Cambridge Student Experience

BECOME A HOST FAMILY

As well as hosting foreign students at school, families can also decide to become a host family to a foreign student looking for an authentic cultural experience.

Opening up your home and becoming a host family is a unique and rewarding experience for the whole family. It gives families a chance to host a student, make new friends and appreciate learning and sharing differences in cultures and languages.

What’s more, you’ll be a key player in helping your host student experience all of the educational and personal benefits mentioned earlier. Welcoming an international student into your home will allow them to experience maximum immersion by living as ‘locals’, and give them the opportunity to experience and learn about British culture first-hand.

Meanwhile, you and your family will have the chance to learn about a different culture and meet new people, all without leaving your home.

Once you’ve decided you wish to host foreign students in your home, you then need to decide what you can realistically offer your host student and whether you can provide the right environment for them.

CSE will require you to provide the following for any student that stays in your home:

  • A warm, clean, furnished bedroom with a comfortable, standard bed; wardrobes; drawers and a study desk
  • Access to common areas in the house such as kitchen, living room, dining room, garden, etc.
  • Access to laundry service or facilities so students can launder their own clothes

  • Fresh bed linen and clean towels weekly

  • Up to three balanced, nutritious, varied meals per day (in some cases, where a breakfast-only or half-board situation is arranged, hosts may not have to provide the full three)
  • Advise students on the route via public transport and the surrounding neighbourhood.

  • Provide a warm, welcoming, safe environment and treat the student like family

  • Clean the students’ room and communal areas of the home weekly
  • Keep the school/organisation informed of problems the student may be experiencing
  • Respect the student’s cultural background and be sensitive to their particular needs
  • Encourage the student to practice their English speaking at home
  • Provide adequate bathing facilities so students can shower or bathe daily.
  • Provide exposure to the cultural and social environment of the home and neighbourhood
  • Provide assistance and encouragement with furthering their knowledge of the English language
  • Include the student in any family events or activities, etc. days out, parties or occasions etc.
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We offer the journey of a lifetime.

An adventure that reveals the best in people, and enables you to make lifelong connections that will change the way you see the world.