An extra income stream is always a plus here in France and if you enjoy teaching young people then might you consider becoming a host family for Daily English like us?
Martin and I both worked in schools in the UK and have a lot to offer young people in terms of their education so working for Daily English is a perfect way to keep our skills honed!
What is involved?
- Are you a qualified teacher or at very least hold a valid TEFL certificate?
- Do you enjoy being around children and young people?
- Are you well-organised, adaptable and resourceful?
If so, you sound just perfect!
Here, we share our experiences of being a host family for Daily English.
Be prepared!
Once our booking is made and dates are confirmed, we contact our student’s family to further introduce ourselves and to share expectations and to make arrangements for their arrival.
Before our students arrive, we busy ourselves with all the usual household organisation – cleaning, making beds and shopping for our weekly menu.
We like to be really well-organised, so we spend time preparing our students’ daily lessons and printing off resources. Being a teacher, I love a well-organised planning file with all the worksheets and activities to hand. It is so easy as Daily English provide well-written Schemes of Work for all ages and stages. Of course, these are adapted to the needs of our individual students, but it is SO handy and time-saving to have these at our fingertips.
Arrival Day
If arriving at our house and not the train station, the family is welcomed with the offer of a drink and a brief chat and a tour of our house to go as far as we can to allay any worries and to be as transparent as possible with parents. After all, they are entrusting their children to us for a week or even a fortnight. As parents ourselves, we understand the need for trust.
We establish house rules together with our students on that first evening and then share our plan and timetable for the week, checking out if meals will be liked or need to be adapted. Students are given a choice of activities each afternoon and preferences are discussed. We find that children settle sooner knowing what is planned for their week. Every family has a slightly different approach, but this works well for us and our students.
The week
It goes by in a flash with English lessons every morning and activities in English every afternoon.
Here is what our daughter, aged 11, has to say;
A day in my life with students – Is it a good experience for me?
Yes, it is, because I get to do lots of fun activities with my family and with the students. I also get to meet new people. It is good as I have kept in touch with some of our students and some have come back more than three times so we really have a good bond now.
My feelings: I am happy and as a result I have made some friends out of our family hosting students.
The downside: as I am the oldest child in our house, I am able to help with activities such as baking scones or cakes. It can be quite annoying when my younger brother does not really get involved with cooking, he just wants to eat all the goodies. He does love it when boys come to stay though and plays lots of football and outside games.
Activities (my favourite part): We do loads of fun activities and outings with the students, such as:
- going to farms (“La Ferme des Marroniers” is my favourite farm)
- going to zoos
- going to lots of different swimming lakes
- going to fun parks
- going to the “Abbey de Fondouce” (It has laser game, escape game and accro-branch)
- going to Aquajump at Angouleme and lots more.
At the end of each student’s stay, we always take our students to “Le bon marche des saveurs”. It is a beautiful “épicerie fine” and gift shop located in our local town named “Aigre”. I never get tired of going in there, even if it is every week (which can sometimes happen in the summer). I always love having a little look around, seeing all of Christophe’s beautiful displays.
We hope that has given you a good insight into being part of the Daily English host family team where our students learn English in total immersion family stay.
If you wish to sign-up with Daily English, please quote CAROL PAYLOR when contacting Sally Cornan www.dailyenglish.fr