Jodie Godliman

As a guardianship service to international students, we are fortunate to be part of many international celebrations. Chinese New Year is one of the largest festivals which is celebrated by many of our students and their families.

We often ask our host families why they choose to host international students in their home and frequently the answer is relating to the culture exchange between the student and the family. Both sides get to share their language, traditions and food and learn from the time they spend together.

Chinese New Year often falls at a time when schools are on exeat weekend, therefore students are lucky enough to spend their celebrations with their host families.
Last weekend we enjoyed hearing from host families and students about their new year festivities.

Everyone of our students are assigned a Pippa’s Area Manager who is local to them and their school. Their Area Manager will get to know them personally, offer support and guidance throughout the year in both school and personal matters. Eden, Pippa’s Chinese Liaison Officer, is also always on hand to provide translation support between families, Area Managers, Schools and host families.

Our students are further supported by our amazing network of host families who also go above and beyond for the students, helping them as they would their own children.

Most recently, Cherry a student at Badminton School, had to attend an appointment at the Visa Office in London.  Trilby, one of our host families, was kind enough to escort Cherry to the appointment to ensure she travelled safely and was successful with her visa appointment.

They set off at 6:25am, by train, with Andrew, Trilby’s husband on standby in the car in case there were any train delays or cancellations. They arrived at the Visa Office on time but unfortunately there were some issues with the paperwork. Trilby stepped in and persuaded the Visa Officer to give them another appointment later that day, so that they had the opportunity to sort out the missing documents. With the help of Trilby, Cherry’s Mum and Charlie (Cherry’s Pippa’s Area Manager) all of the missing documents were obtained and printed in the nick of time to attend their second appointment which was successful.

They finally caught the 4pm train back to Bristol where Andrew was waiting to drive Cherry back to school.

“Thank you for your help as always, you arranged all the steps came to pick up my daughter at 6:25 in the morning , and then arrived at the visa center on time.There were many situations, Triby helped Cherry communicate throughout the whole process, when my daughter’s bank statement was incomplete, Trilby accompanied her all the way to make copies of the documents and to print out the statement at HSBC. WIthout your effort and assistant, Cherry can’t operate in visa centre in success this time.  Eden and Charlie both assisted me during the process. I really appreciate your team’s responsible attitude, every member of your team is so excellent . Thank you for all.”

Chen, Cherry’s Mum

It was a very stressful and exhausting day for all involved, but thanks to the quick thinking and response from Trilby and Charlie, it had a successful outcome. Trilby and Cherry sent us this photo of them feeling happy and relieved on the train back home.

It will give away my age immediately, but it barely seems like 25 years since my Mum (Pippa) realised that Thai children attending The Elms School, where she was Head Matron, needed a kind host family to take care of them at exeats and weekends. As all entrepreneur-led businesses will know, the family was involved from the outset, and as a teenager I really enjoyed having international students to stay.

And here we are 25 years on, so much has changed, but actually the important things, have stayed the same.

When Mum set up Pippa’s Guardians she was communicating by letter and by fax; she often needed the services of an interpreter and children had very little contact with their parents. There was no AEGIS, no regulation at all.

Whilst technology has changed how we work, what we do now in 2022 is essentially the same as it was when Mum began, and how we do it makes us the successful, highly reputable company we continue to be.

I asked Mum recently what she felt the most important deeply ingrained principles are that makes Pippa’s the success it is today. I wasn’t surprised by her answers, but I share them with you because it is a useful time to reflect on our core values.

Firstly, she said: “you’ve got to be interested in children and like them”. Our child-centred approach continues to this day, our Area Managers know all of the children in their care, visit them regularly, organise all of their travel and match them to carefully selected host families, who in many cases become their regular “home from home”, driver and chaperone for the whole of their time in UK education.  When our Area Managers are selecting host families as well as the many checks we undertake, their instinctive response to the question “Would I want my child to stay here?” is as important as inspecting the home.

Secondly, that “safety and security are fundamental”. When Mum began there was no regulation, she craved it so much that she began to meet other people offering similar guardianship services to share best practice, and out of this AEGIS was born. The 300+ standards that gold accredited guardian companies like Pippa’s adhere to mean that the utmost attention is paid to the safety of the arrangements and environment that we place the children in.

Thirdly, “there can never be enough kindness”. Our students and their families have made a massive undertaking to have their children educated far from home, and we never forget how hard that can be. All of our undertakings are done with the best interests of the child in mind, as well as with kindness in our heart. The little touches, the arrival meetings, gifts, the photos, birthday cakes, trips to the dentist, checking in with the host family are what make us unique.

So, whilst WhatsApp has replaced fax, email has replaced letters and Eden Yang is now our in-house interpreter, the fundamental service is what Mum set up 25 years ago: we look after our students kindly and securely.

Here’s to the next 25 years.

Last week we celebrated Pippa’s Area Manager Caroline’s five year anniversary as a valuable part of the Pippa’s Guardians team.

Caroline joined Pippa’s Guardians in 2017 as the Area Manager with responsibility for Cheltenham Ladies College. She is a graduate of the Queen Elizabeth School of Physiotherapy in Birmingham and has spent most of her career in paediatric physiotherapy, specialising in neurology and more recently neonatology.

Our Managing Director Ben and Caroline went for lunch to toast her achievements in the last five years and look forward to many more.

Pippa’s Guardians has a wonderful network of caring and supporting host families across the country who provide a home away from home for our students during their school breaks.

Many of our host families form lifelong friendships with our pupils and their families. The benefits these relationships afford pupils, both practically and
emotionally, is often remarked upon by schools, families and pupils alike.

As the UK still remains a popular destination for international students, and many UK families have noticed an increase in the cost of living, more families have considered becoming a host family.  The Times newspaper recently interviewed a Pippa’s host family about their experience.

To read the full and original article, visit: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/what-i-wish-i-knew-before-taking-in-a-lodger-strcfp33k

“If the idea of cohabiting with a stranger doesn’t appeal, there are variations on the lodger theme to explore. Having raised two sons, Polly and Jon Horton did not expect to find themselves parenting a tweenager again. But with a room going spare in their four bedroom cottage ten miles from Worcester, a need to bolster their finances while maintaining some private family time has led to them taking an alternative route.

They signed up with an agency that specialises in finding host families for international boarding school students who cannot get home for exeat weekends and holidays. Within weeks the couple, both 50, and their two sons, 19 and 16, found themselves sending the Easter holidays with two brothers from Hong Kong, aged 11 and 14. They were paid £52 a child per day amounting to more than £700 a week.

It was actually really lovely says Polly, a small business mentor. We had spent so much time just the four of us during the lockdowns that it was great to have some new people – we had a lot of dun.

Before being accepted as hosts by Pippa’s Guardians, Polly and Jon, who runs the independent wine merchant Addison Wines, had a home check and interview, as well as a criminal record check.

The agencies are desperate for people, and the money is really good, Polly says, Where we live is too rural to have a regular lodger, and we didn’t want people all the time. It was a perfect in between.”

So successful was the Easter stay that the Hortons are now going to be hosting the brother regularly, and have also been taken on to host a pair of Thai siblings, who will be staying for their first exeat weekend this month.

Naturally taking on teenagers is a responsibility – meals must be cooked, bedtimes agreed, bouts of homesickness appeased. We were told very clearly that they are part of the family and have to slot in with what you are doing. Polly says, At weekends they they are tired and just happy to chill but at Easter we did arrange for days out and a visit to London, which they loved.

As well as being enjoyable, the couple’s new side gig is easing the impact of the cost of living crisis on their family. Jon sells wine to restaurants and he is terrified about what (the crisis) is going to do to the business. Polly says, we have an oil tank at the house and goodness knows how much it will cost us next time we fill it up. We have empty space and we need to monetise it.”

NEED TO KNOW:

• If you earn less than £7,500 per year from your lodger(s) it will be tax free under the government’s Rent a Room scheme. The threshold applies even if you let a room for less than a full year. If you earn more than £7,500 per year from a room you must pay tax on the excess.
• To qualify the room must be within your main home and be furnished. The furniture must comply with fire safety regulations and you ned to have any gas appliances checked annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
• Before taking in a lodger check with your mortgage company that it is allowed and make sure that your home insurance covers the new arrangement.
• Be aware that if you live alone you will lose the 25 per cent single person discount on your council tax (unless your tenant is a full time student) And if you bring in a lodger to help you to cover heating bills, bear in mind that you won’t be able to control how much extra power they use – particularly  if they work from home.

Pippa’s Area Managers are located across the country to be close to our students and their schools. Last week they all travelled to meet up for team meetings to discuss some exciting plans for 2023 as well as training in safeguarding, the new NMS for schools and to share ideas with their colleagues.