Thank you to the Herman Family
Back in December 2009, the Herman family of Beacon Hill kindly helped us out with a request to be interviewed by Channel Nine's "Money for Jam". At the time, a young chinese male student was being hosted by Michele and Stephen and they were kind enough to allow the interruption created by a TV crew filming in their home ( the filming went for almost an entire day!). We asked Michele and Stephen as they are one of our more experienced hosts and always make our students welcome, so a big thank you.
Also we would like to pass on our congratulation on the arrival of beautiful daughter, Jorja ... after three boys especially, we are sure she will be spoilt by her three big brothers.
- Review of Student Visa Program - Knight Review
- Welfare of International Students in Australia
- Compulsory Host Liability Insurance
- Homestay Network New Website
- Improve your spoken English
- Network News
- Police Background Checks
Homestay Netowrk is proud to be part of the Australian international education sector for over 24 years. It is important to acknowledge that the international education sector is one of Australia's largest export industries and is important to Australia in supporting ties with key partner countries, supporting employment in a broad range of occupations throughout the Australian economy, as well as delivering high-value skills to the economy.
In December 2010, the government appointed the Hon Michael Knight AO to conduct the first strategic review of the student visa program to help enhance the quality, integrity and competitiveness of the student visa program.
Report Released
Mr Knight reported to the government on 30 June 2011 with 41 recommendations. On 22 September 2011, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen MP, and Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, Senator Chris Evans, released Mr Knight's report, Strategic Review of the Student Visa Program 2011.
Details can be found on the Department of Immigration and Citezenship's website. (Link opens in a new window)
Recommendations affecting Homestay Fees
In Chapter 9 "Schools" Recommendation 14, Mr Knight's report recommends "That pre‐paid homestay fees be included in financial assessments on the same basis as pre‐paid boarding fees."
Homestay Network fully supports this recommendation and will work with Department of Immigration and Citizenship, agents, students, hosts and universties to develop a "Standardised Statement for pre-paid Homestay Fees ™" to meet this recommendation.
In some instances this pre-payment may amount to no more than AU$1600 depending on the requirements of your homestay provider.
As part of our commitment to the international education sector, we will license recognised homestay service providers under the appropriate Open Source/GPL license framework.
Please contact us for more information.
After a spate of well publicised incidents involving international students in Australia the Australian Senate referred a number of matters to the Senate Standing Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (EEWR) References Committee for inquiry and report by November 2009 into the Welfare of International Students Studying in Australia. The matters directly affecting Homestay Network and the Homestay accommodation services sector referred to are:
The NSW Department of Education has requested that our host's insurance be inclusive of host family liability insurance coverage for hosting students in your home for complete coverage. As a Homestay Network Host we require you to have current "Home and Contents" insurance ONLY.
We understand that many homestay companies make it compulsory for families wishing to host students in homestay for them, have an additional insurance over and above "Home and Contents" which will cost between $200 and $300 per year. This Compulsory Insurance will have many names but it is essentially Host Family Liability Insurance. These companies will require you to present them with a Certificate of Currency for your "Home and Contents" and "Host Family Liability Insurance" on an annual basis.
Homestay Network will require you to submit a Certificate of Currency for your "Home and Contents" policy ONLY. It is not necessary for you to have this Host Family Liability Insurance. We appreciate your generosity in hosting students for us and the additional expense this creates for you - without adding this impost on you.
Homestay Network has revamped the entire website, gone is the old HTML based website that has served us for the last three years, we have launched a Homestay Network's new website with a great new look and feel - we think so anyway. Please look around the our site and tell us what you think by voting in our online poll.
We would like to thank all who have helped us with the new site, including Artful - web print design, the Joomla! team for the Content Management System, Rocket Theme for the Template/Theme and many others who have been involved with us on this journey.
We chose a content management system (CMS) to help with the maintenance and currency of our site going forward. We have done extensive testing of the site, like all testing we may have missed something along the way so let us know if you find something missing.
If you have any feedback brickbats or bouquets please provide it. Let us now if you have any suggestions for changes or content for the site and we will consider your suggestions.
Universities and colleges are telling Homestay Network that students from a non-english speaking background who choose homestay as their accommodation preference generally perform better in spoken english than those using other accommodation formats.
Sign up for 'Network News', these are issued quarterly to hosts.
Newsletters talk about:
rates and commissions, Homestay Network news including who's who, interesting stories that our hosts have shared with us, trends in the homestay area and any changes to hosting that may be coming up.
Our newsletters have been going since about 1990 and were written by Claudia back then. Here's an old one from our archives, which we found quite amusing...
Homestay Network is one of a limited number of Homestay agents registered with the NSW Department of Education. As part of our arrangements with the Department we conduct Police Background Checks, Working with Children Checks and home inspections on ALL our host families as well as for Homestay Providers who are not registered with the Department and are hosting under 18 Students.
We ask our prospective hosts to be understanding with the need for these requirements. It is important for the children's parents to know that their child is in a safe and secure home environment. If you do not sign the consent for these background checks we are unable to place our students with you.
Homestay Network has begun a programme to reaffirm all of our hosts have current background checks. Please lookout for our email or letter later in the year.
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