Diversity and Inclusion at Northampton Academy

Vision: 

“To give all members of our community a feeling of worth, belonging and empowerment to be their best selves”.

We believe that an inclusive organisation is one where the collective power of diversity comes together to build success, where individuals and groups feel valued with a strong sense of purpose and belonging. Northampton Academy has an ambitious but realistic vision for inclusion. It is “To give all members of our community a feeling of worth, belonging and empowerment to be their best selves.” We believe that when inclusion flourishes, it permeates the whole work environment, enabling everyone to succeed and no one feels left out.

Why Inclusion Matters to Northampton Academy

Inclusion matters because it embraces the fact that everyone has value to add. It matters because it is building a community that is accessible to everyone and adapting the environment to make everyone feel welcome. It is about finding each individual’s strengths and intentionally planning for their success in the group. In addition, it is about harnessing a plethora of diverse views, ideas and people to address challenges. To do that, inclusive processes are needed to enable people to contribute their ideas.

Northampton Academy’s Whole System Approach to Inclusion

Northampton Academy takes comprehensive, whole-system approach to inclusion. The process is about acknowledging, understanding, taking into account, and addressing all the different parts of organisational inclusion holistically rather than trying to fix individual components in isolation.

Below is a diagram of our systematic approach:

Four Leadership Competencies 

• Leadership Behaviour includes the competency of creating organisational culture, capacity for inclusion, implementation, change leadership, and political thinking. 
• Personal has to do with a commitment to intellectual and emotional development, self-awareness, and social justice. 
• System and Community include collaboration and partnership, future planning, analysis of stakeholders, and meaningful community engagement. 
• Interpersonal includes communication, conflict management, cultural pluralism, and visioning. 

The core values of inclusion, equity, intersectionality, cultural intelligence, and global awareness flank the four competencies.

How We Put Them Into Practice

Below are the three actions, which specifically operationalise "the inclusive organisation".

1. Self-Evaluate
   Senior leaders and the SPECTRUM group audit the inclusion action plan. This is done to ensure that we are compliant with the different aspects of the plan.
2. Actions
   Actions are created based on the gaps identified in the plan and implemented in the school.
3. Continuous Feedback Loop
   Actions are reviewed and checked against milestones and fed back to stakeholders through various communication channels. As a result, new feedback is generated and added as part of the self-evaluation, and the cycle continues.