Commitment

The Trustees of ALRA are committed to providing equal opportunities for:

• students
• staff
• trustees
• those who we deal with outside ALRA
• and all those who might wish to be in these positions

Scope

Equal opportunities are to be provided with regard to:

• access to education
• the curriculum
• the selection recruitment and promotion of staff
• social and work activities
• day to day relationships
• choice of supplier of services

Recognised
potential issues

ALRA recognises that inequality of opportunity can arise with regard to:

• physical ability
• mental ability
• gender
• age
• race
• nationality
• ethnicity
• sexual orientation
• marital status
• social class
• income
• employment status
• religious belief
• politics
• parental status

Policy

ALRA will ensure that its trustees, staff, tutors and students will

• provide education and training
• employ staff
• study
• interact with each other and
• transact with third parties

in a way that evidences their belief that

• every human being is of equal worth to themselves and worthy of respect as such
• and must therefore be treated without discrimination for any cause

This document

This document sets out in sections:

• procedures that will assist implementation of this policy
• ways in which we will monitor our achievements with regard to equal opportunities
• ways in which those with a grievance feel they can obtain fair hearing of their complaint

Basic belief

Individuals should have the opportunity to learn and benefit from education in relation to their ability.

Admissions

ALRA’s admission and audition procedures will be free from bias.

Learning difficulties

ALRA will seek to provide opportunity for those with learning difficulties if they can otherwise meet the requirements of the courses offered.

Physical disability

ALRA will aim to make accessible as many areas of the school as possible to students with disabilities.

Student population

ALRA will seek to recruit students who match the profile of the society in which it exists.

Student
organisations

Students will be required to respect equality of opportunity within their own organisations and structures and in their procedures for selecting representatives for those bodies.

Student
participation

All students will be expected to adhere to the equal opportunities policy. Failure to do so may be a disciplinary offence.

Basic belief

ALRA will seek to provide a curriculum free from bias.

Within its curriculum ALRA will encourage the exploration of equality of opportunity as an issue and the elimination of discrimination as an objective.

Curriculum design

The curriculum will take account of:

• progression
• access
• prior learning
• experience

and build upon these for each student.

Where necessary ALRA will seek to either provide or find support facilities to enable students to have access to its curriculum including where appropriate training in language, cultural or literacy skills.

Professional Performance Training

Professional performance training requires the exploration of the inner depths of the individual in a way that most education does not. ALRA will require such exploration. In doing so it will:

• respect the opinions of each participant so long as they are legal
• counsel and support those who address issues which individually or collectively challenge their self perception or those of others
• respect the physical well being of all involved
• limit physical or emotional contact to that which is appropriate and required for the purposes of the curriculum
• seek to adapt activities to suit the attributes of all involved  

Physical education

Professional performance training necessarily includes developmental physical programmes and activities.

ALRA will aim to adapt such programmes and activities to enable all students to meet the demands of the curriculum.

Language

ALRA is committed to providing education in and for live and recorded arts in the English language.

ALRA will make its courses available to those for whom English is not their first language and shall seek and encourage those students to develop their skills to fully participate in all aspects of the curriculum.

ALRA will ensure that all documents it produces are written in plain English and are accessible to all without discrimination.

Tutor commitment

All tutors will be required to acknowledge receipt of and adherence to this equal opportunities policy. Failure to do so may be a disciplinable offence.

Basic belief

ALRA is an equal opportunities employer.

Practice

ALRA seeks to treat all staff equally. This means that:

• recruitment processes will be carried out without bias
• ALRA will ensure compliance with legislation on race, sex and disability rights
• appraisal will be undertaken within the context of the individual’s own performance and ability and shall be conducted without bias
• promotion shall be considered, and appointment made without bias.

Staff obligations

All staff and tutors shall be required to adhere with ALRA’s equal opportunities policy and to acknowledge this by signing a statement of agreement to do so.

Governor and director obligations

Trustees are involved in the recruitment and appraisal of staff. Each trustee will acknowledge receipt of and adherence to this equal opportunities policy. Failure to do so may be a disciplinary offence.

Training

The Principal will ensure access to suitable training in equal opportunities for staff when it is considered appropriate: the Clerk will ensure access to similar training for trustees.

Basic belief

Discrimination can be expressed in many forms. It is most prevalent in the form of harassment.

ALRA seeks to eliminate harassment from social and work relationships that occur on a day-to-day basis.

Practice

Harassment is behaviour towards people that can have the effect of diminishing their position, status or esteem.

Harassment is most common with regard to racist or sexist behaviour but may exist in a wide variety of forms.

ALRA seeks to eliminate harassment.

Examples

The following are examples of harassment:

• physical attacks because of colour or ethnicity
• derogatory name calling, verbal or non verbal insults, racist jokes and racist stereotyping
• racist graffiti
• provocative behaviour such as wearing racist badges or insignia
• displaying racist material
• threatening a person because of colour or ethnicity
• making racist observations during classes or in staff or student facilities
• physical attacks because of a person’s sex or sexuality
• unnecessary touching or unwanted physical contact
• making demands for sexual favours
• verbal abuse, insults, sexist jokes or intimidatory language
• non verbal abuse including wolf whistling, signs, gestures, etc.
• sexist graffiti
• displaying sexist or pornographic materials in any form
• threatening behaviour because of a person’s sex or sexuality
• sexist comments during classes or in staff or student facilities

Consequences of harassment

ALRA will:

• remove physical evidence of harassment as soon as it is possible to do so
• ask those responsible for bringing racist or sexist materials into ALRA to remove them immediately
• report all such actions to the Principal
• any incident of harassment by a student, tutor or member of staff will be reported to the Principal
• offenders will be subject to disciplinary procedures
• those harassed will be offered counselling and support
• those wrongly accused of harassment will be sensitively supported

Basic belief

ALRA is, and wishes to be seen to be, engaged in the promotion of equal opportunities amongst those with whom it has external relationships of a commercial, educational or social nature

Practice

ALRA will:

• procure supplies of goods or services without bias
• seek to make known its commitment to equal opportunities
• seek to participate in its local community without bias
• uphold its standards in those educational bodies with which it is associated whether at staff or student level
• seek to ensure its relationships with the  broader performing arts professions are conducted without bias

Basic belief

The Senior Management Team should monitor implementation of this policy and report on its findings to the Board of Trustees.

Practice

ALRA’s Senior Management Team will monitor:

• student admissions and assess outcomes for evidence of bias
• staff recruitment, appraisal and promotion for evidence of bias
• trustee recruitment, appraisal and promotion for evidence of bias
• our external relationships for evidence of bias.

In doing so it will report on:

• breaches of policy: Any instances of non-adherence by students, staff or visitors will be investigated with reference to the relevant policy
• evidence of harassment
• actions taken to deal with situations that have arisen and to prevent their recurrence.

The implementation of this policy will be in accordance with current legislation, including:

• EU Anti-Discrimination Directives
• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Equality Act 2006
• Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003
• Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
• Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006
• Equal Pay Act 1970 and Amendment 1983
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Special Educational Needs and Disability Rights in Education Act 2001
• Race Relations Act 1976
• Race Relations Amendment Act 2000
• Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006