Equal opps/inclusion policy help please

[mummyroysof3]

hi, do i need both of these or can i combine the 2? but what should i call it? whats the difference if i need both seperate? help im confused

charlotte x

[nannysue]

I thought it was the same but with a new name (like Safeguarding Children was Child Protection) . Please someone tell me thats right or i will scream:laughing: The more i read the more confused i am!!!! Sue x

[hello kitty]

Just got back from a course today called Equal Chances in the EYFS. Absolutely fab.

A key thing coming in next year is equality which will run through all of the EYFS and the inspectors are being trained on this aspect now. The thing is to look at the Unique Child, including gender, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation (yes, really), age and children's rights.

I have an Equal Opps policy and a Disability and Diversity policy including Inclusion Awareness. Next year this should be changed to "Single Equality Policy".

The lady who took my course was the Chief Executive of Early Years Equality, a lady called Chrissie Meleady. She was great and even gave my policies the once over and some hints on improving them. :D

If you get a chance to do this course then definately go for it.

[sarah707]

That sounds brilliant Kitty!

Any other ideas for how to write the policies would be great :D

[hello kitty]

Have a look here, you will have to register/sign in.

http://training.earlysupport.org.uk/modResourcesLibrary/HtmlRenderer/distancelearningmaterials.html

On the left click on Distance Learning materials.

Then go down 3 for the bit written by Chrissy Meleady, Antidiscrimination, equality and diversity.

You HAVE to talk about all sorts of families as you probably do now but also without fail Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Trans (LGBT) families whether or not your children are within one. To exclude this group is a HUGE no no.

You must celebrate the unique-ness of each child including their accents, so if they have a strong ~ I don't know, say, Cockney accent you must not correct them to "proper" English but celebrate their heritage. Language is a huge part of a child's identity and should not be denied or corrected.

There is so much on this course and the link does pick up on some of it and although it is a bit heavy reading Chrissy is fantastic at bringing it into context and giving examples to explain.

It is certainly food for thought and you will have to think in a slightly different way about the children you look after.

For instance she gave an example of a new child to the setting who was in a wheelchair whose single mother was pregnant. We all said we would look at her disability and preparing her for her new baby brother/sister. In fact we should be looking at celebrating her gender, (not showing non sterotypical pictures) by saying "good girl" etc otherwise how will she know she is a girl? She may be white but could have a black father and although her skin is white we should be depicting images of multicultural people for her to identify with.

It does go on and is alot to take in. She gave lots of examples where nurserys/playgroups had omitted something like not saying "some people have no religious beliefs" when talking about sikhs, hindus, muslims etc and they ended up in court and having to pay hefty fines. :eek:

I'm probably not doing too great a job explaining but you must do this course before next May ( I think) or you could fall foul of Ofsted as this is a HUGE thing coming in.

[sarah707]

Think I need to do some research - it sounds fascinating!

Thank you for the info and the link :D

[hello kitty]

You're welcome Sarah.

She is sending me more stuff, if there is anything I can post or link to I will.