ABSTRACT
While equality means treating everyone the same, Equity explores how to provide equal opportunities. This book focuses on making wellbeing and learning accessible for all pupils and seeks social justice for every child.
The chapter details ways in which students might be disadvantaged and concludes that there is no such thing as ‘the normal’ child, as many factors impact on wellbeing and attainment. There are examples of how cycles of disadvantage have been reversed in the past, such as Sure Start and the risk to social mobility now. Finland and Estonia are given as examples of countries that are doing well by making education an instrument of inequality reversal. It makes economic sense to intervene early with a 13% return on investment in terms of better educational, social and health outcomes.
Putting Equity into practice in the early years includes supporting parents with behaviour and addressing issues of gender. In the primary classroom the emphasis is on oracy, cooperative learning, environmental adaptations and citizenship in action. Access for a variety of needs is a critical feature of Equity, and the section on behaviour includes responses to loss and to trauma.
