AoBSO is proud to be a founding member of the British International Schools Safeguarding Coalition (BISSC).

The purpose of BISSC is to establish and promote a unified strategic and coordinated approach to strengthening global safeguarding systems.

This comes following a joint commitment and passion to drive forward global safeguarding standards from:

  • The Association of British Schools Overseas (AoBSO)

  • British Schools in the Middle East (BSME)

  • Council of British International Schools (COBIS)

  • Federation of British International Schools in Asia (FOBISIA)

  • Latin American Heads Conference (LAHC)

  • National Association of British Schools in Spain (NABSS)

  • The Safeguarding Alliance (TSA)

Together, we are joining forces to address critical issues and work collaboratively to drive change. By engaging with policymakers and elected representatives, BISSC aims to ensure global safeguarding risks, challenges and concerns are given the utmost priority in order to protect those most vulnerable.

BISSC was officially launched at the AoBSO Conference on 21st November 2023.

Safeguarding Processes in AoBSO Member Schools

All AoBSO schools meet the rigorous standards required by the UK Government‘s Department for Education (DfE) ‘Standards for British Schools Overseas’ (BSO) regarding safer recruitment processes and the suitability of staff, supply staff and proprietors. The latest standards that must be adhered to by all BSO schools can be viewed here.

As part of a safer recruitment process, we expect schools to conduct extensive checks and request references. In addition AoBSO offer all our member schools unlimited, and free of charge, DfE records checks for their employees.

By checking a teacher’s record we able to check, on behalf of our members, a teacher’s qualifications and if they:

  • Are eligible for, have commenced, partially completed, passed or failed their ECT induction (formerly NQT)

  • Have been prohibited, sanctioned or restricted from working in certain education settings

  • Have been found guilty of professional misconduct but not did not receive a prohibition order

In addition we are also able to view the list of people prohibited from managing of governing schools (known as the Section 128 list) for our member schools.

Member schools interested in having their staff checked against DfE records should contact Mark Bignell on admin@aobso.uk for support.