Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
Villiers School is committed to ensuring a truly inclusive environment for all members of our school family.School Ethos
Our school ethos is that Villiers:
‘…recognises, supports and endeavours to accommodate the right of the student to learn in an educationally conducive environment, regardless of innate ability, family/social circumstances or religious affiliation… Villiers School aims to ensure that the educational, emotional, spiritual, psychological and moral welfare of each individual student is provided for, while encouraging at all times the co-operation and assistance of parents / guardians of the students.’
Statement on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
Villiers School is committed to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) both within our school community and in the wider community. Villiers School strives to foster a safe and inclusive culture with equality at its heart so that diversity can flourish. We embrace our diversity as a strength, and we work with sincerity to enable all in our community to grow and flourish equally.
We place inclusive principles and practices at our core and are fully committed to understanding the challenges that exist for our community under the nine grounds for discrimination identified under the Equal Status Acts 2000-2018, namely, gender, marital status, family status, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, and membership of the Traveller community.1
We seek to proactively address these, to the best of our abilities, whether this be in respect of recruitment, the curriculum or school culture:
– Through an EDI focus in our policies, practices, and procedures
– Through appropriate training, development and experiences
– Through promoting these principles across the curriculum
Discrimination, in any form, is not accepted within Villiers School, we aim to be a leading voice for equity, diversity and inclusion in Irish education.
1. https://www.ihrec.ie/guides-and-tools/human-rights-and-equality-in-the-provision-of-good-and-services/what-does-the-law-say/equal-status-acts/
EDI in Villiers 2021-2022
Creating a truly inclusive school culture is the responsibility of each member of the Villiers School family, whether board member, school leader, school staff member, student, parent or guardian.
In 2021, we linked with Inclusion Labs, an education consultancy firm, to help us to embed these principles as part of the every day, lived, experience for all members of our school community. Initiatives in 2021-2022 have included:
- EDI training and development programmes for staff.
- EDI lead staff members have been appointed.
- A collaborative group has been formed, comprising of dedicated staff members.
- A working group has been formed, which includes members from the Board of Management and Parent Teacher Association, the staff collaborative group and student representatives.
- Our student representatives are spokespeople for various student affinity groups within the school community.
- In November 2021, together with Inclusion Labs, we carried out an anonymised audit of students, staff and parents. The purpose of this audit is to highlight our strengths and weaknesses and provide us with quantifiable information on areas we most need to give our focus.
- A calendar of EDI events throughout the school year is being collated, each of which will provide invaluable educational opportunities in the area of EDI.