This week, we have taken time to discuss the Equality Act of 2010, learning that it was put in place to protect people from discrimination and setting out the different ways that it is against the law to treat people, based on their protected characteristics. Our class focused on the protected characteristic of gender and how we – as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ at St. Bernard’s - bring hope to this important topic by treating every single boy and girl with respect and love. We began by ensuring that we understood the meaning of discrimination and the negative impact it has on children on adults. We discussed the gender-based rights in our country: • The right to live free from violence and discrimination • The right to the highest attainable physical and mental health. • The right to be educated. • The right to vote. • The right to own property and earn an equal wage. We had lots of interesting discussions around global gender inequality and agreed that, at St. Bernard’s, we have high expectations of behaviour and achievement from both girls and boys and we always promote equality in our playground. Finally, we decorated our class tree with words on leaves to show many of the areas we agree that males and females need to be treated equally, such as school subjects, sports, activities, appearance, chores and being heard.