Town’s schools to make public pledge to tackle discrimination
A PUBLIC pledge to respect everyone, promote equality and tackle discrimination is being taken by pupils and staff from the Otley ‘family of schools’.
The town’s five primary schools, along with Prince Henry’s Grammar School and primaries in Bramhope and Pool-inWharfedale, are all set to sign a ground-breaking Equality and Diversity Charter.
Staff from schools across the family have been working on the charter for several months ahead of its launch at a celebration event at Otley Courthouse on Friday.
The pledge builds on the work done by the schools since they signed an Anti-Racism Charter in 2010, developing that theme into a wider agenda.
Christopher Lillington, assistant headteacher at Prince Henry’s Grammar School, said: “The charter embeds the global citizenship values on which we, as a group of schools, work with our students of every age, working to create inclusive and outwardlooking communities.
“These values are such an important part of the work which we do in our schools and this charter will give us a real opportunity to share them with our wider community. Otley, Pool and Bramhope are very welcoming communities and, as schools, we work with individuals and groups across the area – we are very much looking forward to developing this with everyone.”
The event will feature performances from all the schools and, as well as pupils and their parents, invited guests include Leeds North West MP Alex Sobel, the town mayor of Otley and other representatives of local community groups.
The charter will be adopted by all the schools, with work taking place with pupils, parents and carers to embed the principles across the group and throughout the town.
It revolves around seven key principles: respect; challenging stereotypes; equality; actively creating a better society; good relationships between all people; valuing the world’s diversity and making the world a fairer place.