HOSTING OVERSEAS STUDENTS – FOREST HILL
The UK is a brilliant place to live, and London a fantastic city. We promote this on a daily basis by encouraging those visiting Great Britain to stay with local host families in homestays, rather than visiting and staying just in dormitories or hotels. Because who wouldn’t want to experience life on this beautiful isle?
In particular, we deal with junior students (those aged 10-16) who are visiting the UK temporarily on a study exchange or programme from overseas. These young people are at a brilliantly impressionable time of their life and we believe that the experiences gained from foreign travel and really experiencing genuine life elsewhere rather than just visiting touristy sights can really shape them for the better.
HFS London are currently looking for new host families to help accommodate these international junior students all over London, but our priority neighbourhood right now is Forest Hill. If you live in the area and have a spare bedroom (or two or three or..!) that you’d be interesting in renting out to junior students, give us a call!
Why Forest Hill?
London can be a hectic and industrialised city, and we like to be able to offer our guests a slice of peace and humble family life in order to allow them to decompress and to best have the space to concentrate and digest their study programme.
Forest Hill is a leafy and safe family suburb with a great reputation, so it’s not difficult for us to persuade parents of junior students to stay here! At the moment, the demand for homestay accommodation in the area outweighs the supply and so we’re looking to expand the HFS London portfolio in the neighbourhood with new host families.
What is there to do in Forest Hill?
Junior students don’t travel alone to the UK as such but are usually supervised as part of a wider study group supplied by their educational institute, school or college. This group will often facilitate some extra-curricular activities in the evenings and weekends when the students are away from their study centre, but there will be times when the junior student is at home with their host family and so will need to be involved in their lives.
Whilst we don’t advocate the need for pricey experiences or activities in these ‘down-times’, there’s plenty that they can be involved with on a day-to-day basis. Take them to the supermarket, involve them in the preparation of family meals and show them around the local high street and parks. Everything is an experience to fresh eyes, and most of the junior students we accommodate won’t have visited the UK before – so this is your opportunity to involve them in the Forest Hill community and really show them what Britain has to offer. Make it about living in London, rather than just visiting. Hopefully you’ll stay in touch with your student guest for years to come!
Become a Host Family in Forest Hill
To embark on the application process to become a host family in Forest Hill, there are some basic home checks to be done and an Enhanced Homebased DBS check required. Full training is given and rents can be negotiated. Either call or email the HFS London team to find out more and get yourself registered – you’ll be ‘on the books’, ready to accept your first guest/s and earning additional income in no time.
