PROACTIVE SAFEGUARDING FOR EDUCATION
Overview
Building a robust safeguarding structure around schools has never been more imperative, and using current solutions, are we only revealing the tip of the iceberg?
The Student Voice was created and developed in partnership with TASIS, The American International School in England, with the purpose of empowering students to become responsible and active members in building a safer society. The platform has been piloted over the last year, providing powerful results, proving to be an essential piece of intelligence for safeguarding teams.
Whilst many schools use leading safeguarding software systems, the following questions remain:
How safe is your community? and how do you know?
Do you know the safeguarding issues that your students face?
Do you know if your interventions are effective?
How do you effectively educate your students to be responsible citizens?
How confident are you that your students participate in keeping each other safe?
“TASIS worked directly with The Student Voice to develop our interactive contextual safeguarding map that is currently being utilised by our students through the TASIS Student Voice. We are pleased to have been involved in the early stages of this innovative and important technology.”
Mr. Jason Tait
Director of Pastoral Care
TASIS The American School in England
Challenge
For Teachers
As it stands, the responsibility of reporting safeguarding concerns falls on teachers and safeguarding leads. This is an effective approach due to a teacher’s level of interaction with students; however, the level of overwhelming responsibility for hundreds of children and potential lack of time resource can pose a threat to identifying and addressing safeguarding cases in time.
This shortfall can lead to a reactive safeguarding culture, failing to protect students until after an incident has occurred, with no chance of early intervention.
For Students
Children may be reluctant to share sensitive safeguarding issues with teachers face to face, or because their social conditions favour them to stay silent. Here are opportunities for peer group engagement (Carlene Firmin, 2015), encouraging engagement through the wider community to change group behaviours and impose a stronger school culture.
(Carlene Firmin, 2015)
The Solution
A proactive web-based safeguarding solution.
The Student Voice. An advanced web-based solution transforming safeguarding culture in educational environments through a positive, proactive approach.
The Student Voice enables schools to listen and respond to students effectively, by providing a comfortable experience on students’ terms. Through a series of intelligent data collection points, Safeguarding Leads can monitor vulnerable groups closely, and gain deeper knowledge of the contextual factors affecting student well-being.
Data is visualised in an insightful and digestible way so schools can prioritise feedback and create custom reports easily. It encourages students to take responsibility for their community and its safety, and bridge student-teacher communication gaps. The Student Voice provides a holistic view allowing schools to shape a student body of highly engaged individuals, and lead by example by propelling effective safeguarding policy into action.
Results
Successfully piloted in a school environment, The Student Voice is proving to be a game-changer in safeguarding, bringing powerful results:
“Being involved in advancements in contextual safeguarding helps us prepare our students for the opportunities and challenges of the future by fostering student voice as well as student leadership opportunities at our school and in our community.”
Mr. Bryan Nixon
Head of School
TASIS The American School in England
