Bright World Hub: Summer 2019

Jenny Rumble has been promoted to Director of Safeguarding and Operations, whilst Su Warren will hold the post of Director of Guardianships and Operations. Huge congratulations must go to both of them, who will join Lana, James, and Charlotte on the Senior Management Team. With this new structure in place, we can only see the company going from strength to strength.

These promotions have been possible due to the company's expansion. More students means we need another Guardianship Care Manager so that our high level of customer service is maintained. We are pleased to announce that Jack Wilkin has accepted the role, and will begin the lengthy training process next week. Jack has studied in boarding school overseas and therefore will really understand the journey that our students make when they come to the UK. His enthusiasm and personality really made him stand out at interview, and we are confident that he’s going to be a great addition to the team.

We have been delighted to see guardianship gain more attention recently at industry events. The BSA and AEGIS held their inaugural joint conference MAGIC, which was a huge step forward for the recognition of guardianship within the boarding school industry. Then came the BAISIS conference, where it was suggested that the National Minimum Standards for Boarding are currently under review, and new guidelines may be put forward to ensure that schools take more responsibility for the guardianship of their students. You can view our article about all these changes in Bright Eye Digital. 

We hosted our Annual Company Conference in June, which this year was more centred on safeguarding and service training for all of our staff. Our Local Coordinators travelled from all over the UK to attend, and our China Regional Team also travelled from Beijing to join us. The day was a huge success, and we are already looking forward to next year’s event, where we will be inviting our partner schools and agents to help us to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

Hundreds of half term and exeat weekend arrangements have been planned and carried out impeccably. The pro-active way in which our Guardianship Care Team works continues to ensure that all students in our care are properly looked after, no matter what their arrangements.

The conference proved to be a very useful day, once again. Each of our Guardianship Care Managers met with their corresponding Local Coordinators, to discuss their designated schools, students under their care and host family recruitment. It’s the communication between staff which again makes the programme run so smoothly and so faultlessly.

The team has continued to secure host families for students almost immediately after they have enrolled with us. Operationally, this has been hugely advantageous for us, and means that our Accommodation Managers, Fi and Leanne, very rarely face any headaches in terms of rooming. It’s also been working very well for our students, who gain great peace of mind that their host family has been arranged well in advance of their first school break.

New Director of Safeguarding & Operations, Jenny Rumble, has been working tirelessly to ensure we have sufficient host families across the UK. Host families are such a big part of what we do, so it’s crucial to have lots of friendly, right-minded families at our disposal. Jenny provided updates and training to all of our Local Coordinators at our recent conference, and is now already beginning to plan next year’s event.   

As mentioned earlier, our Sales, Marketing & Admissions Team has been working tenaciously to secure new guardianship enrolments for the next school year. On the Admissions side of things, Cory is busy trying to grow our placement numbers which are looking good so far.   

It was a pleasure to be joined in the office last month by Grace and Hai, our Chinese Regional Team. They were updated and trained on our new sales processes, which are now fully embedded and practiced by the whole Sales & Marketing Team.  

Cory attended ST Alphe Hong Kong in February, and is just about to return to Hong Kong for a partner agent’s education fair. Grace and Hai are about to embark on a 2 week tour of major Chinese cities to visit new and existing partners.

As well as all this, everyone has been extremely busy assisting in the development of our new website and branding. Naturally, this has been a huge task, and has involved a lot of hard work from everyone to pull it all together. We hope you all like our refined, crisp new look.

Until next time

The Bright World Team