Keeping Your Children Safe at School

 At Nord Anglia International School, Shanghai Pudong, we are committed to ensuring that the safety and wellbeing of the students in our care is at the forefront of everything we do. This article will be the first in a series that will deal with a variety of safeguarding issues that range from helping your children to be safe online, dealing with conflict, emotional wellbeing and other topics that are time appropriate. However, this introductory article will explain how we at Nord Anglia International School, Pudong, are keeping your child/ren safe whilst they are at school.

It is important to us that all staff are offered continuous professional development regarding safeguarding best practice. One of the benefits of being part of a global network of schools is that staff are offered world-class professional development and are able to learn from examples of best practice from around the world. Our safeguarding documents are derived from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Taskforce on Child Protection, and Keeping Children Safe in Education. These documents can be summarised by two key principles: the welfare of the child is always paramount, and confidentiality should be respected as far as reasonably possible. These principles are revisited whenever staff meet to reflect and revise safeguarding best practice. 

Another way we are committed to keeping students safe is by making our processes visible to students and staff. We are in the process of adapting our displays around the school so that students know who they can talk to when they are facing an issue such as bullying, violence, or abuse of any kind. One of our top priorities has and continues to be online learning and how we can protect ourselves when online. We will continue to work with our students to keep them safe by communicating with them in spaces such as Guidance sessions and assemblies. Increasing the visibility of these safeguarding issues is one way students can become familiar with, and act on any problems.

We will continually reassess our policies and procedures to align with safeguarding best practice. It is our aim that students come to school healthy and content, and we look forward to continually working with you, the parents and families, so that we can continue to make that a reality.