International Schools
Trusted by International Schools in more than 30 countries
We understand that the needs of International Schools are ever-changing and that the challenge of safeguarding has never been more complex. International Schools must address such issues; as peer-on-peer abuse, online bullying, and affluent neglect, while also supporting students with mental health issues. We understand that at the same time, schools often walk a delicate tightrope, balancing the requirements of local laws, parental expectations, international inspections' criteria, and the desire to support your students in the best way possible.
International Schools have a great responsibility to manage what can be extremely challenging and time-consuming issues. Sadly, these issues can have detrimental, life-long effects for those involved and, when poorly managed, can result in other damaging consequences for a school's reputation and the wellbeing of its staff.
The Safeguarding Company offers school owners, international groups, senior leaders, teaching, and support staff peace of mind, with our purpose-built safeguarding products and services that support a Total Safeguarding approach.
These terms can sometimes be used synonymously, if you're not clear on the differences check out our safeguarding FAQ's
Read MoreWe work with British, American, and International schools and school groups around the world and support them as they strive to be world-class safeguarding organisations. As members of COBIS and ECIS we advocate for safeguarding best practice and provide advice and support to members and non-members alike with our webinars and resources.
Total Safeguarding
We believe that successfully achieving high standards of professional safeguarding practice is founded on eight core principles that come together to create Total Safeguarding:
- Strong governance, leadership and management
- A clear focus on harm prevention and reduction
- Efficient recording and case management of concerns
- Effective team working within and between individuals and organisations
- Managing and sharing information securely, lawfully, and pro-actively
- Securing professional and emotional support for your people, your teams and yourself
- Being able to see the rich picture – understanding your data and developing insight
- Learning lessons from your own professional practice and that of others.
The essential step to Total Safeguarding is to combine the practice of safeguarding with the very best technology - each is necessary, individually they are unlikely to meet the current safeguarding challenge. Together we can create everything you need for yours to be a world-class safeguarding organisation – one that protects children and adults and supports them to have the best outcomes in learning, in work and in life.
Talk to us about your school's needsSolutions
Our suite of safeguarding solutions to support International Schools is ever-growing, so we can help with your safeguarding processes in a number of ways. From MyConcern, which offers a secure, centralised system for the management of all categories of safeguarding, child protection and pastoral concern, to Sentry our safer recruitment and personal vetting solution that acts as your single central record,
Our award-winning software provides a secure system for the recording and management of the full range of concerns that International schools may be presented with. All staff can be given access to record their concerns from any web-enabled device, while senior leaders can triage cases, view chronologies, and analyse reporting trends. With MyConcern you can:
- Centralise the recording of child protection, safeguarding and welfare concerns - no need to rely on paper-based records anymore.
- Take a proactive approach to safeguarding your students - a single source of truth allows you to spot patterns and identify opportunities for early intervention.
- Fortify your whole-school safeguarding culture - with different levels of access, all staff can quickly and easily contribute to the wellbeing of any student.
- Give staff peace of mind that their concerns have been recorded
- Gain visibility of the safeguarding picture across your school - with actionable insights and the ability to demonstrate the impact of your provisions to inspectors, parents and other stakeholders
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Effective safeguarding starts with Safer Recruitment so Sentry has been designed to guide you through the process - ensuring no critical check is missed. Gone are the days where the records of right to work checks, first aid qualifications, references, and more can be kept in paper or excel files.
Sentry is a purpose-built, secure system that can be customised for the unique roles and responsibilities within your school and supports you when following best practice guidance.
Sentry at a glance:
- Quick reference dashboards to easily monitor status and outstanding SCR recruitment checks
- Automated workflows throughout the system ensure no critical steps are missed
- Minimises risk and facilitates a joined up safeguarding approach
- Enables compliance with international safer recruitment standards and guidance from bodies such as COBIS, BSME and ECIS.
- Customisable checks and roles to tailor Sentry to the way your organisation works
- Expiry dates keep track of time-sensitive checks and notify when renewals are needed
- Custom deadline dates show when checks must be completed or actioned
Clarity is a powerful reporting tool designed exclusively for multi-establishment safeguarding. Paired with MyConcern to provide high-level, anonymised reporting, Clarity enables you to detect risks, spot trends and track progress across your group of schools.
Clarity helps International school groups working across multiple locations to identify actionable insights, inform decision making and uncover opportunities for ‘early help’, helping to ensure that your safeguarding responsibilities are met. It can also support decision making helping to ensure that training and resources are provided where they are most needed.
Clarity+ offers additional functionality for those organisations seeking to implement a higher level of consistency with centralised set up and broadcast message functionality.
Despite all efforts to recruit safely there will be occasions when there are allegations that meet the harm threshold or low-level concerns are made against adults that are working and/or volunteering in your school. All organisations which have employees or volunteers working with children should therefore have clear and accessible policies and procedures in place.
Confide is our electronic system for recording and case-managing allegations and concerns against adults who are working or volunteering in your organisation. The system enables you to easily record concerns in a secure environment, to record all aspects of the investigation, upload relevant documents and produce accurate reports on trend data. Confide also allows you to restrict access to the system so you can be reassured that the data remains confidential and is only available to users with the appropriate permissions.
Confide is particularly useful for International schools that are guided by, or refer to, the UK's KCSIE guidance for best practice in safeguarding. From September 2021, the new KCSIE guidance is now directing that any so called 'low-level' concern made about a member of staff or volunteer should also be recorded with appropriate action taken to follow up on any concerns to safeguard children.
It is therefore important that schools adopt an open and transparent culture in which all concerns about adults are shared responsibly.
Using digital solutions to improve pastoral support
Deputy Heads, Safeguarding Leads and School Counsellors have shared some of their top tips for improving safeguarding and pastoral care in their schools using our systems.
- Record everything - the 'small' details will join up the pieces of the puzzle and give you greater insights.
- Use data to spot patterns and trends to enable proactive interventions.
- Share the right information with those that need it to build support networks for individuals.
- Export reports to share important data with governors, inspectors and other stakeholders
- Identify staff training and support requirements
- Pinpoint where school premises could be adapted improve safeguarding
- Speed up the processes for recording and use the reporting wizard to free up staff time
Effective Safeguarding Starts with Safer Recruitment
We have run two webinars on Safer Recruitment. One which covered the key responsibilities of Senior Leaders and Safeguarding Leads in UK schools and the lessons that can be learned from serious case reviews. Our second webinar was about the unique challenges and dangers international schools face when it comes to protecting their students.
Mental Health: Anxiety, Depression & Self-harm
The Covid-19 Pandemic has negatively affected the mental health and wellbeing of students and staff alike. We expect to see further issues associated with the pandemic surfacing for months if not years to come. In response, we created this webinar to help teaching staff and safeguarding leads identify when their students may be suffering from depression, anxiety, and self-harm
Managing Safeguarding and Stress; A Magic Formula
A free webinar, essential for all Safeguarding leads. We ask, what impact does stress have on us? What strategic approach to stress can be taken as part of your role? How to best deal with stress in the moment, and how to spot the signs of stress in others?
Safer Internet Day: Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online
This webinar with guest speaker Carole Phillips, focusing on how schools, colleges and other organisation can keep children and young people safe online. Understanding and protecting children and young people from online risks is critical to keeping them safe from harm.
