Louise and Angela are the Accommodation Officers for Hilderstone College. Louise has been in the role of Accommodation and Welfare Officer for just over a year, coming from a background in education and safeguarding roles. Angela is the Deputy Accommodation and Student Support Officer and has been in the role for 2.5 years, previously working with the homeless and for a local University. This is what they have to say about their work here:
‘Our job is to place our students with families in the Broadstairs community. We ensure students are suitably matched to families in respect of dietary needs and any special requests as far as possible! We work very closely with our homestay hosts and they become part of the team. This includes visiting them in their homes, resolving any issues that may arise (usually due to communication!) with their students and supporting them in the very important role they play for Hilderstone students. We have families that have been hosting for as long as 40 years and we work with new hosts all the time. Hosting students proves to be a very rewarding experience and you really do get to meet some very interesting people from all over the world and some longstanding friendships are made.
We also ensure the students are happy and well cared for, including safeguarding our students, particularly those under the age of 18. We work very closely with all of the departments in Hilderstone including marketing, who get the students here in the first place and the teaching staff. Hilderstone College staff really do work as a team!
We both enjoy the role as it enables us to meet lots of people in our community and from all over the world and it is very satisfying when students go home having had the best experience and our hosts have enjoyed having them to stay!
If you would like to join us as a homestay host for Hilderstone and live in Broadstairs, then please do get in touch:-
By email – homestay@hilderstone.net By phone – 01843 869171
