Accreditation

Accreditation Requirement

All new member schools must gain formal accreditation within two years of joining BSME. You may do this via one of the BSO approved inspectorates:

Accreditation Approach

Our accreditation approach is guided by the following core principles:

  1. Independent, Trusted Evaluation: Accreditation must be conducted by one of the three approved external inspectorates, who are recognised and quality-assured by the Department for Education (DfE) and monitored by Ofsted. This ensures integrity, transparency, and consistency in the evaluation process.
     
  2. Focused on Continuous Improvement: The purpose of accreditation is to drive school improvement. As such, the frameworks and processes we use are designed to support growth, reflection, and high-impact outcomes for students and staff.
     
  3. Collaborative Excellence: We actively collaborate with similar membership organisations that share our commitment to educational excellence and aim to enhance value and support for our member schools.


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Accreditation Options

Option A
BSO Accreditation 

British Schools Overseas (BSOs) are schools that have undergone inspection under the Department for Education (DfE)-endorsed framework, which is quality assured by Ofsted. The BSO framework is currently the only international school accreditation formally approved by the DfE.

BSO schools:
  • May market their school as a "BSO school" and display the BSO logo.
  • Are listed on the DfE website with a Get Information About Schools (GIAS) number, along with their inspection reports.
  • Can hire and induct Early Career Teachers from the United Kingdom.
  • Can fast-track Assessment Only route graduates for Induction.
  • Are eligible to attend the annual Association of British Schools Overseas (AoBSO) conference.

To book a BSO inspection, contact the DfE approved inspectorate of your choice.
Option B
Approved Local Framework + External Validation

This option reflects our commitment to working collaboratively with Ministries of Education (MoEs) that offer robust school evaluation frameworks and share BSMEs commitment to high-quality education standards.

Where BSME Principals agree that a local MoE inspection framework meets the necessary standards of rigour and educational quality, BSME requires that framework to be ‘tested’ by a Department for Education (DfE) approved inspectorate. This ensures its comparability to recognised frameworks such as the British Schools Overseas (BSO) standard.

The UAE Inspection Framework is one such example of a robust, government-endorsed model. Schools based in the UAE, which have been rated Good or better under this framework, may meet our accreditation requirements by completing a ‘Britishness top-up’ inspection.

This top-up inspection will be based on the Penta International Framework: Standards and Criteria for assessing the extent to which a school aligns with the characteristics of a British international education.
Option C
Other Approved Membership Organisation Accreditation + External Validation 

BSME’s collaboration with membership organisations such as CIS and COBIS, both of which offer robust school evaluation frameworks and share BSME’s standards for high-quality education is reflected in Option C.

Under this option, schools that already hold accreditation from CIS or COBIS Patron’s Accreditation (but not Compliance) are required to complete an additional evaluation on a BSME Top-Up Framework.

The purpose of this evaluation varies slightly depending on the accreditation body:
  • For schools accredited by CIS, the focus is on assessing the element of Britishness.
  • For those accredited by COBIS, the requirement helps meet the principle of externally validated accreditation.

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