Our latest blog provides an update on diversity, equality and inclusion at HSS.  

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) have long been a part of the High Storrs School DNA. Indeed, all schools quite rightly review and update their Equality Statement, Accessibility Action Plan and Objectives and Action plan every year.  Our HSS Equality Statement can be found here  Equality Statement and Accessibility Plan (279KB) (highstorrs.co.uk)

 To support the work carried out by our staff on a daily basis to support DEI, we have recruited two members of our team to take this essential and valuable work even further.  Ms Higginbottom and Mr Simm will support the work of the Leadership Team in ensuring that all of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act are understood and supported within our community. As is the nature of a diverse society, these two members of staff are very different from each other but have a wealth of experience and ideas to bring to the table.

As you will see in our action plan, the Leadership team have been assigned a protected characteristic to lead on and promote through form time group chats, assemblies and notice boards. Students will be educated around all of the protected characteristics and not just those which are centre stage in the news.  Ms Higginbottom and Mr Simm are already underway in creating student voice groups; ensuring all of our students are heard and supported.  The Pride event which, in normal times, takes centre stage in our assembly hall, will be presented in a new format and will reach out to each year group and each child.  Watch this space!

DEI education is entrenched throughout our curriculum and will continue to be so as the curriculum is further developed. Less than 15% of a child’s waking hours are spent in school every year so we can never teach all the topics that we would want to cover (or indeed that students ask us to explore).  So, quite rightly, our work in school complements the conversations and learning about rights and responsibilities that takes place in families and with peers.  We are proud that quite a number of our students are activists in the fight against the discrimination they sadly encounter. And we, in turn, learn from them.  The world can feel a challenging place at the moment with very polarised views; that is why we wanted to again share our commitment to raising awareness of the protected characteristics and take action against discrimination.

Mrs Hamnett, Assistant Headteacher for Inclusion