Our Vision:

Our vision is of an inclusive, happy, and successful school at the heart of the local community. Together, our families and staff help our children to become confident, independent learners that care for themselves, each other, and the environment around them. Be brilliant, be bold, be kind and … ‘Together we will believe, learn and achieve’  

 Our Vision draws inspiration from the story of Jesus and the Fishermen, which is found in the New Testament Luke 5:1-11 Matthew 4:18 -22  

Subject Leader: Miss Georgia Derbyshire 

Diversity Education at Marlborough St. Mary's.

At Marlborough St. Mary's, our goal is to give your children a well-rounded education that celebrates diversity and helps them grow into empathetic, compassionate, and open-minded individuals.

What is Diversity Education?

Diversity Education is all about teaching our students to embrace and appreciate differences in people, cultures, and backgrounds. We want our children to have accurate and positive representations of themselves to aspire to. It is important for our children to understand the importance of being unique and celebrating the differences between one another. 

Why is it important?

In our community, it is vital to ensure our children grow up without misconceptions or biases. We want them to understand the world's diversity, encourage discussions about global issues, and become global citizens who are accepting and caring of everyone around them.

Our approach to diversifying our curriculum:

1. Targeted Lessons and assemblies: We include lessons in our curriculum that link to diversity and equality, aligning them with class topics and reading materials where relevant. These lessons help children understand and appreciate differences.

2. Golden Threads and Drivers: diversifying our curriculum aligns with our school's vision to support our children through our four drivers: Read, Talk, Pride, and Marlborough.

Our Four Drivers

Read
We integrate diversity education into our curriculum through carefully selected reading materials that represent various cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds. Our diverse book spine features authors of colour and stories that reflect a wide range of experiences. This not only helps all children see themselves in literature but also inspires empathy and understanding for those whose experiences may differ from their own.

Talk
Open discussions about diversity, equity, and social justice are essential. We encourage students to engage in meaningful conversations about these important topics in a safe, age-appropriate way. By fostering an environment where students can express their thoughts and feelings, we help them build compassion and awareness of the world around them. This is done through assemblies and PSHE lessons that specifically explore different aspects of equality and diversity in line with British Values. 

Connection

We believe true inclusion comes from connection — with ourselves, with others, and with the wider world. We deliberately create opportunities for pupils to build meaningful links within our community and beyond. Partnerships with Marlborough College, local businesses, care homes, and community groups allow children to see their place within a wider network of relationships and to understand how their actions can make a difference. 

Assemblies, collaborative projects, and community initiatives help pupils to experience diversity firsthand — through shared stories, music, art, and dialogue. Children are encouraged to take part in leadership roles such as School Council, Eco Council, and Worship Council, ensuring that voices from all backgrounds are represented and celebrated. 

Through these experiences, pupils develop a sense of belonging and responsibility — understanding that being part of a diverse community means both giving and receiving care, respect, and understanding. 

Joy

We believe that joy is central to equality and inclusion. When children feel happy, safe, and valued, they are free to be themselves and open to others. At Marlborough St. Mary’s, we intentionally plan experiences that spark joy — moments that make children smile, laugh, and love learning for its own sake. 

Joy is found in shared celebrations of different cultures, languages, and faiths; in music, storytelling, and play that unite rather than divide. By celebrating individuality and difference through joyful learning experiences, we nurture resilience, confidence, and self-worth. Our inclusive events and curriculum experiences help pupils recognise that diversity is not just to be respected — it is to be celebrated. 

Supporting Disadvantaged Learners

 All our pupils have diverse experiences and stories to tell. To build a truly inclusive school environment, disadvantaged children’s voices and opinions are represented, heard, and nurtured. Children of all abilities, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, religions and ethnicities are encouraged to stand in our democratic voting system for positions of influence in the school, such as; School Council, Eco Council and Worship Council and all children are well represented in our school community.  Assemblies are often linked to diverse cultures, languages, disabilities and aim to celebrate diversity in our community. We link these to our British values of tolerance, democracy, rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect as much as possible. We recognise the importance of supporting our disadvantaged learners by ensuring they have equal access to diverse educational experiences.

What is the Impact?

The impact of this purposeful implementation and enrichment of our curriculum will achieve a community of empathetic learners that are educated on the inequalities in our world and disseminate these learnt values of kindness, love, perseverance, friendship, courage, and respect as they make their way into the real world, leading culturally diverse lives. We regularly gather feedback from our students and parents to continually improve our approach and ensure that our curriculum effectively addresses any gaps in understanding. This will then further impact our curriculum as gaps in learning become identified to ensure that purposeful, targeted lessons are continuing to be taught in areas where there may be misconceptions. As this education continues to develop and our curriculum is adapted accordingly, the compassion and understanding of our learners will be reflected in the kindness, care and acceptance displayed across our school community towards all cultures, genders, races, capabilities, sexual orientations, and religions.  Together, we are committed to fostering a school culture that celebrates diversity and prepares all our students for a vibrant, multicultural world.