To be suprised schools still do French exchanges ?what with the safeguard risks

Your child will end up living in their bedroom
Afraid to go.out to a job
Afraid to meet.new people

Your child needs new, slightly scary experiences.

And this is going to be one of the safest I can think of.
Much safer than going to school and meeting their local ketamine supplier

@WhatTheCatHeard
I totally hear you and I wouldn't do it either.
I do find it surprising that schools are still willing to take the risk.

I gave a scenario of Bea up thread, private school, respectable family, posh house, Dad respected officer with 20 years in the navy, Mum SAHM,
Now consider what else you know about about Dad, previously known as Prince Andrew, happy to get off with 17yos.

Is sad but true. People trusted people in the past but we now know not everyone is to be trusted.

Thanks everso much Doganxiety.
I wish I could say time has healed the wounds but I still can't face ordering a Chinese takeaway but this may change one day

My son did a French exchange last year, he had a wonderful time. And he did a German exchange before that. They have phones and their teachers are contactable 24/7. Don't deny them fabulous opportunities for personal and educational growth.

The families are not random plenty is known about them. This sort of comment is so naive. As if you would know which family is hiding alcoholism or drug driving or worse. The whole point is you can't tell by looking.

No one is suggesting not allowing ANY experiences.

I'd be wary with my sweet quiet 12 year old, however my 15 year old is more street smart and much more bolshy, and I'd allow it. You know your child.

It is no wonder young people are now called the anxious generation. I feel for them. We can’t battle the Internet and social media, but we can do better assessments as parents and allow them to live their lives with some degree of adventure and risk away from us on
occasion. It’s vital for development.

Our school does exchanges with 4 different countries. I feel for your kid but your kid, your rules.

Define random?

1 in 20 children are sexually abused.
We also know the majority is with in families and in family homes.

I wouldn't be taking my chances with those odds

What? It’s a great program and they are not ‘random’ families. Shame that people have become so suspicious that they won’t let their child participate is a fantastic program.

Agree, they aren’t just left with the family they are out and about as a group.

Your very trusting.
But you were probably being encouraged by people who knew the man. And had lived with him.

Bea lives in a big posh house, ponies, housekeeper, 1 sis, private school, Dads had 20 years in the Navy, respectable family, Mums a SAHM

Would you want your kid staying for 2 weeks?

But my child did stay with a family that I knew nothing about. As did I. We were fine.

The worst bits about my French exchange was that our teachers set us loose in Paris for 2 nights (age 13) and mt friends kept going off with guys on vespas. And my host was a lovely, but very uncool girl with parents who were very responsible, so we didn't get to go to any of the parties.

I bet Andrew Mountbatten Windsor could get a clear police background check.
We all know he did it, but has never been convinced.

Kids in private school, value education and experiences.

Stop and think

I went to school with a girl who was being sexually abused by her mother. And to a certain extent physically too.

Her Dad was a police officer, her mum ex police and had a job in the school office. Btw Dad turned a blind eye to the abuse in the house.

Nobody would doubt they were a "good" family to host a child.

Remember abusers walk amongst us, they aren't strange men in brown trench coats.

It's not just because they have kids the same age. You also know that they also value education, that they want their children to have valuable experiences, that they are trusting people themselves because they trust you to look after their own kids, that they are prepared to have background checks, and so on.

Do many of the negative posters on here think that their child will be thrown at a random family in that foreign country? The amount of work that goes on before these exchanges, on both side of the Channel is staggering, all families involved are known to the other school and will have been checked closely.

I was 11 when I went to Henley for a week living in a host family. I had saved up money myself on selling cakes etc for a year. It was fantastic.

Then when I was 15 I went with EF to France but with a friend so we shared room.

@WhatTheCatHeard Many students share room- if your daughter goes with a friend would that be OK? It's sad to miss out.

Foreign trips can be encouraged and enjoyed using youth hostels etc without putting isolated children into family homes.

Nobody has any idea what sort of life the other children are experiencing.

Its like people used to trust priests as men of God, why are people so content to put lots of trust into another family just because they have kids the same age?

They will probably be stalked electonically by their parents, poor kids. The really sad part is that from reading this site the parents who do this actually feel themselves so superior because they care more than others when in reality they're responsible for many probelms young people experience having no prior knowledge without mummy's apron strings to cling to.

Why, when there are so many positive aspects to them? The proportion of kids that have been sexually assaulted while on an exchange must be tiny.

And my exchanges were for three weeks at a time. Immersion is absolutely the best way of learning a language. Two weeks into each trip I had started dreaming in French! There are huge benefits to these trips, I hope they keep going. I absolutely will be sending my own kids when old enough.