The CIS membership community places the student and their needs at the centre of education. Peter Williams takes up the challenge of highlighting a critical aspect relating to the prompt ‘who are the learners?’, bringing meaning to it using three lenses, and shares a rationale for why we need to invest in identity for the sake of all learners.

What does 'charging our batteries' really mean? So often, people take a break from work only to crave something to occupy minds, establish routine and break the monotony. Lee Hole, Head of Secondary School at GEMS International School–Al Khail in the United Arab Emirates describes what to look out for and ways to recharge.

Some safeguarding and well-being risks have increased for many children as a consequence of moving to remote learning. At the same time, the sudden shift to home-based learning and concerns about students’ academic progress has meant that key elements of some schools’ safeguarding and well-being education were paused or weakened. We look at different approaches to terminology, explore challenges, and offer eight steps/solutions that schools can take as we draw on examples from CIS Accredited schools and on the work of experts in this field.

A series of conversations with students since 2018 about different forms of peer-on-peer abuse provides the first-hand context and a strong foundation for the guidance in this post. We’ve been careful to reflect on the Coronavirus, anti-racism and diversity and how these may also have an impact on peer-on-peer abuse. 

The pandemic has brought uncertainty, loss and hardship to many students graduating from high school this year. We share five ‘big ideas’ emerging in transition programming in the context of the Coronavirus. Plus key findings from a recent survey of 134 high school counsellors across 52 countries, links to research, resources and more.

Nunana's personal story provides us with a powerful starting point for what we can and will do at CIS for ourselves, the communities we serve, and the world at large. The Black Lives Matter movement is a significant catalyst for change and one that we will highlight. We can do better at CIS.

Members of the International Taskforce on Child Protection are dedicated volunteers who maintain focus on their fundamental responsibility to keep children as safe as possible in education. Read their latest report and resources.

Guiding an organization through a global pandemic whilst also attending to personal suffering requires extraordinary effort. Key amongst these are the efforts that leaders are making to protect the mental health and well-being of their communities. Read key considerations and accompanying in-depth article.

What can we do to keep ourselves mentally resilient despite these unusual pressures? Here are some ideas for you to consider.

Are you confident Zoom is configured correctly and provides a safe and suitable remote learning experience for your staff and students? Here are some effective practices and things to consider when using Zoom for your virtual classrooms.

Schools and universities are making extraordinary efforts to support their communities right now. This is the first in a series of articles to address challenges and the many questions we’ve received, explaining how to keep students safe and protect their well-being in new learning environments.

There's been a recent surge of online learning activity as schools and universities around the world look for solutions to continue their teaching, learning and student support while institutions close due to the outbreak of Covid-19/coronavirus. While this surge will help to protect the well-being of their students, these institutions now face the additional challenge of how to protect students while they learn virtually.

On #SaferInternetDay (11 February) we join thousands of you in promoting the safe and responsible use of technology for young people. Where do you start when tackling such a broad and complex topic in an international school context? We called on our colleagues at Childnet International and 9ine Consultancy for information, guidance and resources.

I’d heard first-hand from colleagues and members of our community about the profound and perhaps confronting experience of attending a CIS Child Protection Workshop. Harsh realities are brought into sharp focus and participants leave with an urgency to take positive action. 

Life is made up of a tapestry of transitions, big and small, simple and complex. By developing ways to positively navigate transitions as early as possible in life we are in a far stronger position to deal with future significant ones as they occur.

Data protection found its way onto my list of responsibilities, and it got there unexpectedly. Like many leaders, I began to pay closer attention in 2018 when a new law, the European General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR as it is commonly known, was about to be  implemented. Initially, I wondered, just how much time are we going to have to devote to this?

The topic of student mental health and well-being is broad, complex and highly sensitive so we are careful and privileged to work with experts from a wide range of associated specialist fields. Their expertise covers forensic psychology, medical practitioners, writers, activism, editing, nursing, safeguarding, researching, workshop design, and clinical psychology. Several of them will be sharing their insights and practical strategies with our community in November ...

You can make children safer at your school by changing how you talk about harm. The strongest word isn’t always the right word. Perhaps it’s the news or social media, but there is a tendency to refer to all sexual offenders as predators or pedophiles. Yet, no one believes they hire, work with, or know a pedophile or predator. Casual use of these pejorative terms is inaccurate and leads to harmful bias.