Host families for language students

marvalous

Has anyone got any info about hosting foreign students? I live near Windsor so that would probably be where they would be taking classes but I cannot seem to find any info

Thanka

hypno06

We have hosted foreign students for the last five years. We do it in two very different ways though.....

Our local council has a "twinning" arrangement with an area in Norway. As part of this, 30 17 year olds come here to do their A levels before going back to Norway to continue their studies. We provide them with their "family" while they are here - 3 meals a day, a decent room to stay in, and involvement in everything the family do. So, if I expect my children to load the dishwasher, then my student would be expected to do so as well, and if we go out for a meal, or bowling etc, we always invite them too. In return, we get paid £128 per week. We arrange this through the education authority and Childrens Services because they are in mainstream UK education for a year. They arrive at the beginning of September and leave in June after exams. They go home to Norway for school holidays, although some stay here for the shorter half term weeks too.

The other students we host are short term and aged between 13 and 21, who are here for "summer school" type things of between 3 days and 3 weeks. These are really only looking for "bed and board" type arrangements so as long as we provide food and a place to sleep, we don't do a lot else, and don't expect any thing else from them. They have a very busy itinerary arranged by one of the local language schools and are generally studying English in the morning and have an activity in the afternoon and/or evening. These pay between £11 a day to £98 a week, and they often are happy for you to have several students staying with you if you have the room for them to bunk up. To find similar, have a look in the local yellow pages under "language schools" and just ring and have a chat. We found out about ours when they advertised for host families in the local paper.

Good luck - pm me if you want any more info!