Promoting diversity and inclusivity in schools is crucial for creating a supportive and inclusive environment for all students. One of the most sensitive and critical aspects of this is allowing students to identify their gender and capturing this information in a manner that respects their identity.
As the Department of Education continues to review its reporting requirements, schools can take proactive steps to ensure that their Management Information System (MIS) supports their students in this regard. At Furlong, we understand the importance of this issue and have implemented several measures to help schools in their efforts to promote inclusivity and diversity.
Our customisable MIS provides schools with the tools they need to store and use each student's gender identity and preferred pronouns appropriately. Here's how SchoolBase supports schools in this regard:
- Schools can create one or more custom fields to store each student's current gender identity and preferred pronouns.
- The multi-edit process can be used to update this information for all students, regardless of whether their gender identity differs from their birth gender.
- Custom columns can be created to make this information available when exporting student data, creating mail merges, or sending emails.
- (Optional) schools can create a custom column to identify students who identify differently from their birth gender, so that staff are aware of this information.
- The display of student names throughout the system can be amended to include the updated gender identity and pronoun information.
We are committed to supporting schools in promoting diversity and inclusivity. We will continue to monitor the progress of the DfE reporting requirements and update our system accordingly to ensure that our MIS is always in line with the latest guidelines and best practices. By implementing these measures, schools can create a safe and supportive environment for all students and promote mental health and well-being.
If you have questions about how your school can become more inclusive, feel free to contact our team of experts here or email enquiries@furlongsolutions.com.
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