Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Pleasingly, educators as a whole in 2022 have a greater understanding of the significance of equity, and how this should ideally play out in our own school’s context.
Fundamentally, it starts with recognising, acknowledging and examining what diversity looks like. It requires us to think about how equity can be perceived, and how this may still result in an unfair outcome – a lack of inclusion – for many of our young people. It is now the duty of all schools to shine a light on pupils’ lived experience (good or bad), as well as that of the society around them. Moreover, we are called to equip our young people with the confidence to correctly identify injustice, and to seek fairness for all.
This is one of the principal reasons for which my role at QEH Bristol was created earlier this year. Our equity work has thus far focused on three key areas: racial inequality, gender inequality and pupil voice; shining light in dark and often unexamined corners, and galvanising our pupils’ ability to speak out – and be heard.
One of the first steps we took was to conduct a racial inequality survey with all of our pupils (and staff): to understand their experiences and ability to recognise and challenge racist attitudes and behaviours. To do so, we partnered with Flair, (a specialist tech company who collate and analyse data from schools and other organisations on attitudes towards, and experiences of, racism). We have done two school-wide surveys to date and are now working on the key recommendations to come out of the post-survey reports. One such action has been to improve community and collaboration within minority groups. We will also be focusing on bystander invention; giving our young people the skills needed to call out incidents of racism, stand in solidarity with their fellow pupils and educate others in this area.
On matters of gender inequality, we have partnered with Bold Voices, an award-winning social enterprise tackling gender inequality, be that looking at stereotypes, bias, gendered language and violence, and online behaviour, influences and digital footprint. Their team has visited us many times already, delivering talks and workshops with the Sixth Form, as well as pupils lower down the school. They have also trained up a team of our older pupils as ambassadors, to help facilitate the sessions with younger pupils, which we have found to be very meaningful, and empowering for all pupils involved.
It has been thrilling to engage the pupils on these matters, and to hear their many reflections and hopes for how we might improve inclusion within our community. One of our first steps was to redesign our school council, within which we now have a designated EDI pupil-led team. We have also launched clubs to support minorities and create belonging within our pupil body, including an African Caribbean Society and HinduSoc, which meet to celebrate diversity, form community and tackle challenging issues in an open, inclusive setting. Lastly, we have woven regular EDI content into tutor times and assemblies for each year group, allowing for pupil reflection and discussion on topics including discrimination in sport, unconscious bias, microaggressions, and the strengths found within neurodiversity.
Ms L Mantle, Assistant Head (Equity and Pupil Wellbeing)
TEAMS FINISH IN EVERY TEN TORS
RAISED FOR CHARITIES IN THE LAST 5 YEARS
CHORISTERS IN THE SCHOOL CHOIR
IN NATIONAL CHESS FINALS
DEVELOPMENT OF FAILAND SPORTS GROUND
A*-B AT A-LEVEL
We spent at least four years considering which would be the right school for our boys and from the moment we walked into QEH Juniors we had the feeling that this was the right school.
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