• These slides contain all the information you need to deliver this lecture.
• However, you may remove some of the detail or slides to make them appropriate for your trainees, length of lecture and lecture style.
• In the notes section, you will find additional information to help you deliver some of the slides.
• You will need to have the following videos available to play at points highlighted in the slides:
– Training video: www.equalityhumanrights.com/equalrightsequalrespect/trainingvi deo
– Lesson videos: www.equalityhumanrights.com/equalrightsequalrespect/video

Equality and human rights matter

By the end of today, you should:
• Be aware of the benefits of an equality and human rights education.
• Be aware of resources that can help you to teach equality and human rights education.
• Be aware of your responsibilities around equality and human rights.

• Teachers have a great opportunity and responsibility to educate young people about equality and human rights, so young people know how to treat others and how they should be treated.
• When young people are educated about equality and human rights, it offers huge benefits to the young people’s lives, but also to the wider school...

I respect that you have your human rights and sometimes they must be balanced.
If you are different, it doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with you and does not mean you should be treated differently.
Don’t follow what everyone is doing!
Don’t be afraid to be different and stand up for people.
Everyone has the right to choose what they want to do and people need to be respected for the choices they make.
Bullying is not cool! It makes me realise things I shouldn't do.

• Results of embedding a human rights approach across the curriculum and into the school ethos:
– The classroom and school atmosphere is healthier – and teachers enjoy their jobs more
– The school environment is respected to a greater degree
– Increase in attendances
– Decrease in exclusions
– Students demonstrate a heightened awareness of the broader community and social issues
– Teachers feel empowered and many are reminded about why they came into the job.
• To watch a video on this case study, visit: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/human-rights/our-human-rightsinquiry/case-studies/knights-enham-primary-school-hampshire/

What is the importance of an equality and human rights education?
 Play part 1 of the training video to show experts talking about the importance of an equality and human rights education: www.equalityhumanrights.com/equalrightsequalrespect/trainingvideo

• Equality and human rights is essential education that helps to deliver past and present Government priorities: improving pupil behaviour; tackling bullying; helping every pupil to reach their potential; and raising teaching standards.
• Regardless of statutory curriculum change, it will always be important and beneficial to develop young people’s understanding, tolerance and respect and there are lots of opportunities across the curriculum to do this. In doing so, it will help to tackle prejudice.

Identity
Community cohesion
Diversity and multiculturalism
Government’s rights and responsibilities
Citizenship
/ PSHEE
Fairness / unfairness
Human rights
Equality and
Human rights law
Tolerance, respect, freedom

Assemblies
ICT Tutorials
RE
Crosscurriculum
History
Art and design
English
Geography

Geography:
- Explore diversity and immigration in the UK and create a family tree to understand ‘where am I from?’. .
History:
- Explore how equality and human rights have developed over the years, e.g. Holocaust (and other genocides), slave trade, suffragettes, child labour during Victorian times, rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people etc.
Activity ideas
English:
- Present a TV news report about an unlawful discrimination case.
- Explore the meaning of words, such as ‘gay’.
RE:
- Explore how different religious groups can be stereotyped and labelled.

• Equal Rights, Equal Respect is a resource produced by the Equality and
Human Rights Commission .
• Online training and education resources that provide all the tools you need to educate Key Stage 3 students about equality and human rights.
• Citizenship focussed, but also provides cross-curriculum learning opportunities.
www.equalityhumanrights.com/equalrightsequalrespect

• Offers a series of 12 lesson plans that you can choose from.
• Topics covered:
– Actions and consequences
– Identities and diversity
– Prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination
– Equality Act 2010
– What are human rights and how do they work?
– Balancing human rights
– Influencing attitudes
– Taking action

Empathy hot seating:
Using scripts from scenarios of disability-related bullying, racism and gender discrimination, students hot seat and develop empathy skills.
Diversity Factor:
Students celebrate difference by creating a pop group that will audition in the Diversity Factor.
Activity ideas
Human rights market place:
Students choose human rights to buy or sell in an interactive marketplace. They soon discover that human beings need them all!
Equality TV news reporters:
Using real-life case studies students create and present TV news reports about unlawful acts of discrimination.

See the activities in action...
 Play part 2 of the training video to show some of the activities being delivered and the teaching techniques that are used: www.equalityhumanrights.com/equalrightsequalrespect/trainingvideo

• Three videos can be used to explore issues around negative behaviour.
• The videos explore disabilityrelated bullying, racism and gender discrimination.
• They aim to develop an awareness of actions and consequences by including a break in the middle to allow discussion before positive action is revealed.

Take a look...
 Play a short clip of the lessons videos. There are three to choose from: www.equalityhumanrights.com/equalrightsequalrespect/video

• Equal Rights, Equal Respect includes a useful information section which provides links to other useful resources from organisations such as:
– Ministry of Justice
– Amnesty International
– Citizenship Foundation
– Children’s Rights Alliance for England www.equalityhumanrights.com/equalrightsequalrespect/usefulinformation

• The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful for employers , service providers and education providers to discriminate against individuals with these protected characteristics :
» Age
» Disability
» Gender reassignment
»
Marriage and civil partnership
» Pregnancy and maternity
» Race
» Religion or belief
» Sex
» Sexual orientation

• Under the Equality Act 2010, maintained schools and academies, including free schools, must have due regard to the Public Sector
Equality Duty (PSED) .
• This means schools and teachers must take active steps to identify and address issues of discrimination towards individuals with protected characteristics.

Eliminate discrimination
Foster good relations
PSED
Advance equality of opportunity

• The PSED can be a mechanism for a school to tackle bullying .
• Schools would need to:
√ Take proactive steps to identify where bullying was taking place through information and evidence gathering e.g. Pupil and parent surveys.
√ Put good practice solutions into place to reduce incidents of bullying.
√ Ensure that all forms of bullying relating to different protected characteristics are treated with equal importance.

• The information gathering is crucial in informing the anti-bullying programme.
• And, it will be used as evidence by Ofsted to inspect whether pupils are acting safely and feeling safe and free from bullying, which are key contributory factors in the judgement on behaviour and safety.
• For DfE guidance on tackling bullying, visit: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/behaviour/bullying

•
Woodheys Primary School, Trafford consulted and involved a physically disabled pupil, S, and her mother about several aspects of school, including:
• How can S get the most out of an adventure holiday?
– Ensured a really positive experience
– Enhanced S’s confidence and she returned to school, according to the Head, ‘a transformed child’.
•
Access for disabled children and adults?
– Resulted in many changes around the school
– From car parking arrangements to the design of the waste bin in the toilet.
• General classroom and school support?
– Helped to design the new accessible outdoor activity trail
– Enriched and deepened staff understanding of disability
– Increased pupils’ learning about disability
– Provided a role model and support for other disabled pupils.
www.woodheys.trafford.sch.uk/index.php

• The Equality Act 2010 also includes provisions for Positive Action .
This enables schools to overcome or minimise disadvantages experienced by people who share a protected characteristic to meet their different needs or reduce under representation.
• For example:
– Providing additional classes for Gypsies and Travellers that are underperforming.

• A school plans a trip to a natural history museum. A pupil with
Down’s syndrome is excluded from the trip as the school believes she will not be able to participate in the activities provided by the museum.
• Do you think this is likely to be discrimination?
This is likely to be unlawful disability discrimination .

How could a school deal with this situation?
 Aim to ensure that any trips do not discriminate against any of your pupils.
 Forward planning.
 Offer a range of different trips and activities.
 Risk assessments that include a consideration of the reasonable adjustment needs of disabled pupils.

• During a PSHEE lesson, a teacher describes homosexuality as
‘unnatural’ and only covers heterosexual relationships in the lesson.
A gay pupil in the class is upset and offended by these comments.
• Do you think this is likely to be discrimination?
Likely to be unlawful sexual orientation discrimination .

How could a school deal with this situation?
 If a teacher conveys their beliefs in a way that involves haranguing or berating a particular pupil or group of pupils then this would be unacceptable in any circumstances and would require disciplinary action.

• A school bans 'cornrow' hairstyles as part of its policies on pupil appearances. These hairstyles are more likely to be adopted by specific racial groups.
• Do you think this is likely to be discrimination?
This is likely to be indirect discrimination because of race.

How could a school deal with this situation?
 Carefully consider whether your rules / teaching practices puts certain groups of students at a disadvantage.
 If they do, consider whether this can be justified as a ‘proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’.
 Involve pupils and parents in the development of new rules / teaching practices.
Link to example case: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/17/schoolban-cornrows-indirect-discrimination

• 'Human rights' are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world.
• They are the fundamental things that human beings need in order to flourish and participate fully in society.
• They cannot be given away or taken away from people – although some rights can be limited or restricted in certain circumstances.

• Human rights laws and conventions regulate the relationship between individuals and the state
(Government and public bodies).
• Individuals are ‘rights bearers’.
• The Government and public bodies, including schools, are responsible for respecting, protecting and fulfilling everyone’s human rights.

 Right to life (Article 2)
 Prohibition of torture (Article 3)
 Prohibition of slavery and forced labour (Article 4)
 Right to liberty and security (Article 5)
 Right to a fair trial (Article 6)
 No punishment without law (Article 7)
 Right to respect for private and family life (Article 8)
 Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9)
 Freedom of expression (Article 10)
 Freedom of assembly and association (Article 11)
 Right to marry (Article 12)
 Prohibition of discrimination (Article
13)
 Protection of property (Article 1 of
Protocol 1)
 Right to education (Article 2 of
Protocol 2)
 Right to free elections (Article 3 of
Protocol 1)
 Abolition of the death penalty
(Article 1 of Protocol 6).

• Teachers also need to be aware of the
UNCRC.
• A special set of rights for children.
• The UK Government ratified the UNCRC in 1991.
• Whilst the UNCRC is not part of the UK’s domestic law, every five years there is a reporting process where the Government has to say what it is doing to protect the rights in the Convention.
• One of the vital aspects of the UNCRC is its emphasis on children being heard and taken seriously.

• Children’s right to be heard and taken seriously is increasingly part of domestic law:
– The Children Act 1989 requires that when a court is determining issues relevant to a child’s upbringing or administration of a child’s property their wishes and feelings are taken into account.
– The Education and Inspections Act 2006 introduced a requirement for schools in England and Wales to consult students on the development of new behaviour policies and legislation has, since 2002, required schools to have regard to student participation guidance. This is evident in school councils which schools can choose to set up.

• As teachers you must always try to protect individual student’s rights, but these also need to be balanced with the interests of the wider school .

• A school requires male pupils to wear a cap as part of the school uniform. Although this requirement is applied equally to all pupils, it has the effect of excluding Sikh boys whose religion requires them to wear a turban.
• Is this breaching the boys human rights?
This could be breaching his freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9, European Convention on Human Rights)

How could a school deal with this situation?
 Be aware of your pupils different religions and beliefs and carefully consider whether your rules / teaching practices limit someone’s right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9,
European Convention on Human Rights).
 Consult pupils and parents about their uniform rules to ensure they respect everyone’s religion and beliefs.

• A teacher suspects that a student is carrying a dangerous weapon and searches his bag.
• Is this breaching the students human rights?
If the teacher has justified reason to suspect that the student is carrying a dangerous weapon then it is not breaching their right to respect for private and family life (Article 8, European Convention on
Human Rights).

How could a school deal with this situation?
 In this case, students rights would need to be limited in the interests of the prevention of crime, for the protection of health or the rights and freedoms of others.
 If the teacher has justified reason to suspect they are carrying a dangerous weapon, they could limit their right to respect for private and family life (Article 8, European Convention on Human Rights) and search their bag.

• A Muslim student asks if they can hold a debate about Islamic
Fundamentalism.
In this instance, if extreme views are presented during the debate, one student’s freedom of expression (Article 10, European
Convention on Human Rights) could conflict with other students’ freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9, European
Convention on Human Rights) and there could be a risk of disorder.

How could a school deal with this situation?
 The school could allow the student to hold the debate but could limit their right to express their views and opinions by stating that they are not allowed to criticise homosexuality, make sexist comments or take a negative line towards other religions / beliefs.
 This could be limited to protect other students’ right to have their own thoughts, beliefs and religion and to prevent disorder.

• What are the opportunities for teachers?
• What are the challenges for teachers?
• How can you fit equality and human rights education into your teaching?
• What teaching methods could you use?

• Equal Rights, Equal Respect on the Equality and Human Rights
Commission website provide lots more information, including free online training and resources: www.equalityhumanrights.com/equalrightsequalrespect
• Equality Act 2010: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-andguidance/guidance-for-education-providers-schools/
• Public Sector Equality Duty: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/guidancefor-education-providers-schools/public-sector-equality-duties/