Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

A commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion ('EDI') is fundamental to our core values, ensuring our success as a high-performing multi-academy trust with a positive and supportive culture, where all children, young learners and adults feel empowered and respected.

Across Bourne Education Trust (‘BET’), we strive to embed equality, diversity, inclusiveness and belonging into everything that we do, not just to meet our statutory requirements. We pride ourselves on being a welcoming and inclusive organisation with a real commitment to continually raising awareness of equality and diversity matters and minimising discrimination and prejudice.

We need to recognise differences in people and celebrate the diversity mix in the Trust, but what we really want to achieve is belonging. We want to create a sense of belonging for all our staff and pupils and make sure that our diversity and inclusion efforts do not end up isolating particular groups. Belonging allows an individual to be their authentic self.

We aspire to excellence, and a positive attention to values and behaviours is an essential part of that process. When carrying out our functions, we increasingly set equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of the way we do business by ensuring its core position in education delivery and employment practice and embedding it into our day-to-day ways of working.

Our intention is to be recognised as a high performing trust and the critical factor in this is the success of all pupils and staff. The Single Equality, Diversity, Inclusiveness and Belonging Scheme (‘SEDIBS’) through its implementation will support us in this success.  

Our strategy for 2022-25 creates a framework for promoting and maintaining an inclusive environment where everyone can achieve. This is informed by both the spirit and the letter of the law. It is our response to the specific duty to publish information under the Equality Act 2010.

This strategy has been drawn up in partnership with our trustees, governors, staff and pupils.