Our Guiding Principles
"An evaluation must be relevant, credible and impartial."
Dr Margaret ChanDirector-General, WHO
When we started Schoolmait, we established five core principles to guide our efforts. Here are the principles and some of the decisions and actions we have taken so far:
1. Our evaluation must be relevant, credible and practical
We continuously review new research and update our methodology to ensure it is evidence-based and up to date. We also consult with experts on a regular basis about how to improve and further validate our questionnaires and analysis practices.
We understand the value of teachers' and staff time and accordingly took upon ourselves a goal to minimise the time spent on this task of evaluating wellbeing, allowing educators to focus on their primary responsibilities.
2. We must employ an ethics-driven approach
Data concerning young people deserves special attention. We are committed to collecting and using data in a responsible, fair and ethical manner and to go beyond GDPR's requirements to ensure the privacy of our users.
While our surveys are not anonymous, we only collect a minimal amount of personal data as possible. Accordingly, we do not gather students' full names or any other identifying information, except for a designated alias provided by the school. The connection between an alias and an individual student is solely kept at school and we do not have access to that information.
We inform students that school staff may access their responses for the purpose of supporting their academic growth.
We provide the option for participants to skip any question they do not wish to answer.
If we share data with external parties, such as for research purposes, we will take the necessary steps to anonymise the data prior to sharing it in order to protect the privacy of the participants.
3. We are all citizens of the world
We aim to to operate in an environmentally responsible way and use resources efficiently.
We pledge to dedicate 1% of our profits to promote wellbeing in schools in less fortunate countries.
As global citizens, we have proudly aligned our business model with at least 4 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
4. We think data protection
We place a high priority on data security and take strong measures to protect information and prevent unauthorised access.
We use Amazon AWS for hosting our systems and data. Amazon’s strong track record for providing secure infrastructure services makes it a reliable choice for hosting data.
We have implemented SSL encryption to secure communication with our servers.
Our data retention policy of 3-4 years allows enough time to access important information while reducing the risk of data breaches.
We conduct regular security assessments and reviews.
5. Wellbeing matters for everyone, including ourselves
At Schoolmait, we believe that promoting wellbeing starts with ourselves.
We aim to create a diverse environment where everyone can think big, have fun and do good.
We embrace "work from anywhere" as a strength.
We build products we believe in and we focus on positive long-term impacts.