Belonging & Inclusion
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Cheltenham College is committed to the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion and considers the promotion of equal opportunities as fundamental to the school’s aims and ethos.
Cheltenham College enables individuals to feel comfortable being themselves, so all members of the community are valued and can flourish. To this end, Cheltenham College is committed to equality of opportunity for pupils and staff. This underpins all parts of school life; for pupils, the curriculum, the co-curricular programmes and the social ethos.
There have been a number of initiatives to celebrate diversity including;
Celebration of Pride Month, Pupil and staff talks, Cultures Week, Ethnicities Week – open safe spaces to discuss discrimination experiences, East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) anti-racism training with external trainer Isabelle Pan, whole school Chapel talk by team members on stereotyping and micro-aggression, Staff training: unconscious bias, racial literacy (How to speak confidently about race), Educate and Celebrate (LGBTQ+ awareness) and LGBTQ+ listener, Bystander intervention campaign – Five ‘Bystander Training’ assemblies, presented by pupils to whole year groups on how to ‘call it out’ and stand up to micro-aggression and racism and bystander training led by staff, an independently-commissioned survey to inform development of anti-racist culture.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Cheltenham College is continually developing and evolving. Alongside our EDI policies and CPD training for staff, our pupils have formed and are leading proactive committees such as the Anti-Racism Team and the LGBTQ+ Committee to support EDI initiatives.
Each pupil group leads discussions and assemblies, holds events and takes part in training and education on EDI areas; and our trained academic and pastoral staff provide support to pupils.
Meet the Anti-Racism Team
The Anti Racism (A-R) Team was set up at the start of 2023 and its mission is to make Cheltenham College entirely accepting of the wide diversity of race and ethnicity within the community. The group has grown from 35 to 75 pupils (Years 11 to 13), and we expect membership to grow considerably with this term’s annual recruitment drives. All members have attended bystander training. There are talks from external specialists on topics such as ‘Representation Matters’ and there is training with a focus on EASEA minorities in the UK. Team members are easily identified by a badge they wear displaying a logo designed by them. This is also used on posters alongside the names and photographs of all of its members, which is displayed across College.
Our mission is to create a school community where all people are treated with dignity, respect, and fairness, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or background.
Pride and Allies
The LGBTQ+ Committee is titled Pride and Allies. The group has organised a range of pupil led discussions and assemblies, held events and take part in training and education initiatives. We have increased the availability of trained academic and pastoral staff that can provide support to pupils that have questions about the LGBTQ+ community, all staff involved are easily identifiable by their rainbow lanyards. Our Library has expanded its reading to include books which celebrate LGBTQ+ stories.
Through their endeavours, pupils develop a greater awareness of the wider socioeconomic society and understand the important contribution they can make. Successful fulfilment of the school’s aims are exemplified in the pupils’ development of skills for a modern world and a commitment to the service of others.