SAFEGUARDING

We address manifold aspects of safety - physical, emotional / psychological and cultural aspects - to enable all members of our intercultural school community (students, staff, parents, owners, visitors, suppliers, other stakeholders) to feel free from harm, risk, loss, threat and danger.

We regard physical safety as an obligation that requires the school to protect all students, staff, parents, owners, visitors and other stakeholders from violence, theft and exposure to weapons and threats in order to provide a secure learning environment.

Alcohol, other intoxicating substances and all drugs (other than those prescribed medically) are banned inside the school.

Thorough risk analyses are conducted by responsible staff before any school event, outing or similar activity takes place in order to identify any danger or threat to the safety of participants and to seek active ways of neutralising or reducing the latter.

We believe that for students to learn effectively and for our intercultural school community to operate effectively, a safe environment must be provided and continuously improved wherever appropriate so that studies and everyday school interactions can proceed without student and other stakeholders being distracted by worry over physical safety concerns.

We also regard providing an environment kept reasonably free from factors likely or liable to cause injury or health / hygiene concerns as part of our obligation to offer physical safety.

We regard emotional safety as an important corollary to physical safety. We believe emotional safety is provided by addressing our students’ and other community members’ feelings as well as their intellectual and ratiocinative faculties. We seek to ensure that our stakeholding constituents feel safe while inside the school’s precincts (and while participating in school excursions, trips and events outside) as well as taking steps to address their physical security.

We seek to provide emotional security by facilitating the acquisition of particular attitudinal skills (empathy, confidence, friendliness, pride etc) which enable students and other stakeholders to understand and manage their emotions and to appreciate those of others, to sustain positive relationships and to make responsible decisions. We seek to accomplish and develop these aims within a supportive, warm environment in which all students and other stakeholders feel welcomed and valued.

We regard the provision of pastoral care as a necessary complement to the delivery of academic knowledge and skills. Students who require particular types of learning support (for linguistic, behavioural or other reasons) are provided with bespoke programmes which address their specific needs – this is done in the interests of their (and other school members’) emotional security (to ensure that they feel just as appreciated and engaged as other students) as well as with a view to expediting their academic progress.

We strictly follow the CIS Code of Ethics for Schools' insistence on maintaining confidentiality whenever appropriate; we believe this contributes to the emotional safety of our school members by enabling them to feel assured that their right to have suitable information treated in confidence will be respected and upheld at all times.

We believe the various rights extended to our staff under our employment contractual terms (some of which relate directly to the CIS Code of Ethics for Schools) - such as the right to written contracts - assist with employees' emotional safety (in assuring them that their rights are respected and upheld as part of the terms of their employment).

We regard cultural safety as an attribute of the environment we seek to provide in which all our school community members feel their respective cultural identities, statuses, traditions, celebrations and principles are fully accepted, respected, valued and welcomed and in which learning and other activities and interactions that take place within the school share knowledge of and regard for all the cultures and subcultures which are represented in our school community.

We believe cultural safety to be a necessary practical accompaniment to our commitment to interculturalism, that no student or other stakeholder should be made to feel at all disenfranchised or marginalised as a result of their cultural identity or its manifestations and practices. We believe all students and other stakeholders have the right to expect and to receive due acknowledgment, respect and acceptance as members of our intercultural community.

We believe our commitment to physical, emotional and cultural safety and our proactive attention to its implementation and development make Bloomsbury a safe school; we are always receptive to new suggestions as to how safety can be improved. If you would like to make any comment or recommendation in this regard, please email <davidtansey@bloomsbury.ac.th>