

We celebrate diverse families often through stories as this creates a safe platform for children to develop an understanding of diversity. Emphasing what they have in common is important, while one child might have two biological parents, another might be adopted, have a single parent, or same sex parents. Either way, it's love and support that makes a family. 

Celebrating Differences

We believe that being different from one another is something which should be celebrated and respected.

Gender Equality

We believe that regardless of your gender everyone should be treated equally, have the same rights and have the same opportunities to succeed in school and in life. 

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at White Court

We are 'United against bullying!'

Monday 16th November was Odd Socks Day! It was an opportunity for children and adults to express themselves, celebrate their individuality and what makes us all unique!