As a Catholic College, Carmel is built on Christian principles and values. Mutual respect is seen as essential in a community where students are encouraged to recognise their responsibilities to self and others, and to the society in which they live.
We were pleased that OFSTED during their last inspection recognised the way we continually strive to reconcile our ethos with good equality and diversity practice.
Carmel College strives to reconcile equality and diversity to secure:
- Equality of access
- Equality of choice
- Equality of outcome
- Equality of process
Valuing diversity refers to demonstrably valuing diverse employees and students and by having policies and procedures that take their diverse needs and preferences into account.
In the context of equalities, diversity is often taken to mean the differences in the values, attitudes, cultural perspective, beliefs, ethnic background, sexual orientation, ability or disability, skills, knowledge, age and life experiences of each individual in any group of people. It is not the same as equal opportunities.
Carmel has an outstanding reputation for its approach to Equality and Diversity and is extremely pro-active across all the protected characteristics.
The college has a well developed Equality and Diversity policy that integrates an annual Equality and Diversity plan. This is externally audited, quality assured and reviewed each year.
College leadership and governance are fully involved and committed to the policy and plan and must approve this on an annual basis.
The college has a strong and well attended Equality and Diversity committee, which includes Equality and Diversity champions for each of the protected characteristics. This includes a student BAME representative.
All staff receive high quality annual Equality and Diversity training and updates; regular Principal and committee updates; and a cycle of Equality Impact Assessments are carried out across identified themes and / or systems.
Equality and Diversity features in every self-assessment quality panel each year, which includes the provision for the relevant protected characteristics and the achievement and progression thereof. The value-added performance for BAME students is consistently excellent to outstanding.
As an integral part of teaching and learning, each curriculum area clearly identifies and delivers protected characteristic content appropriate to their subject specialism.
The college Connect site has a vibrant Equality and Diversity section, including newsletters on Racism from external agencies.
The college has links to QED as an advisory body and EDUK who are always very knowledgeable and supportive on Race. The college are part of EDUK’s Learning Providers Network.
More recently, the college arranged for 2 students to speak to all staff about their experiences as BAME students.
This is the fourth occasion on which we have done this across the protected characteristics.
Black History Month is always celebrated at Carmel, both by the committee and staff and by the SC. This includes a range of external speakers. The college held a writing competition for BHM year 2019, which was very successful.
The college is proud of the visual artefacts displaying E& D around the college, both static and virtual display.
HR, as one would expect, plays a fundamental role in the success of E&D at Carmel. We have a number of external agencies whose counsel is sought so that we remain extremely pro-active in the regard.
If you would like to discuss any of this further, please do not hesitate to contact Kate Moffatt (Equality & Diversity co-ordinator), or Karl Smith (Vice Principal, Curriculum & Quality).
Click here to view our E&D Policy page
