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St Andrew's CofE High School

Equality & Diversity

Diversity and Inclusion: Our community promise

At St Andrew's, we are committed to enabling all of our community to live life wisely, with dignity and faith, experiencing life in all its fullness.  This means that we celebrate every individual, and support them in their own personal journey.

We pledge to always challenge discrimination, educate on equality and relentlessly advocate for all individuals from all races, backgrounds, cultures and communities, of all genders and of all ages. 

Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM) Centre of Excellence Award

St Andrew's is very proud to be an Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM) Centre of Excellence. In the full report (which you can read here), the assessor concludes that St Andrew's is "a vibrant and inclusive learning community which is passionately led, driven by the SEND team, due to a philosophy that good provision for SEND is good provision for all." The report highlights the school's ethos of "knowing them and loving them" as "not just a mantra but a lived reality, ensuring that all students are empowered to thrive," and notes that the school's motto, "Aspiration for all, from all," is "not only visible but lived through its inclusive practices and high expectations."​

What is the IQM?

The Inclusion Quality Mark provides schools with a nationally recognised framework to guide their inclusion journey. The IQM team help schools evaluate and measure how they are performing, empowering them to improve and develop.​

IQM states that inclusion promotes equal opportunities for all pupils, whatever their age, ethnicity, attainment and background. It pays particular attention to the provision made for, and the achievement of, different groups of pupils within a school.

Inclusion is at the heart of everything that we do at St Andrew's and the IQM is recognition of the outstanding contribution of all at the school: pupils, parents, staff, governors and local partners.

The school was inspected under this framework and is proud to be an Inclusion Quality Mark Centre of Excellence following the assessment.​

What is a Centre of Excellence?

Becoming a Centre of Excellence enables member schools to come together to share and build on inclusion best practice. It is an opportunity to build on the success achieved.

​Only around 240 schools in the UK, the vast majority being primary, have met the standard required to become an IQM Centre of Excellence for outstanding practice in inclusion.​

St Andrew's now aims to achieve the IQM Flagship Award, which is only achieved after holding the Centre of Excellence status for at least 3 years. We look forward to continuing our development as an inclusive school and becoming a flagship school in the near future.

We continue to undertake the following:

  • Curriculum audits and reviews focusing on, but not limited to: 

    • The choice of texts​

    • The range of diverse voices, including authors and experiences, within units of work

    • The choice of case studies

  • The Rainbow Flag initiative, seeking parent, student and staff voice as we grow and develop a full and empathetic understanding of those around us.  We are proud to have achieved the Rainbow Flag Award, a national quality assurance framework, in recognition of the work we have undertaken in the following areas: ​

  • 'Education Required' log for staff to record any form of comment that raised concerns, which is then emailed to parents following education on the topic within school

  • Weekly tutor time activities focusing on advocacy, self-reflection, respect, responsibility and integrity

  • Regular and ongoing targeted education through PSHE and RS lessons on different perspectives, diversity and equality 

  • Targeted education, through PSHE and tutor time, on the language of diversity (key words and their history)

  • Drop down enrichment days, focusing on advocacy, self-reflection, respect, responsibility and integrity

  • Further grow the use of Tootoot to raise awareness and report concerns, including language use

  • Embedding a clear escalation process for any repeat behaviours that are discriminatory, following re-education and a restorative approach

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You can find our Equalities policy on our Policies page, or by clicking here.

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