All students from Year 7 to Year 13 have now had their annual Protected Characteristics assembly with Miss Lewis. This is an annual refresher of the nine protected characteristics and the laws surrounding them.
The assembly looks at the Equality Act of 2010 and focuses on protected characteristics and discrimination. The Equality Act of 2010 is an Act of Parliament with the purpose of consolidating and updating prior Acts and Regulations, which formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in the UK. It brought together several previous laws and called it the Equality Act. The point was to modernise previous versions of different laws and to encompass them under the umbrella of the Equality Act to ensure all people are treated equally.
The Act protects people against discrimination, harassment or victimisation in all areas of life based on nine protected characteristics, these are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
Protected characteristics are aspects of a person's identity that makes them who they are. It's important to make sure you aren’t treated less favourably because of your characteristics and to recognise in society when this is happening so we can stand up and challenge all types of discrimination.