What is expected of me as a host family?

The basic requirements are that you can provide a comfortable room for the student, with bed, storage for belongings and a place in the home to study away from distractions, plus breakfast and dinner daily and lunch on non-school days. Barnes will also perform a DBS check on each adult living in the house and will ask for a reference.

However, in addition to the above, we are looking for families that truly want to integrate a student into their family life. We get to know our students well and so we want them to live in a happy family environment where they will be supported. In return the host family will then get a lot back from the student.

Students live just like a local teenager and so they will make friends and join in with activities in the local area. We are not expecting a family to be their tour guide whilst in England, rather that they just feel part of family life and perhaps on the occasion you welcome them on a family day out.

Students go through all different challenges living away from home in a different culture speaking a different language. We hope our host families will be very supportive to allow them to grow in confidence whilst in England.

Barnes has been looking after students in host families since 1975 and so there is always a lot of support if it is ever needed, so you should never feel you are on your own if your student is going through a difficult patch.

So basically we are looking for a safe environment in a family that takes an active interest in their student, which means that hosting a student can suit all different types of families.