INCLUSION QUALITY MARK OCTOBER 2023
The school embarked on the IQM assessment journey in recognition of its ethos to place the ‘inclusion of all children and their families at its centre’ alongside its School as Sanctuary Award and its work to develop strong working relationships and partnerships with organisations to enhance its own support. Please click on the link below to read the news story posted on the IQM website with reference to the award recognition.
Wombridge PS Achieves Inclusive School Award | IQM (iqmaward.com)
Inclusion/LGBT+
At Wombridge Primary School we celebrate that our children come from different families. We know that like many other schools in the UK, some children have a mum and a dad, some children live with just one parent, some children live with their grandparents and some children have two mums or two dads.
Aside from our moral duty, it is also our statutory duty to teach children about different families and relationships and therefore all primary schools in England are expected to teach Relationships Education. In teaching Relationships Education we ensure that the needs of all pupils are appropriately met, and that all pupils understand the importance of equality and respect. We ensure that all of our teaching is sensitive and age appropriate in approach and content.
Summary-of-what-pupils-are-expected-to-know-by-the-end-of-primary-school
In order to prepare children for the diverse society they live in and to prevent bullying and discrimination, it is important to talk about difference in general and different families in particular. At Wombridge, the children learn about and celebrate different family structures primarily through our PSHE scheme of work, science scheme of work and celebration assemblies. All children are encouraged to talk positively about their own and each other’s families and the school does not tolerate any homophobic, biophobic or transphobic language.
diversity-role-models Assembly 3223
Below are some useful links if you would like to find out more, including some recommended books:
SCHOOL OF SANCTUARY
This year, we will be working towards completing an audit and action plan so that we can hopefully become a School of Sanctuary.
What is a School of Sanctuary?
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A School of Sanctuary is a school that is committed to being a safe and welcoming place for all.
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It is a school that helps its students, staff and wider community understand what it means to be seeking sanctuary and to extend a welcome to everyone as equal, valued members of the school community.
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It is a school that is proud to be a place of safety and inclusion for all.
On 5/1/23 we signed the City of Sanctuary Pledge:
“We support the ‘City of Sanctuary’ vision that the UK will be a welcoming place of safety for all and proud to offer sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution.
We endorse the City of Sanctuary Charter, and agree to act in accordance with City of Sanctuary values and apply the network principles within our work (as far as our specific context enables us to).
We recognise the contribution of people seeking sanctuary. Sanctuary seekers are welcomed, included and supported within our context. We expect our branches or local groups (if any) to support their local City of Sanctuary group if one exists, and will facilitate contact between them and their local City of Sanctuary group.”
We are willing for our organisation’s name to be added to a list of supporters of City of Sanctuary, linked to our website. We are also willing to be contacted by City of Sanctuary with further ideas for how we can turn our support into practical action and to discuss ways we might work together to promote the vision further.”
At Wombridge Primary, we have a vast range of language spoken and we have children and families from many different countries. We hope that everyone feels welcome, safe and a valued member of our school community. Our curriculum provides opportunities for children to learn about a wide range of cultures through stories, RE, history topics, assemblies and in PSHE.
EAL children are assessed using a proficiency in English assessment from the Bell Foundation, and those who need additional support work on an app called Flash Academy. We use resources written in a child’s home language, when necessary and we sit the children with good role models to help their language acquisition. We hope to train up some of our confident and fluent English speaking EAL children to be young interpreters to support some of our younger children, those children who are new to England and their families.
We support the UNESCO (1994) statement which highlights that inclusion and participation are essential to human dignity and the enjoyment and exercise of human rights. As a result, we actively seek to break down barriers and bring about equalisation of opportunity for those in our community. In turn, this allows our children to engage with a broad, balanced and varied curriculum to enable them to reach their full potential.
Over the next few months, we will continue to work through the audit to become even more inclusive and supportive and hope to achieve the award in the near future.
Please see the latest newsletter below:
SoS 2022/23 Programme Summary (cityofsanctuary.org)
