Stover School host British Council Agents Fair

Last week Bright World Partners, Stover School hosted the British Council International Agents Fair
providing an opportunity for independent schools such as Millfield, Wellington and The Royal School, Wolverhampton to meet educational agents from around the world. Agents from a variety of countries such as Belarus, Spain, Turkey, Nigeria and Japan had the opportunity to tour Stover School and meet with school staff.

This event was a fantastic opportunity for Stover to show new agents what they can offer, including their facilities and local attractions including Dartmoor National Park.  The agents were extremely impressed with their pupils who gave them a real insight into life at Stover School, and, once again, were excellent ambassadors for Stover. The event was a huge success and Stover was able to meet a number of agents from across the globe to continue to diversify our international community. 

Bright World was among the attendees and very much enjoyed meeting new Partners who were interested in learning more about uk guardianship and placement.

Bright World can place students at over 250 UK Boarding Schools. For further information, or if you are interested in finding out more about placement and uk guardianship, please get in touch with Sales & Marketing Manager, Charlotte Hamson charlotte@brightworld.co.uk, call 01273 835745 or visit our website www.brightworld.co.uk 

Bright World attend AEGIS Spring Conference

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.