1. Delivery notes
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:
Lesson videos:

2. Equal Rights, Equal Respect Professional studies
Equality and human rights matter

3. Lecture objectives 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.

4. Equality and human rights matter

5. Fair?
In 1562 Britain began its slave trade in Africa.
Is this fair?

6. Fair?
Before 1918 women did not have the right to vote! Campaigning women refused to eat and went on hunger strike when arrested!
Is this fair?

7. Fair?
About six million European Jews were killed during the Holocaust.
Millions more murdered included Romani Gypsies, homosexuals, people with disabilities and other political and religious opponents.
Total number of Holocaust victims between 11 million and 17 million people.
Is this fair?

8. Fair?
In 2011, Ofsted said a study of serious case reviews (SCRs) had shown too many children were not seen frequently enough by professionals and that children were let down by the care service.
Is this fair?

9. Equality and human rights are about creating a society where every individual is treated fairly, with dignity and respect, regardless of whom, what or where they were born.

10. Equality and human rights matter – in school
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...

11. Benefits of learning about equality and human rights...
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.
Everyone has the right to choose what they want to do and people need to be respected for the choices they make.
Don’t follow what everyone is doing! Don’t be afraid to be different and stand up for people.
Bullying is not cool! It makes me realise things I shouldn't do.
These are some statements made by young people that had been taught about equality and human rights using Equal Rights, Equal Respect – a resource we will review later.
It highlights the positive impact on their attitudes.

12. Benefits of a human rights approach to teaching...
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:
Hampshire County Council conducted a project which encourages schools to embed a human rights approach across the curriculum and into the whole-school ethos.
The results of the project highlighted the benefits of a whole-school approach to human rights education.

13. 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:

14. How can you teach equality and human rights?

15. Essential education
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.

16. Curriculum relevance Citizenship / PSHEE Identity
Diversity and multi-culturalism
Fairness / unfairness
Tolerance, respect, freedom
Equality and Human rights law
Human rights
Government’s rights and responsibilities
Community cohesion
Equality and human rights education naturally sits in Citizenship and PSHEE.

17. Curriculum relevance Cross-curriculum Assemblies Tutorials History
Geography
English
Art and design RE
ICT
However, there are also lots of opportunities across the curriculum to teach equality and human rights.
Assemblies and tutorials can also be excellent forums to discuss and explore the topics.

18. Cross-curriculum examples
Activity ideas
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.
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.
These are just a few examples

19. Resources to help you deliver
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.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an independent statutory body established to help eliminate discrimination, reduce inequality, protect human rights and build good relations.
One of their priorities is to ‘build a generation without prejudice’.
To help deliver this aim, they have produced an online training and education resource called Equal Rights, Equal Respect.

20. Lesson materials
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
All the lesson plans are supported by worksheets that include real-life examples and case studies.
PowerPoint slides with all the information you need.
Can be adapted to suit your students.
Video (presented on following slides).

21. Equality TV news reporters:
Sample activities
Activity ideas
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.
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.
Activities are rooted in real-life to make them relevant to students.
Cater for all learning styles.

22. 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:

23. Lesson videos
Three videos can be used to explore issues around negative behaviour.
The videos explore disability-related 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.

24. Take a look...
Play a short clip of the lessons videos. There are three to choose from:

25. Other useful resources
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

26. What are your responsibilities as a teacher?
Educating young people about equality and human rights is in a schools best interests because of the benefits it offers.
However, schools also have legal duties that mean they must do all they can to protect human rights and eliminate discrimination.
Developing young people’s understanding, respect and tolerance can help to deliver these duties, which we will look at in more detail...

27. Equality responsibilities...

28. Equality Act 2010
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
The Equality Act 2010 is a new law that updates, simplifies and strengthens the previous legislation to deliver a simple, modern and accessible framework of discrimination law.
Note regarding protecting characteristics:
In schools, age and marriage and civil partnership do not apply to students, although they do apply to employees.
However, age does apply to students in 6th form college, FE colleges and universities and to everyone in employment.

29. What does the Equality Act 2010 mean to you as a teacher?

30. Public Sector Equality Duty
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.
What does this actually mean?
Note:
This single duty replaces the existing gender, race and disability equality duties and covers all protected characteristics.
In the provision of education to pupils in schools, age does not apply and marriage and civil partnerships is not covered by all parts of the duty.

31. Eliminate discrimination
PSED
Eliminate discrimination
Advance equality of opportunity
Foster good relations
Eliminate discrimination
This means that schools must take active steps to identify and address issues of discrimination where there is evidence of prejudice, harassment or victimisation, lack of understanding, disadvantage, or lack of participation for individuals with protected characteristics. See next slide for guidance on dealing with bullying.
Advance equality of opportunity
This means removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics, taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people and encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low. For example, providing additional resources for disabled students and encouraging girls to take part in Science clubs.
Fostering good relations
This means tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups. For example, inviting religious leaders or disability support workers to talk to students, teaching about diversity in PSHEE lessons or promoting anti-bullying policies.
As the PSED is for all public authorities, it is not defined specifically for schools, but any decisions made on how to take steps to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations must be made on evidence, not on assumptions or stereotypes.

32. How does the PSED apply to dealing with bullying?
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.
Note: The Equality Act 2010 deals with the way in which schools treat their pupils and prospective pupils but the relationship between one pupil and another is not within its scope. Therefore, a school would not be conducting unlawful discrimination if one pupil bullied another pupil because they were gay. However, if a school did not treat homophobic bullying as seriously as bullying which relates to other protected characteristics, then it may be guilty of unlawful discrimination.

33. How does the PSED apply to dealing with bullying?
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:

34. Here is an example of the Public Sector Equality Duty in action...

35. Improving disabled pupils’ confidence and achievement
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.

36. Positive Action
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.
Note: To meet the needs of disabled people, the Equality Act 2010 states that it is legal to positively discriminate in favour of disabled people. However, this only applies to disability.

37. Consider these scenarios which present some equality issues in schools...

38. Scenario 1
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.

39. Scenario 1 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.
You should seek to ensure that any trips do not discriminate against any of your pupils. In some limited cases it may be impossible to make a school trip accessible for all pupils and the learning needs of other pupils should be part of the decision making process. Cancelling the trip because a disabled pupil can’t attend where it puts other pupils at a disadvantage may not be the best or only decision.
Forward planning will assist you in arranging trips which all pupils are able to participate in.
Offering a range of different trips and activities may also help to ensure no pupils are excluded from taking part.
Arranging residential trips that coincide with religious festivals or holidays might prevent pupils from certain religions being able to attend and result in indirect discrimination.
The risk assessments that you carry out in relation to school trips should include a consideration of the reasonable adjustment needs of disabled pupils and it is good practice to seek ways of including rather than excluding such pupils on trips.

40. Scenario 2
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.

41. Scenario 2 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.

42. This is likely to be indirect discrimination because of race.
Scenario 3
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.

43. Scenario 3 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:
Indirect discrimination occurs when you apply a provision, criterion or practice in the same way for all pupils or a particular pupil group, such as A-level physics students, but this has the effect of putting pupils sharing a protected characteristic within the general student group at a particular disadvantage.
To be legitimate the aim of the provision, criterion or practice must be legal and non-discriminatory and represent a real objective consideration. In the context of school education, examples of legitimate aims might include:
- Maintaining academic and other standards.
- Ensuring the health and safety and welfare of pupils.

44. Human rights responsibilities...

45. What are human rights?
'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.

46. What do human rights mean to you as a teacher?

47. Protecting, respecting and fulfilling human rights
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.  

48. Human Rights Act 1998 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
Abolition of the death penalty
(Article 1 of Protocol 6).
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)
- In 2000 the UK Government introduced our own domestic law – Human Rights Act 1998.
- This made ‘most’ of the rights in the European Convention of Human Rights part of UK law.
- So if anyone thinks their rights have been breached, they can take their case to a UK court.
- Before the Human Rights Act existed, people had to take their case to the European Court in France which was timely and expensive.

49. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
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.

50. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
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.

51. Balancing human rights
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.
There are different types of rights that need to be balanced:
Absolute rights cannot be interfered with or limited in any way. Examples of absolute rights are the right not to be tortured or treated in an inhuman or degrading way and the right not to be enslaved.
2. Limited rights can be limited in specific circumstances. An example of a limited right is the right to liberty, which can be limited for example, where someone has been convicted of a crime by a court or is being detained because of mental health problems.
Qualified rights can be interfered with in order to protect the rights of other individuals or the public interest. The majority of rights in the Human Rights Act are qualified rights. An example of a qualified right is the right to freedom of expression. For example, if a student was inciting racial hatred, their right to expression should be restricted.

52. Consider these scenarios and think about how human rights can be protected and balanced in schools...

53. Scenario 1
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)
It could also be indirect discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, under the Equality Act 2010.

54. Scenario 1 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.

55. Scenario 2
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).

56. Scenario 2 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.

57. Scenario 3
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.

58. Scenario 3 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.

59. To think about...

60. To think about 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?

61. Useful information

62. Useful reading
Equal Rights, Equal Respect on the Equality and Human Rights Commission website provide lots more information, including free online training and resources:
Equality Act 2010:
Public Sector Equality Duty: