BSME Response to Regional Tensions

The impact of current regional events is being felt deeply across the BSME community and we know the immense pressure this is currently placing on school leaders, staff members, students and families. Our priority is to ensure that no member school navigates this period alone so we are also offering support to AoBSO, FOBISIA and COBIS member schools in the region, in addition to our own BSME members. 

BSME is in direct contact with UK officials at the FCDO to advocate for the needs of the international school sector and ensure accurate, timely guidance is shared across our network.

We strongly encourage all schools and families to remain guided by local Government advisories for the most up-to-date, country-specific security information.  

The UK's FCDO Travel Advice for your country will also provide:

  • Real-time security assessments and travel guidance
  • The ability to register your presence with UK authorities
  • Direct links to embassy support and emergency protocols
  • Access the latest FCDO advice for your country here and register your presence here

BSME was founded on the principle of collaboration, and it is in times of crisis that the strength of our community network is most evident. We remain fully committed to facilitating the collaborative sharing of resources, supporting staff wellbeing, and advocating on your behalf.

Here are some free resources that schools, teachers and parents may find useful at this time: 

 Webinars

  • Lumii are offering a free webinar designed specifically for educators navigating the current period of disruption offering honest, practical guidance on staying well, staying connected and keeping going. The webinar will be live at 16:00 (UAE) on Thursday, 27th March, Tuesday, 1st April and Thursday, 3rd April. Register your interest by email to laura@lumii.me
  • Insights Psychology is offering a series of FREE webinars until the 27th March on supporting children, teachers and parents including Practical Strategies for Responding to Trauma in Children (School-Based Approaches), Supporting Learning and Development During Home Learning, Parenting Through Chronic Stress: Staying the Parent You Want to Be and Change, Loss and Adjusting to the New Normal. You can find more details and sign up to attend for any of these webinars here
  • Early Excellence explore supporting young learners with remote learning in this pre-recorded webinar
  • What Works Dubai look at ways to support Early Years through distance learning in this webinar recording
  • Hear from Sue Asquith about practical strategies to support children’s emotional regulation, attention, and wellbeing while maintaining a healthy balance with technology in early years environments on 10th April 2026 at 19:00 (UAE) in this free webinar

Talking about current events

Safeguarding Resources

Wellbeing Resources

  • myHappymind have created a short video and a simple one-page guide with practical ways to support children during difficult world events. This can be accessed for free here
  • Komodo has provided Quick Guides for Navigating Unsettling Times, tailored to students, teachers, parents & caregivers, and SLT
  • Crisis Prevention Institute offers a guide with tips on developing resilient staff in schools. This can be viewed here
  • youHQ are offering free supportive wellbeing content to help students reflect, regulate and feel heard. Any schools in the region who currently do not use youHQ, but feel that additional structured check-ins and wellbeing resources would benefit their staff and students can access this here
  • Lumii has put together some great guides for supporting student (and parent) wellbeing during distance learning and one for supporting staff during distance learning too. 
  • Wellio is offering free access to wellbeing and PSHE lessons until the end of June. Topics include anxiety, emotional regulation, staying calm, help-seeking, and misinformation. Access is arranged manually, if you wish to avail this offer please click here

Online Learning Resources

  • Dr Neil Hopkin, Director of Education at Fortes Education, has published an insightful look at Hybrid Learning, AI and the Lessons We Almost Learned to help those in leadership at schools in the middle east avoid repeating the mistakes of Covid era distance learning
  • Classroom 200 by ABRSM - this is free for any teacher and contains 200 free lesson plans with resources and can be filtered by music subject/age group etc. If you search for "mental health" there are some lessons  that are suitable for online and in-person classes
  • The Teacher Hub is free for any teacher to sign up to. This platform is full of free courses, guidance and videos, and has a short course on "Improving your Mental Health"
  • If your learners are currently working remotely and you're looking for a way to keep them engaged, FlashAcademy's free, downloadable EAL holiday challenge can be used to help multilingual learners stay active with language learning at home. Usually used during school breaks, it’s simple to share with families and designed to keep pupils practising in short, manageable activities. You can access it for free here
  • Educake have offered BSME Member schools free access to some useful resources here and a revision pack available to download here 
  • Everway have offered free access to Read&Write until the end of June so students can continue to have access to literacy support tools throughout any distance learning. This short video shows the functionality of Read&Write which provides support for EAL learners. Access needs to be manually arranged so if you would like to avail of the offer, please contact c.gibson@everway.com directly 
  • Dodona transforms programming education into a feedback-rich experience that helps students learn smarter. As an online co‑teacher, it keeps teachers at the centre by automating routine tasks, and providing data-driven insights. Schools can simply log into the platform for free here
  • Unifrog offer a range of webinars and their recordings for senior students on a whole host of topics including an upcoming session on how to prepare for exams and tests. You can view the full range and sign up for individual webinars here
  • Revision Dojo are offering free Dojo Pro access to all M26 IB students in impacted countries for IB revision including full access to all features such as question banks and coursework tools
  • Squirrel Education is a fun, self-directed, digital learning platform that teaches young people about money management. They have created a free resource of simple money activities for families learning at home or stuck indoors while regional tensions persist and they're making the platfrom free until June, just contact ben@squirreledu.co for access. 

Offline Learning Resources

  • Pobble have 150 non-screen activities for Primary students to support learning away from screens. Download them for free here

Scheduling Tool

  • Ben Rothwell, Founding Principal at Victory Heights Primary School City of Arabia, has desgined a tool called 'Whereabouts' that enables schools to keep track of where students are based during this time of online learning. Find out more and contact Ben on LinkedIn here

Examination Updates

The safety and wellbeing of every individual within our member schools remains our highest priority. The BSME Team is available to provide direct assistance and we will continue to support our community through the days and weeks ahead. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us at any time via support@bsme.org.uk. 

View our Regional Update from BSME's CEO, Debra Forsyth
 
Listen to the Update on All Major Podcast Streaming Platforms
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Last Updated: 05/03/2026, 13:00PM GST

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