Child Protection through Education © for international schools
Building on her successful independent work with local German international schools, Susie March founded the consulting business in 2011. The demand for CSE/PSHE services quickly spread to other German and Austrian schools.
2014 was the beginning of significant upheaval across the world as trusted school organisations, both locally and globally, needed to examine their approach to child protection. There was extreme urgency to putting in place new recruitment procedures, radically updating old ones and changing the mindset of how abuse cases are handled.
In parallel, there was also a demand to look at the in-school practices around CSE and PSHE. In many schools these topics were diminished, and in some cases non-existent. Internationally, it was felt students and young people needed to be better prepared for the modern world – for example, better able to personally address cyber-bullying, low self-esteem or peer-on-peer abuse. Additionally, the content and delivery methods should reflect the positive aspects of developing into an adult and enjoying a healthy and rewarding sexual relationship.
In this same period, it became increasingly obvious that the LBGT-Q discussion was, at best, poorly covered or, for cultural reasons, not even mentioned.
The business worked with various organisations, directly or indirectly connected with the international school community, to take best practices from around the world and incorporate them into the context of the international school.
Working with CIS, in 2015, Susie March Consulting published a paper entitled “Protecting Children by Developing an Effective Sex and Relationship Program in International Schools”.
From 2016 the business expanded again to cover more global regions and also address the demand for helping drive strategic change with the schools. Leadership teams wanted to quickly and efficiently move their faculty and administrators to a more modern and inclusive CSE curriculum - in particular, adopting a Whole School Approach, regardless of the social and religious norms of the school and its host community.
As the demand for services increased, the need to expand the team of consultants also grew. Susie March Consulting uses the services of leading independent consultants focussed on all the aspects of CSE – from Health Office practises, curriculum change, content development to LBGT-Q specialists.
Currently, Susie March Consulting is working with a growing list of over 50 leading schools across Asia, the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
