MAS Equalities Objectives

The Equality Act 2010 places an equality duty on all public bodies and requires them to publish equality objectives every 4 years. This document identifies the equality objectives that we will focus on over the next 4 years, from 2023 to 2027.

Matthew Arnold’s mission is ‘Success for All’ and so we recognise and are fully committed to the three aims of the general equality duty:

  • Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the act

  • Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not

  • Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not

At Matthew Arnold School students make great progress in their learning and attain ambitious outcomes through our excellent curriculum. Through our diverse and inclusive community we support students to become kind and responsible young adults, confident and proud of who they are and ready when they leave us to make a positive contribution to their world.

As staff who work at Matthew Arnold School we all have a role to play in this success and in embodying and nurturing our values:

Our Values

  • Ambition
  • Kindness
  • Inclusion
  • Collaboration

The governing body has agreed the following Equality Objectives for 2024:

Equality Objective 1: Advance opportunity of equality  - student outcomes

To continue our focus on promoting positive outcomes and attendance for our priority learners who are vulnerable to underachievement, in particular those who have lower prior attainment, who have SEN needs  or who are in receipt of PPG support, so they fulfil their potential.

Equality Objective 2: Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation

Aim to eliminate completely all incidents involving prejudice against people with protected characteristics, within our increasingly diverse community. 

Grow knowledge, understanding and tolerance across our community

Equality Objective 3: Advance equality of opportunity - staff employment

Proactively work to ensure the diversity of our workforce more accurately reflects the students and families we serve. Monitor the effectiveness of our approach to providing for the needs of those with protected characteristics. 

Additional actions:
  • Alignment with trust work on EDI, MAS EDI school improvement group
  • Consider an equalities audit, eg Equaliteach to support clarity and focus on equality objectives 
  • Review and evaluation cycle - in line with FGB (Culture and Engagement - FKE) and FGB forward plan            Jan 2025: objectives                                                                                                                                                                    March 2025: contextual data                                                                                                                                                      May: comparative data                                                                                                                                                            July: report monitoring and review
Review of 2024-2025 Objectives
Objectives

Monitoring and evaluation

To continue our focus on promoting positive outcomes for our priority learners who are vulnerable to underachievement, in particular those who have lower prior attainment, who have SEN needs  or who are in receipt of PPG support, so they fulfil their potential.
Year 11    

P8 all

P8 LPA

P8 EAL

P8 girls

P8 boys

P8 non mobile (Y10/11)

P8 FSM6

P8 

SEN K

P8 

EHCP

+0.56

+0.65

+0.33

+0.50

+0.61

+0.56

-0.37

+0.05

-0.77
 

FFT P8 estimates based on CAT tests taken in Y7.

 

Ethn

ABAN

AIND

AOTH

APKN

BAFR

BOTH

MOTH

MWAS

MWBA

MWBC

OLAM

OOTH

REFU

WBRI

WIRI

WOTH

P8

-2.29

+0.53

+0.07

+0.74

NA

NA

+1.06

+0.41

+0.49

-0.98

NA

+0.07

NA

+0.56

-1.49

+0.71
  • LPA students perform well in this school 

  • EAL students  perform well in this school

  • SEND students perform less well than average - there is a gap; for 2025-25 students with an EHCP performed least  well. Nb significant crossover of SEN/PP and Y11s not attending school for this cohort (10 students)

  • FSM students are currently underperforming in this school in comparison to the whole cohort

  • There are some individual low performances from students in ethnic groups that connect to very specific individual cases; this is an area we continue to monitor
Review of 2024-2025 Objectives:
Aim to eliminate completely all incidents involving prejudice against people with protected characteristics, within our increasingly diverse community.
 

2025/26 YTD

16.12.25

2024/25

2023/24

2022/23 

2021/22

Total

Incidents of Bullying

23

21

18

10

3

Incidents of Discrimination

9

1

  

9

16

Number of racist incidents YTD

0

0

8

    

Number of homophobic incidents YTD

3

0

2

    

Number of sexualised incidents YTD

  

1

9

    

Number of gender based incidents YTD

4

0

1

    

Refer to HT Report for incidents of peer/peer, homophobic or racist nature.

Reports of bullying and discrimination via student reporting concerns form.

EDI staff group and trust group build into 2024+ work
Advance equality of opportunity   - Staff employment : Continue to monitor the diversity of our workforce and the effectiveness of our approach to providing for the needs of those with protected characteristics.             

We monitor provision for those staff with protected characteristics.

Diversity of workforce is more difficult to influence, but we monitor through HR.

Appropriate provision is when we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate a need, such as:

  • reduced duty times or altered location when someone is pregnant 

  • providing a room for breastfeeding mothers to express

  • IT screen modifications for dyslexia

  • adapted threshold levels for paid leave of attending medical appointments during a calendar year (or for those with a dependent with a disability)

  • flexible hours

  • altered tutor group or timetable  allocations to allow for rest during the day (eg down time to cope with ADHD)

  • leave is granted for religious observance at different points in the year

Ethnicity codes:

Ethnicity Code

Ethnicity Description

Number of Staff at date              of last census

Number of Students 2024/25 Y11 cohort

APKN

Pakistani

0

8

OATH

Any Other Asian Background

2

7

OOTH

Any Other Ethnic Group

2

5

WOTH

Any Other White Background

12

28

WBRI

White - British

88

113

MWAS

White and Asian

2

11

MOTH

Any Other Mixed Background

3

1

WIRI

White - Irish

4

8

MWBC

White and Black Caribbean

2

1

MWBA

White and Black African

0

3

AIND

Indian

2

7

ABAN

Bangladeshi

1

5

BCRB

Black  - Carribean

2

1

BAFR

Black - African

3

8

BOTH

Any Other Black Background

0

1

CHNE

Chinese

0

1