Safeguarding Policy
Version 1.0 (draft). In force from [to be confirmed].
Children's safety comes first in everything we build and do. This policy sets out how Techscholar protects children who appear in the platform, what we expect of everyone who uses it, and what to do if you are worried about a child. Where a protection is planned but not built yet, we say so.
1. The short version
- Every child has the right to be safe. Their welfare comes before the convenience of any school, parent, teacher or company, including ours.
- Techscholar is software used by schools. The school is responsible for its pupils. We are responsible for building and running the platform safely and for acting when a concern reaches us.
- Students cannot message anyone on Techscholar, cannot see other students, and have no public profile.
- If a child is in immediate danger, call 112 (the national emergency number) or the police first. Then tell the school's safeguarding lead.
- To raise a concern about the platform or anyone at Techscholar, write to [to be confirmed]. We aim to acknowledge every concern on the same or next working day.
2. Who this applies to
- Everyone who works for Techscholar: employees, contractors, interns and volunteers.
- Everyone who uses the platform in a school: principals, teachers and other staff.
- Parents and guardians, in how they use messages with the school.
3. Our principles
- The child's welfare is the first consideration.
- Every child is protected equally, whatever their age, sex, disability, faith, background or ability.
- Safeguarding is everyone's job. Nobody needs proof to speak up. If in doubt, report.
- We keep children's information private, and we share it when a child's safety needs it.
- We listen to children and never promise to keep a disclosure secret.
- We act on concerns quickly and keep a record.
4. The law and guidance we follow
We aim to meet or exceed the requirements that apply to us in Nigeria, including the Child's Rights Act 2003 and the child protection laws of each state where our schools operate, the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015, the Cybercrimes Act 2015, and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. We also follow the safeguarding policy of each school we serve where it is stricter than this one. Schools remain responsible for their own legal duties.
5. How the platform protects children (what is in place today)
- Students cannot contact anyone. There is no student messaging, no chat, no comments, and no way for one student to see another's record.
- Classwork is private. In the learning hub only teachers post to a class. A student's work, and the short note they may add to it, can be seen only by that student and their teacher (and their form teacher and the school's administrators). A note is never visible to other students. Every submission page points the student to a way to tell someone if they are worried. In primary classes, pupils cannot type to their teacher at all: they choose from two ready-made messages ("This was hard", "I need help"), and the page asks them to show a grown-up if something is worrying them.
- No public profiles and no posting. Nothing a child does on Techscholar is visible outside their school.
- A student sees only their own results and attendance. A parent sees only the children linked to them by the school.
- Parents can only message the people who teach their child, and the school office. They cannot message other staff or other parents.
- Notes to a student can only come from their own form teacher or the school principal. Every note records who wrote it and when, the fact that it was sent appears in the school's audit record, and the note is shown to the student. The safeguarding lead can review the notes staff have sent to students (section 6).
- Sign-in is controlled by the school. Accounts are created by the school. Students receive a printed PIN slip from their school, not an open sign-up.
- Staff accounts use two-step sign-in, and sensitive actions are logged.
- We collect very little. No photographs of children, no location, no health records, no advertising tracking, and we never sell data. See the Data Policy.
- Absence alerts go to the child's parents, so a child missing from school is noticed the same day.
6. How concerns are reported inside the platform
- Report a concern. Everyone signed in can report a concern from the account menu: staff, parents and students ("Tell someone"). The form says to call 112 first if a child is in danger now.
- It goes to the school's safeguarding lead, and only to them. The principal names one or more leads. Until a lead is named, the principal acts as lead. Notifications say only that a concern needs attention, never what it is about.
- Concerns about the school's leadership, or sent to us on purpose, go to Techscholar. The reporter can tick "send this to Techscholar's safeguarding lead instead of my school", and a concern about the principal or leadership goes there automatically, so the people involved never see it.
- Every opening is recorded. Opening a concern, or the log of notes sent to students, is written to the audit record.
- Staff notes to students can be reviewed. The safeguarding lead can read the notes staff have sent to students, so nothing inappropriate goes unseen.
- Case notes and outcomes are kept with each concern, with a status from "new" to "referred" or "closed".
Automatic alerts. Software on our own servers reads what students type in their own work (an answer, a note to their teacher, a written test answer) and what parents send (a message to the school, the reason for an absence) for plain statements that may mean a child is at risk, such as being hurt, wanting to die, having nothing to eat, or being touched. It looks for phrases, including common Nigerian phrasing and pidgin, not single words, so an essay on a set text does not trigger it.
- A flag goes only to the safeguarding lead (the principal until a lead is named). The notification says that something needs attention and never carries the words. Nobody else, including the child's teacher, is told by the system.
- It is a smoke detector, not a judge. It misses things and sometimes flags harmless text, so a person reads every flag in context and decides whether to open a concern. Nothing is done automatically.
- Every time the lead opens the alerts is written to the audit log, and an alert is kept with the school's concerns under the same rules.
- It does not replace staff reporting concerns themselves. Teachers and staff must still report anything they see or hear.
Still planned: extra safeguards before brain gym and psychometric results are released to families (section 11).
7. Roles and responsibilities
- Techscholar Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): [to be confirmed], [to be confirmed]. Receives concerns about the platform and about anyone at Techscholar, keeps the safeguarding record, and reports to the authorities where needed. Deputy: [to be confirmed].
- Each school's safeguarding lead. Every school using Techscholar must name a person responsible for safeguarding and make sure staff know who they are. We ask the principal to confirm this when the school joins.
- Directors of Techscholar review this policy at least once a year and after any serious concern.
- Everyone must read this policy, follow it, and report concerns straight away.
8. People who work for Techscholar
These are the rules our own team works under.
- Safer recruitment. Before anyone has access to school data we confirm their identity, take up references, and ask for a police character certificate where the law allows.
- Code of conduct. Everyone signs a code of conduct and confidentiality agreement. In particular: no private contact with any student outside the platform, no contact with a student for any reason unrelated to their school's use of Techscholar, no photographs or copies of student data kept on personal devices or accounts.
- Need to know. Access to school data is limited to named people who need it for support or maintenance, uses two-step sign-in, and is withdrawn when no longer needed or when someone leaves.
- Training. Everyone receives safeguarding and data-protection training when they start and again every year. The DSL receives specialist training.
9. Expectations of schools and their staff
When using Techscholar, staff must:
- keep all contact with students and parents professional, brief, and about school business;
- use notes and messages only for school purposes, and remember that they are recorded;
- never ask a student for their personal phone number, social media or private contact, and never share their own;
- not use the platform to arrange contact with a student outside school;
- never put abuse details, medical diagnoses or other highly sensitive information in free-text fields; report these to the school's safeguarding lead directly and in person;
- keep sign-in details private and never share an account;
- report anything that worries them straight away.
Parents should keep messages to the school respectful and about their child.
10. If you are worried about a child
If a child is in immediate danger, call 112 or the police now.
Then:
- Listen. If a child tells you something, stay calm, listen, and do not ask leading questions or press for detail.
- Reassure them that they were right to tell, and that it is not their fault.
- Never promise secrecy. Explain that you may have to tell someone whose job it is to keep them safe.
- Do not investigate and do not confront the person involved.
- Write down what you saw or heard as soon as you can: date, time, the child's own words, and who was present. Keep to facts.
- Report the same day to your school's safeguarding lead. If you cannot (for example because they are the person you are worried about), go to the principal, then the proprietor or board, then the police or the state child protection authority.
- If the concern is about Techscholar (a member of our team, or the platform being misused), write to [to be confirmed].
The school's safeguarding lead decides what happens next and, where the law requires, refers the matter to the police or the child protection authority.
11. Online safety and sensitive features
- There is no unmoderated chat anywhere in the product, and no way for strangers to contact a child.
- Brain gym and psychometric analysis (planned for Stage 2):
- results are visible only to the student, their parents or guardians, and the form teacher or counsellor; - they are never used on their own to decide discipline, exclusion, admission or school fees; - a learning persona is a teaching aid, not a label, and families can ask for it to be removed; - games contain no chat and no spending, and rewards are never bought with money; - we will complete a written risk review before release and update this policy.
- Reminders are kind and limited. A student can switch brain gym reminders on or off and pick a daytime hour. There is at most one a day, never at night, and the wording never shames or pressures. They stop by themselves after a week away.
- Online payments are made by school admins, never by children.
12. When our own staff or systems are involved
If a concern is about a Techscholar employee or contractor:
- We aim to acknowledge the report on the same or next working day.
- We suspend that person's access to school data at once while we look into it, and tell the school.
- The DSL decides whether to refer to the police or the child protection authority, and does so without delay when a child may have been harmed. We do not wait for our own inquiry to finish.
- We keep a full record, and review what to change.
If the concern is a data breach or misuse of the platform that affects children, the Data Policy (section 12) also applies, and we tell the affected school at once.
13. Confidentiality, recording and sharing information
- Concerns are shared only with people who need to know to protect the child.
- Child safety overrides confidentiality. We share information without consent when a child is at risk of harm, with the school's safeguarding lead and, where required, the police or child protection authority.
- Safeguarding records are kept separately, with very limited access, and for longer than ordinary records: 7 years after the child leaves school, or longer if the law or a case requires.
- We never discuss a concern with anyone not involved, and never in public or on social media.
14. Monitoring and review
We review this policy at least once a year, after any serious concern or incident, and when the product or the law changes. Each review is recorded with the date and what changed. The audit record, notification logs and support messages help us notice misuse, and we will add the planned concern-reporting tools as soon as we can.
15. Contacts
- Emergency (immediate danger to a child): 112, or your nearest police station.
- Techscholar safeguarding lead: [to be confirmed], [to be confirmed].
- State child protection authority: [to be confirmed].
- Your school's safeguarding lead: ask the school office.