General Guidelines For Host Families

  • Host families must make their own arrangements to collect and return their students from/to the arrival and departure points.
  • If a student has been allocated to you and for some reason you cannot host him/her, please let us know immediately as we must find a new host family for the student.
  • Students are to be given breakfast, a packed lunch, and dinner. On Sundays they will eat with the family at lunch time, this applies to school-going students only, as mini-stay students will be on excursion every day, Sundays included.
  • Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Juice, Tea or Coffee, Packed lunch: 4 Large Sandwiches (Cheese/Meat and salad), piece of fruit, crisps, snack bar and water. Dinner: Same as family.
  • Where possible students should eat with the family, do not leave them to eat alone. If their return times do not coincide with your own meal times, please sit down and speak with your student and give him/her an opportunity to practice their English with you, no matter what their level is.
  • Please do not give money to your student – they should have their own pocket money, and if they run out, they must speak to their leaders or parents so that they can be sent more money.
  • If a student falls ill, please contact the leader of his/her group. The leader will, if necessary, bring the student to the doctor.
  • Phone calls – if they request it, please allow the student to make a reverse charge call on arrival to let their parents know they have arrived. However, as most students have mobile phones with them this is not always necessary. Do not allow the students to have unsupervised access to you house phone as we cannot be responsible for the cost of long distance phone calls made by students.
  • Students must not be left alone in the house in the evenings or overnight, there must be an adult present in the house.
  • Students from IECT can be hosted in either a single room or sharing a twin-bedded room. However, not more than 2 people should share a room and overall there should be no more than three foreign students hosted by the family at any one time. An exception is made for mini stay students who are occasionally placed in groups of 4.
  • Because it is important that the student has an opportunity to practice speaking English, on summer language programmes, you may only welcome one student of each mother tongue (one French and one Spanish) Occasionally we have requests from friends who ask to be placed together, and in such circumstances you will be advised that it is acceptable to do so.
  • Students may share a bedroom with another student, provided they are of the same sex and approximate age and not of the same nationality. Students cannot share a double bed. There should be adequate space in the room for 2 beds and they must also have wardrobe/drawer space for their clothes as they cannot be expected to live out of a suitcase for 3 weeks.
  • Towels should be provided and it is expected that a reasonable amount of personal laundry will be done for the students on longer programmes while they are staying with you.

Guidelines for Mini-Stay Students

  • For younger students in particular (under 13 years) they should be brought to the meeting point each morning and collected each evening. If you live within a 10 minute walk of the meeting point, please make sure your student knows the route to and from the meeting point to your home if they will be walking themselves.
  • Mini Stay students are normally placed at least 2 per family so they will share a twin bedroom. There should be adequate space in the room for 2 beds and they must have a wardrobe/drawer for their clothes. Students cannot share a double bed.
  • Mini stay students are not allowed out in the evenings upon return from their tour.

Summer Stay Students

  • Summer students who are going to school should be shown how to get to and from school on arrival. Please ensure that your student knows the way home as it is very distressing for them if they get lost. Make sure your student has your name, address and phone number and takes it with them when they go out. It is helpful if you make a note of their mobile number also.
  • The majority of French students on summer language programmes are not allowed out again after dinner, unless they get special permission from their parents. In this case, the group leader will advise you of their curfew time.

For all students Accidental Damage/Insurance Claims

It is rare that damage is caused accidentally by students while staying in your home, but sometimes it does happen. Therefore, you must check your home, especially the student’s bedroom and bathroom BEFORE they leave the house on the last day, to verify that no damage has been caused that would lead to a claim. If you discover anything amiss, you must bring it to the attention of the student, their group leader and IECT immediately, as the student and leader must write and sign a report accepting responsibility before they leave.

Unless we have this report, we will not be able to follow up with the insurer on any claims for damage arising from a student’s stay.