During November all students from Year 7 to Year 13 had their Protected Characteristics refresher assembly. Miss Lewis explored each of the protected characteristics with students, linking them not only to the present, but life beyond Sacred Heart too.
In addition to sharing details of The Equality Act (2010), the assembly also covered how school deals with any allegation of prejudice. Sacred Heart will never tolerate bullying of any sort, and students are confident of this, as demonstrated in the summer student survey where 97% of students identified that 'School encourages them to respect people from other backgrounds, faiths, races, sexualities and to treat everyone equally'.
This year there was an additional focus where Miss Lewis shared with students 'the five second rule', which was explored online by Clinical Psychologist Dr Desta. We should never comment on someone's appearance if it can't be changed in five seconds (skin, weight, hair colour or texture, and so on).
Despite not being protected characteristics, Sacred Heart will always repeat one of our most important messages and life lessons- be kind!
The protected characteristics assembly is one of several safeguarding assemblies students receive each year.