Child Protection Policy Statement

OneSchool Global is affiliated with over 120 Campuses spread across 20 countries, teaching around 9000 students, employing over 1500 staff and working with over 6000 volunteers.

We believe that:

• Children and young people should never experience abuse of any kind
• We have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people, to keep them safe and to practise in a way that protects them

We recognise that:

• The welfare of children is paramount in all the work we do and in all the decisions we take
• Working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare
• Some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues
• Extra safeguards may be needed to keep children who are additionally vulnerable safe from abuse
• Safeguarding and child protection must be a golden thread that runs through every part of our schooling system

Our commitment: Can be summarised into 5 main areas.

• Reporting of concerns – Crystal clear and trusted systems to ensure students and staff are confident to report even the smallest of concerns.
• Management of concerns – Procedures that follow the highest standards of support and care, fully compliant with local regulations. Detailed and secure records maintained.
• Training – The highest global standards of training and updates for all staff, students, parents and volunteers. Repeated through each year.
• Safe Recruitment – systems for recruiting staff and volunteers that require all relevant pre-employment references and checks, to ensure persons are safe to work with children.
• Governance – Systems for governance that ensure a rigorously professional and transparent culture, where all stakeholders feel confident to disclose concerns and know they will be handled correctly.

Governance:

Global:

Our Global Child Protection Governance Committee is comprised of a Global Board Members and Global Heads of Function, Regional Managing Directors and Regional Directors of Education, with representation from every OneSchool Global region. The committee ensures:

• • The policy and practice for safeguarding children within each country we operate is fully compliant with statutory guidance.
  • That we work beyond compliance, so that every region meets the highest global standards for Child Protection in line with the most advanced jurisdictions that we operate within.  
  • Effective governance at global and regional levels

Regional:

As a global organisation, every OneSchool Global region has a Regional Child Protection governance committee. The committee is comprised of the nominated Child Protection Board Member, Regional Managing Director, Regional Director of Education, Regional Principals and Regional Child Protection/Safeguarding Lead and oversees:

• • Up to date, thorough and relevant policies for Child Protection and safeguarding children.
  • Campus compliance with policy and practise, and a program of Campus audits.
  • Consistent procedures for reporting, management and recording of concerns.
  • Training of staff, parents, students and volunteers.
  • Safe recruitment of all staff and volunteers.
  • Effective governance at Campus and regional level.
  • Lessons are learned and implemented to consistently improve practice.

Campus:

Every Campus has a Campus Child Protection/Safeguarding Governance Committee to oversee:

• • Implementation of policy and procedure.
  • Routines for reporting and management of concerns.
  • Effective and secure record keeping.
  • Appropriate and timely communication with external agencies.
  • Training of staff, parents, students and volunteers.
  • Safe recruitment of all staff and volunteers.
  • Lessons are learned and implemented to consistently improve practice.

Policy:

Every OneSchool Global Campus has a Child Protection Policy, relevant to the statutory regulations in their jurisdiction.

As a golden thread running through all of our policy and practice, we will seek to keep children safe by:

• Valuing, listening to and respecting them
• Nominating a lead trustee/board member for Child protection in every registered school entity
• Appointing a nominated child protection lead professional for every Region and Campus
• Adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for staff and volunteers
• Developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures
• Providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support, training and quality assurance measures so that all staff and volunteers know about and follow our policies, procedures and behaviour codes confidently and competently
• Recruiting and selecting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made.
• Recording and storing and using information professionally and securely by adopting CPOMS (Child Protection Online Management System) in every region, and working in line with data protection legislation and guidance
• Sharing information about safeguarding and good practice with children and their families via our OSGAware student safety program and other relevant programs.
• Making sure that children, young people and their families know where to go for help if they have a concern
• Using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately.
• Using our procedures to manage any allegations against staff and volunteers appropriately.
• Creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise.
• Ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place.
• Ensuring that we provide a safe physical environment for our children, young people, staff and volunteers, by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law and regulatory guidance.
• Building a safeguarding and Child Protection culture where staff and volunteers, children, young people and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns.
• Ensuring effective and informed governance.