TDA 3.

6 - Promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Harriet Please include details on direct and indirect discrimination - this website is quite useful: http://www.fpb.org/hottips/601/The_Equality_Act_2010:_protected_characteristics_and_types_of_discrimination. htm Q1 is a very good answer with plenty of detail, just the above to mention! Excellent answer for Q2 with a good example of your own practice and views. Just Q1 to add to - overall a very good assignment. Lucy 1. Complete both questions: 1) Explain ways in which children and young people can experience prejudice and discrimination 2) Describe the impact of prejudice and discrimination on children and young people

1. There are many different ways in which children can experience prejudice and discrimination in school. Due to the many pressures on children to fit in and to conform with expected appearances and behaviour, they can be discriminated against and bullied if they do not do so. This can even happen with children just starting school in reception class and will continue throughout school in every year group. A common example of this would be a pupil commenting on another pupils clothes. Such as a little girl being picked on because her uniform is slightly different to her friends. I ve seen a child being left out of a game in the playground because her summer dress had a larger check pattern than others, or something as simple as a child wearing light grey tights when most children wear a darker shade of grey. Children can be mean and hurtful to their friends but often they do not think before they speak. Children can also experience prejudice and discrimination due to race, religion, age, sex, culture or ethnicity, so staff also need to look out for children not playing with others because they may be different . For example it could be their skin colour which is different or the way they look or speak depending on where they come from or it may be a group of boys not allowing a girl to play football in the playground with them. Children will naturally want to play with others of the same sex, race or ethnicity but staff need to make sure that children are not being excluded for any reason and that fair treatment is given to all individuals. Teachers need to be aware of different types of discrimination for example direct discrimination and indirect discrimination as the new Equality Act 2010 harmonises and replaces previous antidiscrimination legislation. Although a teachers responsibilities largely remain the same, there are some changes that will affect both them and their pupils. These include the introduction of protective characteristics and new forms of discrimination. Protective characteristics is the new name given to all the groups of individuals who are protected by the legislation, for example age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity are now to be known as protected characteristics'. Direct discrimination is where someone is treated less favourably that another

person because of a protective characteristic, for instance if a school refused to take a child who suffers from epilepsy, this would be direct discrimination. Indirect discrimination occurs when you have a rule or policy that applies to everyone but disadvantages a person with a particular protected characteristic. For example there was successful North London School who excluded a pupil because of his hair cut. He was from an African-Caribbean family and chose to wear his hair is cornrows which went against the schools anti- gang policy. So after being asked to remove them and refusing he was not allowed back to his school. This was unlawful as you cannot ban certain haircuts such as corn rows in a school over gang fear, its indirect racial discrimination. It s like trying to ban ponytails.

2. The impact of prejudice and discrimination on children will have a very negative impact on them. Depending on the seriousness of the discrimination and how long it goes on for, this negative atmosphere will lead to low self-esteem. This is because a child who is being discriminated against will start to feel that they are not valued as a person and will begin to lose their confidence. Children who suffer really badly will start to withdraw socially, becoming less able to join in with activities with their peers. If a child suffers from low self-esteem, they stop liking themselves and think that no one wants to know about them because they feel different from their peers and not worthy. It even affects their learning because a child who does not feel part of the class due to discrimination or prejudice will not be happy or feel safe in school and will not want to put their hand up to ask a question in class as it will draw attention to them. Until children feel happy at school and are settled they will be unable to focus on their work and can get left behind. With a lack of confidence it s also difficult to make friends and with fewer positive relationships being developed with peers or adults the impact on prejudice and discrimination can be very depressing.

2.

Evaluate how your own attitudes, values and behaviour could impact on work with children and young people I try not to treat children differently at school and give each pupil an equal opportunity but there are always some children who due to their behaviour will gain more attention. When I work in owl class, it is quite a big class with some very lively children and inadvertently I probably do treat pupils differently because the children who are being more demanding will take up a lot of my time, whereas the children with good manners will sit and wait patiently for me to come to them. At lunch time the children who sit and eat their lunch quickly are more likely to get my praise, rather than the ones who chat and take more time to eat their food. However we should not be encouraging children to rush their food as it is far healthier and more enjoyable to eat slowly. Meals should not be rushed, eating slowly is less stressful and so much better for digestion, so I will bare this in mind next time I am on lunch duty. Last year I organised a Halloween school disco this year as a fund raiser and all in all it was a huge success and the children has so much fun. They were all discussing what costume they were going to wear and which friends they were going to have their photo taken with. However it never occurred to me that there would be children who would not be allowed to

come to the disco and get dressed up in Halloween costumes. To me Halloween is just a bit of harmless fun but for a Christian family it was just over the top. I felt bad being unaware of their strong religious beliefs and in the future will try to handle any Halloween events with more tact. 3. Explain how to promote anti-discriminatory practice in work with children and young people To promote anti discriminatory practice in school, it s important that the staff act as a role models at all times, which means being positive about differences and similarities between people. It is through the development of trust and positive relationships that children will learn to respect one another. Teachers should display good manners and be polite and curious, discuss issues calmly, in a non aggressive manner and not argue with another teacher if front of the pupils. Within our day to day practise at school, it s important to include all children in all aspects school life, which is easier to control in the classroom. For example you may be working with a pupil who has additional needs and to ensure that they have equal opportunities to others you may need to give them extra time to complete a task. You may also have to adapt and modify learning materials for them so that they can fully access the curriculum. In the playground, it can be more difficult to promote ant- discriminatory behaviour but in some schools, like Ingoldsby, we have school councillors who have a duty at play time to help make sure that no children are left out. Alongside the school staff the school councillors organise games to play, such as skipping or hop scotch, which anyone can get involved in and the older children are very good at this and they enjoy the responsibility too. However if you ever notice any victims of discrimination either in the class room or in the play ground, you must make sure that it is dealt with promptly and properly. This will hopefully prevent it from happening again and stop any discrimination from escalating and becoming a bigger problem.

4. Explain how to challenge discrimination. Whenever you come across any sort of discrimination you must always do something about it and in many schools it also needs to be recorded and reported. Young children will sometimes say things without understanding the implications. They don t think things through and usually don t mean to be hurtful, sometimes it s just a miss understanding or it s something a child has heard another child say and is just repeating it without knowing the true meaning. If a swear word is used for instance, the child may not realize it s a bad word, if they are just repeating a phrase they have heard elsewhere, so they need to be told not to say it again. If its discriminating against someone because of their uniform, as i mentioned in question 1, it may

all seem quite insignificant to us as adults but staff in school need to watch out for this kind of behaviour and try to teach the children to respect and embrace diversity. By explaining that the summer school uniform states the girls are to wear a red and white check dress but it does not matter on the size of the check, so if Chid A wants to wear a small check and child B has a larger check, then that is fine because it s good to be different and both children are following the school rules, so there is not a right or a wrong type of check. Whatever the problem it should be
made clear to the child that their bad behaviour or rude comments are not acceptable and that everyone in school disserves to be treated fairly and with respect.

Associative discrimination - this is direct discrimination against someone because they are associated with another person who possesses a protected characteristic.

Discrimination by perception - this is direct discrimination against someone because others think that they possess a particular protected characteristic. They do not necessarily have to possess the characteristic, just be perceived to.

Indirect discrimination - this can occur when you have a rule or policy that applies to everyone but disadvantages a person with a particular protected characteristic.

Harassment - this is behaviour that is deemed offensive by the recipient. Employees can now complain of the behaviour they find offensive even if it is not directed at them.

Harassment by a third party - employers are potentially liable for the harassment of their staff or customers by people they don't themselves employ, i.e. a contractor.

Victimisation - this occurs when someone is treated badly because they have made or supported a complaint or grievance under this legislation.

The introduction of this new consolidating piece of legislation gives employers and business owners of all types an ideal opportunity to review and reinforce their equal opportunities and accessibility policies.