Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

Alexandra Infant School

Our Journey towards Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB)

At Alexandra Infant School we regularly promote and discuss our School Motto

Achieve, Inspire, Succeed

alongside our Core Values; to be resilient, respectful, confident and caring.

As a Rights Respecting School, we teach children that everyone has a voice and the right to be listened to. We recognise and celebrate the differences between us while promoting equality and respect for others.

As a school, we wanted to focus on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and we are committed to promoting attitudes and values that challenge any discriminatory behaviour or prejudice.

On our school website, reference our Equality Statement Equality-Statement-July-22.pdf (nest-alexandreainf.s3.amazonaws.com) and our EDI Action Plan  EDI-Action-Plan.pdf (nest-alexandreainf.s3.amazonaws.com)

Through our work over the past few years as a school and a community, we have reviewed our curriculum to ensure that we learn about significant people and events from a range of disabilities, ethnicities, cultures and religions. This has also been recognised by our parents through valuable feedback.

We have invested in training for staff and new resources (including books, small world play and learning equipment) to ensure representation of our community. This has also been supported by our parents through PTA funding. 

We have reviewed our learning environments and teaching resources to ensure we represent diversity.

Alongside this work we have explored the understanding of ‘equality’ and unpicked this to look further at ‘equity’. We recognise that this is an important difference that we feel embodies our school.

The difference between Equality and Equity

Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognises that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.

We have also explored what we want our children to feel about their school. We want them to feel that sense of belonging. Belonging to a school and the Alexandra community.

With this in mind, we have shifted our focus from Equality, Diversity and Inclusion to

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB).

There are a number of events, focus days and charities that we support throughout the year but we know that these cannot be isolated activities and work hard to thread these through our curriculum and learning for our children.

This commitment to EDIB led us to ‘The Better Project’ Home | Better Project.

They are passionate professionals who are dedicated to making a difference through their work with schools and education providers. Alexandra Infant and Junior School have invested in this training that has been delivered across the school year. The training has supported us to delve further into the current context of racism by exploring its history, the importance of identity and use of language, alongside the impact of structural and systemic racism across institutions today. This has led to ongoing reflective discussions amongst staff across both schools, including next steps for us working together to continue to support anti-racism.

What is next?

We wanted to share our journey with you and our commitment to making positive changes with the help of our community.

The Alexandra schools will continue to work together as part of our community to ensure that all children and families have the tools and support needed to thrive and all can reach their full potential.

The image is changing and so are we… equity leads to justice and that is what we want to be a part of.

How can I support this work at home and discuss this with my child?

Some adults find this a tricky subject to address with their own children in an age-appropriate way. In school, we talk about equity and that not all children need the same things in school. An easy example of this is if a child fell over and hurt themselves, we would not give the whole class a plaster, only the child that needed it.

We have a range of age-appropriate books in school that celebrate differences and educate children about racism. If you would like to borrow one, please ask us.