Safeguarding EAL and multilingual students in international schools

In many international schools, pupils learn in English while speaking Kazakh, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, French or Korean at home. A child who is new to English can name classroom objects long before they have the words to describe fear, control or abuse.

The English statutory guidance, Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) 2026, names language barriers as a direct reason why children do not tell an adult about harm. The NSPCC also notes that children who face language barriers need extra help to speak up.

Shame and fear already make any disclosure hard. When a student must hunt for words in a second language in front of an adult, many give up before they start. Others worry that a teacher will misread them or call home before seeing the risk.

New arrivals often go through a quiet phase while they get used to a new school and language. Because this silent stage is common, staff can misread a child's mood. They may write off withdrawal, tears, tiredness or sudden anger as language shock or cultural adjustment.

The Bell Foundation warns school staff not to assume that quietness or distress in an EAL learner is only about language or settling in. A child who sits alone, stops eating, flinches or dreads going home may be showing signs of harm or neglect.

Treat behaviour as a message when spoken English is low. Ask how the child acts around adults or peers who share their home language. If a pupil is flat in both languages, or shows physical signs of distress, report a worry to your DSL the same day.

• Check whether the child is also quiet and flat when speaking their home language.
• Look for shifts in eating, sleep, attendance, clothes or physical marks.
• Notice fear at pick-up time, during calls home or near certain adults and peers.
• Never wait for a child's English to grow before logging a safeguarding worry.
• Share notes between class teachers, the EAL team and bus or lunch staff.

If every poster, worry box and survey on campus is only in English, your reporting route is shut to beginners in English. A pupil should be able to ask for help in their very first week at school.

Put safeguarding posters up in the main home languages of your students. Add clear photos of the DSL and deputies, their room numbers and a simple visual guide showing how to ask for help. Pair short text with icons so young children and new EAL arrivals can point to what they need.

Let students write in any language when they use a worry box or an online check-in form. As covered in student voice in safeguarding, short surveys and trusted adult maps work best when pupils can answer in the language they think in.

• Show DSL photos and room numbers alongside the main student home languages.
• Say on every worry box and digital form that students may write in any language.
• Use feeling cards and campus maps during pastoral check-ins with new arrivals.
• Add local helpline details from Child Helpline International where available.
• Explain the reporting route in home languages during family and student induction.

EAL teachers, bilingual assistants and learning support staff teach in small groups or one to one. They give new pupils time, care and a slower pace of speech. Because of this, an EAL student will often trust an EAL teacher or assistant long before they trust a form tutor.

School leaders must make sure EAL teachers and learning support assistants get strong training. They need to know how to respond when a child discloses abuse. A first disclosure often arrives mid-lesson as a half-sentence, a drawing or a screen on a translation app.

Include EAL and support staff in regular pastoral handovers. When a class teacher spots a shift in mood, the EAL teacher often holds the context that shows whether the struggle is about language or safety.

When a child discloses harm in their home language, or mixes their first language with English, the written log must keep their exact words. Do not tidy up broken English. Do not write only an English summary of what a child said in Turkish, Mandarin, Arabic or Spanish.

If the staff member who heard the child speaks that language, they must write the exact words in the home language inside quotation marks. Right next to it, they should add a direct English translation and state that they translated the words themselves.

If you do not speak the language and the child used a note or screen, keep the exact words or image as seen. Pass the record to the DSL on the same day: see how to record a safeguarding concern. For next steps, read using interpreters and bilingual staff in safeguarding disclosures.

• Write the child's exact words in the home language inside quotation marks.
• Add a direct, word-for-word English translation beside the original text.
• Keep any paper note, drawing or screen the child showed you.
• Name the language used and state who translated the words in the log.
• Pass the record to the DSL the same day without probing the child further.

A DSL can check whether the system works for EAL pupils by looking at the concerns log. If multilingual students make up a third of the school roll but never appear in early help or self-referrals, the routes are not reaching them.

Check your induction pack for families and mid-year arrivals each term. Families who join in November or February need a clear explanation of who the DSL is. Our guide on what to tell parents about safeguarding covers what to share.

Walk the corridors with an EAL teacher once a term. Ask whether a child who arrived last week with almost no English could work out who to tell, where to find them and how to be heard today.