This half term we focused on learning about how the Equality Act 2010 gives protection to everyone from discrimination. The Act provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. It provides Britain with a discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society.
This underpins values that are important to life in modern Britain and everyone in Britain is protected.
What is the role of the Equality Act?
"The Act provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. It provides Britain with a discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society.
- https://www.equalityhumanrights.com
As a group, we focused on getting to know the 9 characteristics that are protected by the Act, so that should we experience or encounter any prejudice based on these we know there are laws in place to protect ourselves and others.
We used symbolism to explore the 9 characteristics and make a display for reception so all young people, staff, and visitors will be reminded of them every day. All young people were engaged in discussion about the characteristics and encouraged to have input into design, with individuals able to focus on illustrating the characteristic(s) that most resonated with them in that moment.
The protected characteristics are:
age
disability
gender reassignment
marriage and civil partnership
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief
sex
sexual orientation
Links with other classroom work -
Black History Month, PRIDE, LGBT+ History Month, Anti-Bullying, Online Safety, Relationships and Sexual Health, Votes for Schools, Unicef Rights Respecting Schools, Sociology, History, Science, Art, Citizenship, UK Parliament, Values for Life in Modern Britain.
Here are some our past forays into using art to explore important ideas pertaining to equality and human rights: