Student Host FAQs

The Student Host's week runs from Sunday to Friday, and excludes a Wednesday and a Saturday. For the 2024 Summer School the minimum attendance is two consecutive weeks. Please note, the Student Host can attend for two consecutive weeks, and then rejoin later in the summer school for one week if they would like. Student Hosts are required to attend all sessions, with particular requirement for the Sunday as it involves registration for the week and getting to know the International students.

International students are off site on a Wednesday and Saturday so Student Hosts do not need to attend on these days.

To download the typical week document, please click here.

Only in exceptional circumstances would we agree to an earlier finish time. Student Hosts are expected to take part in all the required elements of the programme each day.

Sunday is an arrival and departure day for our International Students and is an important ‘getting to know you’ day for the new arrivals. For this reason, Sunday attendance is a compulsory element of the Student Host programme. When you start as a student host, your week will start on the Sunday. If you are attending for more than one week, each new week requires you to attend on the the Sunday. The timings on a Sunday are 6pm - 9.30pm and during that time you have dinner with the International students and take part in the team building games.

This year, we are offering six academies for Student Hosts – Football, Basketball, Tennis, Hockey, and Art. We also run a Multi-Activity Course which covers a variety of activities such as softball, badminton, animal care, volleyball, touch rugby, table tennis, futsal, squash, survival skills, and arts and crafts.

Academies are the same activity for all four afternoons, multi-activity consists of two activities for the week.

Our international students attend English skills lessons in the morning. In the afternoons, they will have Progressive Skills in Action lessons. In these classes, students engage in exciting project work with the Student Hosts. After lessons have finished, all students participate in our Sports & Activities Programme. International students are taken on two cultural excursions each week. 

The Summer School runs for six weeks, but you do not need to participate for the duration. The minimum attendance is two consecutive weeks. On the application form please select the weeks you would like to apply for. We will then respond to offer you certain weeks of the summer school.  With this in mind we highly recommend you select all the weeks you are available for.

There is a fee of £85 per week which covers food and some administration costs. Whitgift School covers the costs for Student Hosts to take part in lessons, sports, creative activities and the evening programme.

All the meals will be provided by the school so please do not bring a packed lunch. If you do decide to, we are not able to waive the £85 per week fee.

We look to recruit approx. 30 student hosts per week. Half are selected from Whitgift School and half from Old Palace School. It is a complicated process of matching the number of upper and lower school students from the International student cohort with those who have applied to be a student host. These ratios vary over the six weeks of the summer school.

We look for students with an international outlook who are interested in engaging with young people from all over the world. We aim to maintain a balance of appropriately aged Student Hosts with equivalent international students across the vast number of activities on offer. Please be assured that if your child is unsuccessful, it does not reflect on their ability to take part. Rather, it will be due to the high volume of students applying, combined with the complexity of allocating the students according to activities, ages, and weeks they have requested or are available to attend. Unfortunately, we are unlikely to be able to offer a place to all that apply.

The closing date for applications is 24 April 2024 and you will be notified if you have been successful by 30 May 2024. If you apply and your availability changes, please email us on studenthost@whitgift.co.uk Unfortunately we cannot accept applications after the deadline. We will send all communications to the parent email provided on the application form. Please check your junk folder for emails.

An email will be sent to the parent's email address given on the application form.

Unfortunately not. Depending on the level you are working towards: Gold, Silver or Bronze, you are required to do at least one hour of volunteering per week for at least 3 months.

Yes this does and should be discussed with your teacher ahead of you joining.

We welcome applications from pupils in Year 7 to Year 12 only, as this matches the age ranges of the visiting international students.

All around the world.  We regularly have students who speak the following languages: Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Croatian, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Romanian, Spanish and Turkish. Your role is to encourage the students to speak English and to help them learn how to use English in social, creative and sporting activities.

It is likely that we will have in excess of 100 international students each week.

Approx. 1:3