CIS Perspectives Blog

International school families are making education decisions amid conflict, visa changes, rising costs, and uncertainty. This blog shares practical ways schools can create honest conversations, support flexible pathways, address financial concerns, and help students build resilience when plans change.

This article addresses the most frequently asked questions we receive from schools in our membership community about safer recruitment. As we receive so many questions on this topic, we are facilitating a deep-dive workshop on 3 November, with insights and guidance on international safer recruitment practices.

Learn how the CIS Educational Transitions Framework is helping schools and universities strengthen transitions-care, student well-being, belonging, safeguarding, and support for internationally mobile students moving between schools and cultures and onwards to higher education.

How can schools help students make confident choices after graduation? Stephanie Halliday shares how Garden International School Rayong created a “Team Around the Graduate”, bringing staff together to embed careers guidance across school life and support students’ well-being, belonging, and readiness for successful transitions beyond secondary education.

As schools begin a new academic year, safeguarding leaders have an important opportunity to review child protection systems, strengthen staff training, and prepare for emerging risks affecting students. We asked Dan Furness, CIS Head of Safeguarding & Well-being, what school leaders should prioritise now.

Understand the real drivers of student anxiety during the secondary-to-higher education admissions experience—and what schools can do about it. This article explores common thinking patterns, practical strategies, and simple ways educators and parents can help students build confidence, maintain balance, and navigate uncertainty with greater perspective.

Our hearts are heavy as we learn how conflict around the world is impacting colleagues, students and their families in schools and universities. Here’s some guidance as we try to make sense of and navigate these distressing times.

Learn how to strengthen digital safety, communication, reporting pathways, AI use, and well‑being support to keep students safe in virtual learning environments.

AI presents opportunities and risks for young people. Dan Furness highlights the challenges, school pressures, benefits, and guidance for educators and families to foster safe, responsible, and supportive AI use.

This article reveals crucial insights from a review that are highly relevant for international schools aiming to enhance their safeguarding practices. Discover practical recommendations that require minimal funding but a significant shift in mindset. Learn how your school can create a safer environment and protect every child’s well-being.

Discover why international schools are shifting from ‘low-level concerns’ to ‘adult conduct concerns’ in safeguarding. Learn how clear terminology, proactive monitoring, and a culture of trust help protect students and empower educators, and how to achieve safer school communities through practical steps.

Inclusion is no longer a secondary aspiration; it is a central pillar of international education. With the launch of the new CIS International Accreditation Framework and the protocol for developing socially responsible learning communities, CIS schools now have a powerful tool to deepen their commitment to inclusive learning

Curious about how schools tackle identity-based harm? This blog walks you through the ways communities can support everyone involved—those who caused harm, the witnesses, and families—using restorative practices and cultural shifts. While international schools are making promising strides, the real change comes from keeping equity, inclusion, and well-being at the heart of everything we do.

When we picture students at risk for substance use, we may think of visible hardship: poverty, instability, or trauma. Still, risk doesn’t always look like struggle. What about the students who seem to have it all? Explore practical tips for schools and parents addressing the link between affluent neglect and adolescent substance abuse.

Eating disorders are among the most fatal mental health disorders, and their impact on students' physical and emotional health, as well as their academic and social development, can be profound. As international school staff, it is crucial to understand how to effectively support students who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder.

It’s been a remarkable year for the CIS community, filled with new initiatives and significant changes. Read our reflections as we celebrate the great strides we're taking forward together.

The prevalence of AI is accompanied by safeguarding concerns facing international schools around online harms. Online sexual extortion is one of these concerns. We’ve outlined seven key actions to prevent and respond to online sexual extortion yourself or when supporting those affected by it.

Jane Larsson reflects on three new realizations that emerged from our 2024 CIS Global Forum, including the digital transitions students experience when they head to higher education.

School safeguarding specialist, Leila Holmyard, explains how identity-based harm and the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion intersect with child protection and safeguarding. She also shares student feedback and how schools can take action to support and protect them.

There’s been huge progress over the past 10 years in the ways we protect and safeguard children in our care. However, international schools still face significant child protection risks, and mitigating them can be difficult. Jane Foster, a specialist in managing allegations, outlines eight key priorities for schools.