French Exchange Student funds

Mupette

We receive our French visitor a week Saturday, have de- cluttered, have done everything we can to make the home nice, clean, tidy etc..

Then a thought came to mind, a bit silly maybe, by all means not money grabbing.

I'm on benefits, disabled not lazy. DS gets free school meals, and i pay for his bus fare to school and back, normally this would be about £5.00 a day if i paid for the school meals too.

the student will be attending the first week of term with DS after Easter and thats going to cost me £25 for the student on top of the busfare for DS.

I did ring up LA school meals department and was told they would not be able to help me, but if i rang the school maybe they have a fund for such things and said it wasn't a stupid question to ask (i said sorry for asking such a stupid question)

Rang the school and they said no.

Anyone had any experiences of this, aka on benefits and having an exchange student who will need money to attend school for meals and bus?

shelleylou

Will the extra money you require not be saved when your child visits France?

Mupette

shelleylou wrote: »

Will the extra money you require not be saved when your child visits France?

Well I could see it like that, but being on benefits is a stretch as it is, so each day/week money wise is accounted for.

As it is I've had to scrimp and scrape so we can afford day trips that we would normally not do due to lack of money.

They will be on school holidays in France when he goes to them in July. (they break up at the beginning of July apparently)

Each child is to take pocket money, but i wouldn't expect our exchange student to hand over his money so that he can get a bus and have school dinners, that would not be fair at all.

On the French exchange website (French version) the parents are given expenses, but nothing has been said to us English parents about this at all.

Chinkle

It does seem rather unfair when you are trying to further Ango-French relations. Did the school make any suggestions of who else you could try? Could they not approach the student's own school and ask them to fund his expenses. If not, maybe an email to his/her parent's although I can see this is a rather delicate matter, but if you explain that in the English system there is no expenses for parents and while you are happy to accommodate and feed him/her at home there are out of pocket expenses that you will incur while they attend school.

Mupette

I think it will be a bit late (and i think cheeky) to ask the exchange student's school for money, Ds breaks up from school today, i feel it would also be cheeky to ask his parents too.

I think i will have to wait until i pick student up at the airport, we have to book in with the company organising it all (not school exchange) and see what they can do.

Raspberry_Ripples

I'm not getting at you by saying this - it's a genuine question, but why did you agree to the exchange in the first place if you knew that money is tight?

You must have known you were going to be out of pocket one way or another??

Or am I just an insensitive git? (in which case I'll apologise now!)

Mupette

Raspberry_Ripples wrote: »

I'm not getting at you by saying this - it's a genuine question, but why did you agree to the exchange in the first place if you knew that money is tight?

You must have known you were going to be out of pocket one way or another??

Or am I just an insensitive git? (in which case I'll apologise now!)

lol

I agreed to do this for my son, to help him with his French, plus i do try and let him have a chance at doing things that i didn't/ couldn't do, at the time of it originally being organised, i was off sick at work, and was hoping to return, events happened and unfortunately unable to work for the foreseeable future. payments for the exchange was in parts so i was able to put the money aside each time. just a bit difficult being a single parent and on benefits (not whinging honest, just struggling)

msb5262

Hello OP,
In your position I would make a personal (and confidential) approach to the chair of your school PTA or friends of the school or whatever it's called, and explain the situation.
I would be surprised if they were unwilling to help, particularly if they have any idea of just how low your income has to be if your child gets free school meals. I'm sure at my school or my daughter's school, a parent in this position would get help through the school itself from an official or unofficial hardship fund.
Don't be embarassed or ashamed - if the money's not there, you can't provide it. If all else fails, you could ask the school to let you pay the lunch money in instalments.
HTH
MsB

floss2

I agree with msb5262 and would also write to the head of the school, as it is quite likely that the facts of your personal situation have not been considered and the person you spoke to has given the "No" as a stock answer. I have been in receipt of funding from a hardship fund for my sons while I was a very skint single parent.

Bon chance!!

saving-mad

I had the same inquiry with our Spanish student a few weeks ago.
mine was more that the teacher this end said she would OK it with the school bus companies for students to travel with their exchange partners, and as we used the service bus (there are no school buses to where we live) this costs me £2.50 return a day i asked if there was funding for the student and was told it came from his Spanish school and it did, he came with £10 for the 4 days.

I wouldn't normally ask but i was cross that anyone with free school meals did the exchange for £10 and because we both work we had to pay £300,
our wages are probably less than the benefits others receive.....STOP ME BEFORE I GO OFF ON ONE!!!

bestpud

saving-mad wrote: »

I had the same inquiry with our Spanish student a few weeks ago.
mine was more that the teacher this end said she would OK it with the school bus companies for students to travel with their exchange partners, and as we used the service bus (there are no school buses to where we live) this costs me £2.50 return a day i asked if there was funding for the student and was told it came from his Spanish school and it did, he came with £10 for the 4 days.

I wouldn't normally ask but i was cross that anyone with free school meals did the exchange for £10 and because we both work we had to pay £300,
our wages are probably less than the benefits others receive.....STOP ME BEFORE I GO OFF ON ONE!!!

But that's a fairly cheap holiday for your child, surely?