Safeguarding in schools

Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility; students can choose to make a disclosure to any member of staff. Therefore, it's essential that everybody working in a school understands their safeguarding responsibilities. Here we explain what safeguarding in schools means and why it's so important.

Teachers and students stood with a giant safeguarding shield

What does safeguarding in schools mean?

Safeguarding in schools refers to the policies, procedures and actions taken to protect children and young people from harm, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Safeguarding in schools is essential to ensure that children and young people can learn and grow in a safe and nurturing environment. Ensuring children learn in a safe environment is essential for supporting progress and growth of every child.

Safeguarding procedures in schools

All schools and colleges have policies and procedures to safeguard children. Governments across the world issue statutory safeguarding guidance for schools, colleges and other organisations, which must be followed. This is practical guidance for the implementation of legislation and is updated as required, such as when new laws are enacted, or standards are amended.

Everyone working in schools must know what to look out for and how to report concerns about children and young people.

Teachers having a meeting about safeguarding

Why is safeguarding in schools so important?

Schools are in a position where they can identify concerns early and provide support. To help protect children and young people, schools should consider their location and the culture in their local area, assessing the risks that young people may be exposed to, both inside and outside of school. This approach helps staff to understand the different relationships that young people have outside of their family; in their neighbourhood, within school or while online, which may act as protective factors, but may also present a risk of harm.

 The general principles of safeguarding are:

  • Always put the best interests of children first
  • If anyone has a concern about any child, they should act in accordance with their school’s child protection policy and procedures

Keeping children safe and protecting their welfare should be every school’s priority. Safeguarding in schools begins with the recruitment and induction process, and appropriate training of all staff and volunteers.

Teacher helping their student who is sat at their desk

Safeguarding in schools FAQs

  • Teacher looking at safeguarding statistics

    The importance of managing safeguarding concerns

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    5 key safeguarding concerns for international schools

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    International safeguarding: how do I remain compliant?

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  • Safeguarding tailored for International schools campaign-Blog Image)

    Safeguarding training tailored to international schools

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Safeguarding schools articles from Tes Magazine

  • School forums and parent seminars Tes Magazine article image

    Safeguarding Around the World: School forums and parent seminars

    We head to Saudi Arabia for the final instalment in the series to hear how a school there balances the cultural experiences of its parents with its international ethos.

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  • Bite-sized training image

    Safeguarding Around the World: Bite-sized training

    We head to Oman to hear from one international school leader about why following England’s Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance is a key component of its safeguarding work.

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  • Cultural sensitivity image

    Safeguarding Around the World: Cultural sensitivity

    The head of an international school in Bahrain talks about its safeguarding strategies and why cultural sensitivity training for staff is important.

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  • Traffic and training Tes Magazine article image

    Safeguarding Around the World: Traffic and training

    We head to Moldova to hear from a leader about the challenge of ensuring that staff and parents recognise the importance of the school’s safeguarding policies – and the dangers of Soviet-era roads.

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How we can help

We have great tools that can help you to safeguard the children in your care.

  • Teachers doing safeguarding checks

    Safeguarding training

    You can provide all your staff with the knowledge and confidence to spot potential safeguarding issues with our online safeguarding training package, Tes Safeguarding.

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  • Teacher safeguarding her pupils

    MyConcern

    Support staff to easily record and monitor safeguarding concerns. Enabling early interventions by identifying trends and patterns and helping to inform decision-making with our case management system, MyConcern, now part of Tes.

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