Becoming a Homestay Host – Further Information
Please find below a more in-depth coverage on homestay details, with a navigation panel to the left. If you are still uncertain about anything after reading through, try visiting our FAQ, where we provide answers to even more questions (even very specific ones!). If you can’t find what you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us, either via our Contact Form, or by email (studentservices@melton-college.co.uk).
What is homestay accommodation?
Most of our students choose homestay accommodation. Homestay is the description used by our industry to describe living as part of a family. Many people still use the term ‘Host Family’ but this is thought by some to be misleading as it might lead students to expect mum, dad and 2-4 children! We place students with families, couples and single people. We mainly offer twin rooms, but we do also use triple rooms, particularly during the summer. There are a limited number of single rooms available. We place a maximum of two students per room and four students in any household.
There are certain limitations on what can be called homestay; the following definition is taken from the Accreditation Handbook 2016 and 2017:
Homestay accommodation: the hosts treat the student as a full member of the household, eating together and sharing the common living areas; no more than four students will be accommodated in homestay accommodation at any one time (homes accommodating more than four adult students should be described as private home accommodation).
No more than two students can share a bedroom. This is a rule of British Council Accreditation (discussed below). The exception is when we have asked and received permission in advance from the students’ parents for them to share a triple room.
Who are the students?
All our students come to Melton College to learn English. This means that they have an English language ability ranging from very weak to very strong. We also have students from a wide range of countries and from a wide age range, from 11 on our junior courses to over 80 on our ‘Gold’ courses. However, the average age during the year is about 22 and during the summer about 16.
Minimum requirements for homestay accommodation
- A clean safe environment (compliance with safety regulations)
- Single room for adult students (unless sharing with another Melton College student)
- Adequate heat and light
- Space to hang/store clothes
- A reasonable amount of washing (but not ironing)
- A desk to work at in their bedroom or a table elsewhere in the house in a quiet area
- Reasonable access to toilet/washing facilities (bath or shower daily)
- Breakfast and a substantial, cooked evening meal.
- Reasonable mealtimes. Meals eaten with host(s)
- Packed lunch Monday-Saturday for students on Homestay Extra only.
- Lunch at the weekend (or packed lunch) for all students
- A change of towels and bed linen weekly
- The opportunity to chat and practice English, especially at meal-times
Students over the age of 25 can request a private bathroom this may not necessarily be en-suite.
Expectations
What your student expects from you
- A room matching or exceeding the minimum requirements highlighted above
What you should expect from the student
- Punctuality at agreed mealtimes
- Politeness
- To keep their bedroom in a reasonable state
- To only invite friends round with your permission
- That they will only store and prepare food with your agreement
- Not to use the telephone without permission
- Students over 18 to return at night at a reasonable time or to be quiet and responsible
- Younger students to obey College curfews. Students with a Group may have a curfew set by their leader.
- To observe any house rules, including those to protect young children (stair gates etc.)
- That they will keep any medicine or dangerous substances out of reach of young children
- That their arrival and departure will be at an acceptable time (05:00 –01:00)
- That they will not make you feel pressured into providing additional services (e.g. ironing)
- To pay for any damage
- That they will not ask you to lend them money or to look after their valuables
What you can expect from the College
- Accurate and regular payment for hosting students
- Unless we have given you notice that a student may fail to arrive, one week’s payment in lieu
- Up to one week’s payment, if a student moves/leaves or is moved without reasonable cause
- A 24-hour help-line for any problems
- Significant information about the student known by the College
- An honest appraisal of the likelihood of receiving student
Popular Homestay Dates
Melton College York, is open all year except for two weeks over Christmas. However, the majority of our students take courses either over Easter or between mid-June and October. It is most unlikely that the College would use a room during the year that was not available for a substantial part of June, July, August and September.
Additional Payments
Below is a more extensive breakdown on what the college pays per student.
| Per Night | Per Week | |
| Accommodation | 27.00 | 175.00 |
| Special Diet* | 4.00 | 28.00 |
| Private Bathroom** | 8.00 | 56.00 |
| School Run*** (Mon-Sat) | 8.00 | 48.00 |
* Does not include vegetarians. Payment is for Lactose Intolerant or Celiac
** The student has exclusive use of a bathroom including toilet, wash basin and shower or bath for the duration of their stay (this is for students over 25 only).
*** Hosts deliver and collect younger students to and from College every week day and occasionally to and from weekend activities.
Payment is made at the end of the week (Friday) directly into your bank account. Please note often groups arrive midweek and stay until the following week. For example:- arrive Tuesday depart Tuesday of following week. You will be paid on the Friday for five (5) nights = £125.00 then the following Friday for two (2) nights = £50.00
Who are the students?
All our students come to Melton College to learn English. This means that they have an English language ability ranging from very weak to very strong. We also have students from a wide range of countries and from a wide age range, from 11 on our junior courses to over 80 on our ‘Gold’ courses. However, the average age during the year is about 22 and during the summer about 16.
Whilst studying at Melton College we expect all of our students to uphold British values these include
- Democracy
- The rule of law
- Individual liberty
- Tolerance
- Mutual respect for different faiths and beliefs.
- Melton College will not accept students expressing views which are discriminatory towards other students, members of staff, hosts and their families and the general public.
Many of you will also take students from other schools in the City. We do ask that, if we offer you a student, you inform us if there will be any other students in the house at the same time. Our students cannot share a room with a student from another school. If our student is under 18, they cannot be in the same house as a student from another school without our first getting the agreement of our student’s parents.
Can I choose which type of student to host?
As a homestay provider you can select students on a number of different criteria. But remember, the more restrictive you are, the fewer students we will be able to place. The main criteria are:
- Age - We divide students into 3 groups: Under 18, 18 and over and Over 50s.
- Gender - You can choose to host male students, female students or both.
- Diet - You can accept or refuse students with special diets. You can choose to accept vegetarians (even if you are not vegetarian).
- Smokers - You can choose not to accept smokers. It is worth commenting that some teenage students are not completely honest about their smoking habits – particularly if they have completed the application form in front of Mum and Dad!
Care of juniors
Child protection is a major concern for everyone. In 2002 the Government introduced the Disclosure and Barring Service, a scheme for checking the background of people who wish to work with children and vulnerable adults. The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps us make safer decisions and prevents unsuitable people from hosting children. All people wishing to host:
To ask the homestay provider and all adults in the house to undertake a DBS check.
We do appreciate that you place trust in the College in accepting students from us. Please be assured that we take steps to ensure that students are suitable guests, particularly in homes with children.
If you do have a current DBS check please do make sure that you inform us in the ‘You and Your Household’ form
How do we place students?
As part of their application, our students provide us with a number of pieces of information about themselves.
In addition, we give them the opportunity to make specific requests. We also ask you about your household and enter the information you give us on the form ‘About You and Your Family’ onto our system to help give us a good match.
We will send you an email saying we would like to place a student with you. This will give a few details about the student including whether he/she is vegetarian, has medical problems, etc, together with date of birth and arrival in York date.
If you are happy to take the student, then please reply to the email or telephone the College. If you wish to decline, the process is the same, but we would ask that you respond quickly so that we can find another suitable host. If you have to decline because you will be unavailable, please let us know which days will be affected then we can update our system. Please contact the College within three days of receiving the email. If we do not hear from you after three days, we may offer the student to a different host.
Nearer the time of the student’s arrival we will send you another email giving details of precisely when the student will arrive in York and either delivered to your home or where/if you will be required to collect.
At a later date (probably during the student’s stay) we will send details by email of the students departure.
Student arrival and departure
Rooms should be available from 1200 on the Sunday before the student’s course until 1200 on the Sunday after their course.
Most students aged 18 and older will make their own way to your house, usually by taxi. Some students arrive in York by train or by taxi from the airport.
Some students, including nearly all students under 18, will need to be collected from Holgate Park on arrival and delivered to Holgate Park on departure.
If you are happy for us to do so, we are quite happy to help co-ordinate car sharing for hosts living in the same area. This is especially beneficial with students arriving as part of a group. If you make your own sharing arrangements, you must let the College know in advance. If you arrange for a family member to collect a student, you must let us know. We can’t send students away with people we do not have information about.
If you are unable to collect or deliver a student, then we can arrange for them to be delivered or collected by taxi. The cost of this will be £10 per journey. If you would prefer to arrange the taxi yourself, please make sure we are aware of your plans.
For any students arriving at Holgate Park in a group it is essential that we can contact you on the day of arrival so that we can inform you of delays or early arrivals. This will save you time and ensure that you are there to greet your student.
Some students may be delivered and collected from your home. When you have received arrival or departure information please ensure you are at home to greet your student and on departure to say goodbye.
Evening and Sunday Events
Melton College requires that students aged 17 years and under inform their host when they are leaving the house during the evening and on Sunday.
Students under 18 on the Summer Course and all students on the Junior Courses must go on all excursions.
If they are ill or if you know they are going to be late, please ring the teacher leading the excursion on the excursion mobile number, on the back cover.
Students over 18 have agreed to return at night at a reasonable time or to be quiet and to be responsible.
Students under 18 must return by the Curfew times set by the College. Please note, these times cannot be changed by the student, their parents, relations, agents, teachers. Group leaders may set earlier curfews!
If a student, over the age of 18 does not return when expected there is nothing you can do unless you have a good reason to believe they may be in trouble. If this is the case, then ring the member of staff on duty. If they have not returned by the following morning, or if you are certain that they planned to return that evening and you know their itinerary, ring the member of staff on duty. If the student is under 18 please ring the member of staff on duty if they have not returned by the curfew time. However, please note this is not a curfew extension!
Students aged 17 years and under.
Please ensure that they complete the form (copy attached) whenever your student leaves your home during the evening or on Sunday. Students are briefed on arrival at Melton that they will be required to do this. Note that students aged 15 years and under must give you the name of at least one other student that they will be with. Normal Melton College curfew times for young students continue to apply on a Saturday and Sunday. Students 13 years and younger must return for their evening meal.
Students leaving the York area during their stay.
Students aged 17 years and under may not leave York unless you have been advised by Melton College that this has been authorised. Should your student advise you that they plan to leave York, and you are not aware of permission having been given, please remind them of this College policy. Please contact the College (either on the college number during working hours, or the Emergency phone at other times).
Contact Numbers.
All students aged 17 years and under should give you their mobile phone number; please ensure that students also have a number that they can use to contact you.
Students travelling with group
Many students come to Melton College as part of a group. The group is almost always led either by a leader employed by a travel agency or by the students’ teacher, or both. All of the arrangements in this handbook are agreed in advance with the agency or school as part of the booking process. They cannot be changed by leaders or teachers, once in the UK. In practical terms, this means that the leader or teacher cannot, for example, change the curfew times without consulting the college first or ask you to provide additional meals etc. Some groups are either on special programmes or have additional activities. When we have arranged these in advance, we will tell you about them, when we offer you the student. Additional arrangements made by the leader or teacher must be made with the knowledge and agreement of the College (please contact us if you suspect this is not the case!). If a group leader or teacher makes arrangements which involve you collecting the students, then we will be very grateful if you do. However, you are not obliged to do so and, should the student need to come home by taxi, then you are not expected to cover the costs. Where additional plans are made, we will try to contact you by email and/or text and send a note home with the student. Our younger students are the same as teenagers the world over and many notes home leave the College but fail to arrive! It is always worth asking students if they have a note to hand over.
Melton College contacts
Office: (0900~1700 Monday ~ Friday) 01904 622250
Out-of-hours emergencies: 0770 259 6819
Head of Student Services/Accommodation Manager: 07780 708 678
Excursion Mobile: 0783 789 0626
Email: studentservices@melton-college.co.uk
How to apply
How do I apply?
Easy! Follow this link, complete the forms and we will come and visit you, have a look at the room(s), answer any questions you may have, and go through the paperwork.
If you want to ask any questions first, please contact our Accommodation Manager, Denise by calling 01904 622250 or emailing studentservices@meltoncollege.co.uk.
FAQ
If you are still uncertain about anything, try visiting our FAQ, where we provide answers to even more questions (even very specific ones!). If you can't find what you're looking for, don't hesitate to get in contact with us, either via our Contact Form, or by email.
