As a school, we have a legal and moral duty to do all we can to reduce the incidence of discrimination. As a public authority we are also bound by the Public Sector Equality Duty (Part 11 of the Equality Act 2010) and more specifically the duty to give due regard to the need to foster good community relations (tackle prejudice and promote understanding). This includes responding to, managing, and reporting any incidents.

Previously, we have recorded any incidents relating to protected characteristics as ‘Discrimination Incidents’ or ‘Equality Incidents’. For uniformity and compliance with wider-practice nationally, all Transform Schools have agreed to change the language used to be that adopted by the Crown Prosecution Service. 

Henceforth, Discrimination Incidents will be referred to as Hate Incidents.

 

This should make little or no difference to day-to-day life in school, or in how we actually deal with issues on the rare occasions they arise. However, we felt it right to share this change in terminology with our wider community.

Hate Incidents are incidents motivated by prejudice which have caused alarm or distress to the victim but which fall short of being a criminal offence.

We see very few of these in our school community. Our children know our school values are Ambition, Pride, KINDNESS and resilience and our Trust values are Respect, KINDNESS, Equity and Creativity. KINDNESS is key.

The very small number of reportable incidents we have dealt with include us having supported the victim (if there is one), we take an opportunity to educate and, if necessary, repair any damaged relationships. We treat the children in an age-appropriate way, in terms of what we expect them to understand and also how we deal with any issues.

---

A Hate Crime is any criminal offence where the victim or anyone else (e.g. a witness) believes that the victim has been targeted because of their:

• disability
• race, nationality or ethnic identity
• religion/ belief
• gender identity
• sexual orientation
• age

This is not an exhaustive list.

Hate Crime can include:

• verbal abuse
• physical assault
• threatening behaviour
• offensive graffiti
• harassment
• malicious communications by phone, text, email or social media
• damage to property and violence

The police and the CPS have agreed the following definition for identifying and flagging hate crimes:

“Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice, based on a person’s disability or perceived disability; race or perceived race; or religion or perceived religion; or sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or transgender identity or perceived transgender identity.”

“There is no legal definition of hostility so we use the everyday understanding of the word which includes ill-will, spite, contempt, prejudice, unfriendliness, antagonism, resentment and dislike.”

Any crime can be prosecuted as a hate crime if the offender has either:

• demonstrated hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity

Or

• been motivated by hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity

Someone can be a victim of more than one type of hate crime.

These crimes are covered by legislation (Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and section 66 of the Sentencing Act 2020) which allows prosecutors to apply for an uplift in sentence for those convicted of a hate crime.