From ThE ChAIr

That said, we have as a sector once again shown ourselves to be resilient, adaptable, innovative and creative and we have stepped up to the challenge. BSA was the first of the major associations to run a virtual conference in September, after the inevitable cancelation of the in-person conference scheduled in Edinburgh last May. While I was especially sad not to able to welcome fellow Heads in person to the Scottish capital and its warm hospitality, I was both grateful and impressed by the BSA team’s support in moving the conference and its important theme of ‘Diversity’ online, maintaining a programme almost identical to that

Mark Lauder Group Chair BSA 2020

Half term offers a chance to pause and take a breath – perhaps for the first time for most of us since July – is welcome. 2020 has been a year like no other, and not what I anticipated when taking over as Chair in January! To quote one of my favourite poets, Burns: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” This year all our plans to a degree did go ‘agley’ and Coronavirus has been anything but “a tim’rous beastie.”

Headmaster, Strathallan School we were due to follow in Edinburgh, minus dinners, tartan and piping –and you were spared any possibility of the Chair’s speech being influenced to any degree in its delivery by that famous orator in Edinburgh of the Scottish Reformation John Knox!

The conference, attended in the end by 140-plus delegates, was able to hear much on a range of topics that have, due to the global pandemic and events through and since lockdown, become even more pertinent. BLM, LBTQ+, decolonising the curriculum, Chaplaincy and religious diversity, Managing COVID-19 in boarding, Safeguarding in a Diverse World and much more, were valid and helpful topics to hear about.

This was perhaps illustrated by the Head’s Panel session which asked the question “what’s currently in your intray?” The contributions from Mark Ronan, Joanna Wright, Kate Martin and Gavin Horgan touched on a wide range of issues that all reflected diversity in schools and education generally, and I am delighted that their contributions to the conference have become the basis of the lead article in this edition of the Magazine. I am pleased too that so many of you supported the Heads Conference –thank you – and that since the conference the first BSA Diversity and Inclusion Conference, open to all staff in our schools, has already taken place. Congratulations too to all our BSA award winners, announced at the conference close. A huge thank you too must go to iSams, our Conference sponsor, for helping to make the Conference possible and for the hardworking BSA team who did all the hard work to deliver it.

And speaking of hard work by BSA staff, I continue to be hugely impressed and most grateful as Chair for the work the BSA has done since January in weekly briefings and support over the pandemic – the team has served our sector and our schools fantastically well. Not only that, the response to the difficulties of the pandemic for the BSA itself has been deftly managed by the team and their ability to adapt to the fastchanging requirements of lockdown, virtual working and virtual training and conferences has been a lesson in how to do this well.

SAFEGUARDING AND CHILD PROTECTION ASSOCIATION

VirtuAl one dAy ConFEREnCE: BSA Group: THURSDAY 12 NOVEMBER 09:00-16:30 annual Safeguarding conference

We hope you are able to join us for BSA Group’s annual Safeguarding conference, focusing on the latest trends and headlines in safeguarding and child protection both in education and the wider safeguarding world. Running for the fourth consecutive year, this conference highlights the importance and increasing relevance of safeguarding and child protection in the delivery of care and support for young people. Safeguarding is no longer simply a policy to be written, it is a cultural shift that all organisations and schools need to make and keep current on. Audience: DSL, DDSL, Safeguarding Governor, Safeguarding Trustee, Senior Leadership Team

Speakers secured to date include:

• Ann Marie Christian, Child 1st Consultancy • Marcus Erooga, Safeguarding and sexual abuse Consultant Researcher & Trainer • Simon Bailey, Chief Constable at Norfolk Constabulary and

National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead on Child Protection • Karl Hopwood, Independent esafety expert UK Safer Internet Centre advisory board • Dr Elly Barnes, CEO Educate and Celebrate • Sophie Rees, HR Director, St Paul’s School • Steve Bailey, Chair, SACPA • Dale Wilkins Director of Safeguarding, Standards and Training, BSA

Topics include:

• Diversity and inclusion: a safeguarding perspective • Lessons learned: abuse in residential schools • Grooming • LGBT+ and safeguarding • KCSIE updates

GROUP

SAFEGUARDING AND CHILD PROTECTION ASSOCIATION BRITISH ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS WITH INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

More impressive still has been, in spite of the difficulties, the ongoing delivery of the BSA’s strategic objectives and its own diversification. The launch of Sacpa in January; the merger with BAISIS in June, and the development of the BSA’s own Certified Guardian and Agent schemes alongside the School Places initiative launched in the Conference in September, has taken the BSA to become the BSA Group and, as well as welcoming new partners and staff, I am pleased to see the BSA ‘offer’ of services and support thus expanded and even better tailored to the needs of a fast-changing and evolving world in boarding education right now. I encourage you to use these new services and to support the ongoing work of the BSA by engaging with its training and advice services too. Details can be found on the BSA website – and look out for the newly scheduled ‘BSA COVID Conference –Lessons Learned and Planning Ahead’ due to take place on November 18.

Finally, as my year as Chair draws to a close, I want to thank the BSA Board and the Executive Committee and the fellow Heads, Bursars and education professionals who serve on these bodies, both for their support in a difficult year and for their unstinting support for the work and objectives of the BSA to promote excellence in boarding. I wish Bex Tear, Head at Badminton School and Vice-Chair (elect) of the BSA Group, well as she takes over the reins in January, not only for the year ahead but also for her Conference in May on the theme of ‘being world class’, which sounds excellent! I hope will be able to be in person and if so, I look forward to catching up with you there if not before.

It has been so good to be back in school with pupils, no matter how challenging the preparations and ongoing management have been, and I hope you have a successful conclusion to this term. In the meantime, thank you again for your support of the BSA this year, and my best wishes.