Earlier this month Fiona Walters, Director of Guardianships and Natalie Hamson, Senior Safeguarding Manager attended The Aegis (The Association for the Education & Guardianship of International Students) Spring Conference in Oxford.
Natalie and Fiona joined a host of uk guardianship companies and boarding schools
eager to learn about international student perspectives and how these
continue to shape the rules put in place by The ISI (Independent Schools
Inspectorate) and other governing bodies who inspect ‘association
independent schools’ in the uk. ‘Schools in the Associations’ are
ranked among the best in the world and educate more than half a million
children in 1,200 schools.
Like ISI, Aegis
is a governing body. It is their role to inspect uk guardianship
organisations to ensure that they are carrying out sufficient checks on
their host families and all other suppliers. Bright World is fully
accredited by Aegis and recognises the importance of such an
organisation to promote the safeguarding of international students in the uk.
After
a welcome from Rosalind Hayes, Chair of the AEGIS Advisory Committee,
Educational and Child Psychologist, Tom Hughes spoke about the
psychology of belonging and its significance for international students.
Tom’s work involves assessing
the learning, social, emotional and behavioural needs of students to
help schools, parents and students make good decisions about their
education in the UK.
Phil
Hardaker the vice principal at International College, Sherborne then
delivered an excellent account of what it was like for International
students to come across tutors and house staff expecting them to know
and understand what they were talking about in their day to day
life/lessons. Phil has gained a wealth of experience working with
international students and parents during his career in academia and is
also a trained ISA Inspector.
After
lunch ISI inspector, Tom James informed uk boarding school
representatives of the new rules being put in place for schools who
arrange guardianship and host families internally. Lastly
Jonathan Thomson from St Edward’s School then introduced several
international students who spoke about their experiences with their
respective guardians.
As
well as informing schools of the changes that may affect their existing
processes, the Spring conference allowed Aegis to raise awareness of
the problems that international students face and how enlisting the
services of an Aegis accredited guardianship organisation can help.
Bright World can offer guardianship at over 250 Boarding Schools and Universities
across the UK. For an overview of the service we provide please read
our Guardianship brochure below. For personalised quotation from the
guardianship team, complete our enquiry form.
