BRIGHT WORLD GUARDIANSHIPS

We don’t discourage students from going to stay with school friends or relatives in the UK and want to spend holidays with them. These arrangements can work really well and make for a more enjoyable break and can save overseas parents money.

However, experience has taught us that not all family friends and arrangements made by students are what they seem. Sometimes the adult taking responsibility for the student doesn’t really understand the responsibilities they are taking on. In other cases, they may not be who they say they are. Furthermore, following the release of the new National Minimum Standards for Boarding, Schools have new responsibilities when it comes to overseeing all educational guardianship arrangements.

WHAT ARE OUR RULES?

If students choose not to stay with a Bright World host family then they need to know what the rules are.

• We do not allow students to stay in University or college residences under any circumstances.

• We do not allow students to stay in hotels unless supervised and accompanied by an adult of 25 or over.

• We do not allow students to stay with anyone who does not agree to supervise the child and who is not 25 years old or over.

• We need to see the Photo ID of the supervising adult who will be looking after the child.

• We need to receive an Accommodation and Permission form from parents authorising the stay.

We then have an online, mobile-friendly feedback form that we send to students after they have stayed with a family friend or school friend. Just because we are not making the arrangement ourselves we still have duty of care to make sure the students have been happy.

“Making such checks on family friends may seem intrusive and unnecessary to some parents. However, I make no apology for asking these questions to ensure our students are safe. Our ID checks have, in the past, revealed that arrangements were far from appropriate, so it is well worth checking.”

LANA FOSTER, MANAGING DIRECTOR