Why become a Barnes host family?

You may have considered hosting a student before but you’ve never been sure about living with a stranger in your home. What if the student doesn’t get along with your children, what if they keep you awake at night, what if you don’t enjoy their company, …

There are many reasons to decide not to take the risk but there are more reasons to decide to try hosting a student:
• Enjoy being part of the project in the school and local community
• Enjoy sharing your life and activities with a carefully selected teenager
• Make friends and connections abroad that can last a lifetime
• Be proud of your part in helping the school open up local teenagers’ eyes to opportunities whilst also promoting languages in the school
• Receive financial recompense whilst using your spare room in such a positive way

Barnes Host Families understands that it is a big decision to try hosting a student. We are a very supportive organisation looking after a limited number of carefully chosen students and host families. Without both parties being happy the relationship will not work and so Barnes Host Families takes great care to place the right type of student with the right type of host family.

We introduce students to host families around two months before the study period begins and encourage a close relationship between the parents and the host parents, We then use our experience to support the relationship as and when required throughout the study period.

If any issues arise they can usually be solved by helping the communication – we can act quickly as we always know everybody involved in the arrangement. However, if it really isn’t working out, we will never leave a host family with an unhappy situation in their home.

We can share that almost all our host families enjoy the experience and in recent years over 80% of Barnes’ host families wish to host another student.