Protected Characteristics

Protected Characteristics across SCARF

The national curriculum recognises how important it is for children to understand the world in which they live in. They want children to live alongside and show respect for a diverse range of people. A way in which schools can ensure they are providing children with the knowledge and skills to do this is through the teaching of protected characteristics.

 It is extremely important for us here at Tuel Lane, that our children grow to be respectful, ambitious and empathetic pupils who respect the world in which they live in. 

Department for Education guidance states that: 

There is a range of ways schools can choose to teach about these issues in an age-appropriate way. Primary schools could, for example, teach pupils about the different types of family groups that exist within society... As stated in the DfE’s statutory guidance, teaching on these matters should be integrated appropriately into the curriculum, rather than addressed separately or in one-off lessons.

Teaching and learning about protected characteristics is therefore fully integrated into SCARF, through age-appropriate content across the SCARF spiral curriculum.

However, some protected characteristics benefit from the in-depth coverage that will give children time to explore the knowledge and attitudes that will help them develop an appreciation of them. We've mapped the SCARF lessons that provide this greater depth to the relevant protected characteristics, but it's important to understand that teaching and learning about them threads through the vast majority of SCARF lesson plans.

What are the Protected Characteristics?

The 9 protected characteristics are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

There is no expectation to teach every characteristic in every year group. Schools should use their professional judgment to plan their curriculum appropriately.

Our SCARF PSHE curriculum is used in addition to various other ways we teach respect and diversity across school for example through literacy, assemblies, stories, circle time activities and sporting activities.

The document below shows how SCARF ensures appropriate coverage of each protected characteristic before the children leave our school to progress into Key Stage 2.