At Ardingly, we see our diverse population of both pupils and staff as one of our greatest strengths and we recognise that providing equity, valuing diversity, and promoting a culture of inclusion and psychological safety are vital to our success and the sense of belonging we want our community members to feel.
Our Vision is for Ardingly to be a place where:
- We have a shared purpose and strong values (Engagement, Compassion, Resilience and Collaboration), to which we are all aligned, and which show up in all that we do.
- We are an open, and inclusive community, where everyone can be their authentic selves, feel cared about and safe. We treat each other with kindness, act with integrity, live our values, speak up to hold one another to account and tackle poor behaviour if it arises.
- We value and celebrate diversity and are respectful and keen to learn from others’ lived experiences. Equity, diversity, and inclusion are at the core of everything we think, say, and do.
Putting our vision into action:
As a College, we have long been committed to this work and have already taken positive steps towards this vision, both for our staff and our students for example:
- We have a Head and an Assistant Head of EDI who work with diverse staff and student groups to make systemic cultural change
- We train students as EDI House representatives so they are central to shaping their culture
- We run a range of EDI societies (New Era, Anti-Racism, LGBTQIA+ with students supported in driving change and leading conversations
- We run staff and student working groups to plan EDI events to ensure there is inclusion
- We run annual whole school celebrations including IWD, Black History Month, Pride etc and our Diversity focus events
- We deliver staff INSET training on EDI
- We undertake departmental EDI self reflection on curriculum and inclusion
- We have developed an HR strategy to embed a culture of care and inclusion in collaboration with the EDI department
- We seek feedback regularly from staff through our annual staff survey, the GEC survey and through Staff Voice to better understand and support a sense of belonging
