Guardianship

[wizzler]

DBIL and DSIL live abroad in DSILs home country. They have a son (DN) who is 12 , who was born in the UK. ( Dont know if this is relevant).

It has been decided that DN should come to a boarding school in the UK, and they are completing the paperwork for him to start in September 2018. The school they have chosen is not near us.

The school have said that in order to accept the application they need DN to have a guardian in the uk. DBIL has asked DH and I to do this., and we will almost certainly agree. The only other option would be DPIL but it makes more sense for it to be us.

I have never come across this sort of guardianship before, so wondered what it actually means ... will we need to be vetted, what are we signing up for etc.

I told DH that MN would definitely know the answer... so I hope that someone out there is on Mumsnet instead of wrapping presents and can help out!

www.ukboardingschools.com/advice/uk-guardians/#.Wj-OeN9l_IU

this should help.

Hello, it basically in school terms means there is a point of contact in the Uk for DN’s school. They will contact you about how he is doing
, if there is an emergency. At my primary school the boarders guardians would if they lived near by go to parents evenings.
If your DN needed doctors / medical treatment they would get in touch with you as well as parents.

Some boarding schools have “exeat” weekends once a term ,this is essentially when the boarding school closes and those pupils who board go to stay at houses. This could be your house as the guardian.
My friends guardian lived miles away at primary so my friend would stay with us during half terms and exeat weekends.

They don’t vett you as such, but will want info ie what relationship you are etc.

Thanks to both of you... I knew MN wouldnt let me down!..

Some of the above information is not quite right. Nearly every boarding school has several exeats a term - not just one. It’s a great shame they chose a school some distance away from you but as a guardian you would be expected to have your DN for any time the school is closed. He will presumably go home for long holidays but what about the three half terms? Many children do not go home for these.

It’s a shame you cannot be a bit more involved with school as you are family. Concerts, sport and drama should be supported by family members in my view. My DDs school also had a big arts show evening and carol service plus many other events for parents. Boarding school is not about sending your child away these days: it’s very involving for parents and those who stand in for them too. Your DN may like someone to attend such events so do consider it.

The school DN will attend is about 3 hours drive from us I think . There are some people there who he knows ( from home country) who attend and I think the plan is that he may stay with them at some of the half terms if parents can't get over.

For the other times, I am happy to go and fetch him and bring him back to us.

As you said though, we are unlikely to be able to regularly attend concerts etc, as we both work FT and have 2 DC of our own.