Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Pleasingly, educators as a whole now 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 in 2022. 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 three school-wide surveys to date, with a further survey to come later this year, and are 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 have also been 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.
In November of last year, we held our inaugural Culture Day in school. This was a perfect opportunity to share and celebrate the rich blend of cultures we have in our school community. Over 60 pupils took part in hosting, many of whom went to extraordinary efforts to share what is most special to them about their heritage. This included sharing maps, artwork, homemade food, photographs, music, teaching languages, quizzes, games and more. Hundreds of our pupils visited and engaged with great interest, and all proceeds from the array of food on offer went to Children in Need.
On matters of gender inequality, we first 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. Having learnt a great from this, a number of our Sixth Form have now taken on the mantle as Equality Ambassadors, designing sessions which they have run with Years 9 and 10. Our Year 12 and 13 pupils have found this to be very meaningful and empowering, and this has also helped to foster strong relationships and openness of communication amongst year groups. It is our intention that the Equality Ambassadors team will continue with further sessions in the coming months, focusing on other key matters such as confidently tackling racism and understanding neurodiversity.
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. Upon starting my role, one of the first tasks I undertook was to redesign our school council, within which we have a designated EDI pupil-led team. This comprises a passionate group of individuals, keen to examine those protected characteristics where there may be a risk of unawareness and prejudice, brainstorm ways of practically intervening and make tangible improvements within the school community.
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 and inclusive setting. Lastly, we have woven regular EDI content into tutor times, assemblies and our schemes of work for each year group, allowing for pupil reflection and discussion on numerous topics including discrimination in sport, unconscious bias, microaggressions, and the strengths found within neurodiversity. Whilst this is clearly an ever-evolving landscape, our latest EDI roadmaps offer a snapshot of our work to date, and can be viewed here.
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.
View our Prospectus
To view our QEH Prospectus suite
Latest News at QEH?
To find out what’s made the news recently at QEH
Book an Open Day visit
We recommend coming to visit to find out more about QEH
