Safeguarding

We recognise that having a safeguarding and child protection policy does not mean that any risk to our students is eliminated. Rather, we expect that all our staff and volunteers in our school and any contractors or partner agency staff used by our school, recognise where a student is at risk of, or is actually being harmed and do all we can to reduce further risk or further harm.

At NAS Dubai we recognise that it is important to identify concerns early and provide or identify help for students as well as helping to prevent these concerns from escalating. Consequently, Nord Anglia Education and NAS Dubai accept and adhere to these basic principles:

• A child’s welfare is paramount and each student has the right to be protected from harm and exploitation and to have their welfare safeguarded irrespective of race, religion, ability, gender or culture. 
• All students need to be safe and feel safe in school.
• Every student is entitled to a rich and broad curriculum that helps to equip them to keep themselves safe.
• Every adult in school must have a demonstrable commitment to protecting the students with/for whom we work.
• We work in partnership with parents/carers and/or other professionals to ensure the protection of students.
• Our guiding principle throughout is ‘the best interests of the students’.
• All students have the same equal rights to protection, but we recognise that we need to do more for some students because of their special educational needs, disability, gender, religion or sexual orientation. 

Aims and Objectives

• Provide a world class, safe and happy environment to enable students to thrive and learn.
• Outline the systems and processes we all take to ensure that students remain safe at school.
• Raise awareness to all staff of safeguarding/child protection issues, and define their roles and responsibilities in reporting possible cases of abuse. § Identify students who are suffering, or likely to suffer harm.
• Ensure effective communication between all staff on child protection/safeguarding issues
• Set effective procedures for staff/volunteers or third party individuals who encounter any issues in relation to child protection/safeguarding to follow.
• Be clear with all parties, including students and their parents/carers, regarding our approach to safeguarding and child protection, through the provision of clear policies.

Definitions

Safeguarding 

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children refers to the processes of protecting students from harm, preventing the impairment of their health and development, ensuring that we seek to improve the general health and well-being of all students in our care and enabling every student to have the optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.

Child Protection 

Child Protection is the core element of safeguarding and is defined as the responsibility to protect children who are suffering or likely to suffer from harm as a result of abuse or neglect.  

In addition to Nord Anglia Education’s commitment to the UN convention on the rights of the child, Nord Anglia Education and NAS Dubai has used the safeguarding standards set by the international safeguarding organisation “Keeping Children Safe” to benchmark against; and the UK schools’ statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (September 2016). The policy is also underpinned by the UK multi-agency guidance “Working together 2015” where relevant.