Exchange Programme

A safe way to learn exchange language skills in the home of a new friend!

How Does It Work?

Our exchange program offers your child the unique opportunity to live with a British or French host family, immersing themselves in a new language and culture. In return, they will welcome their exchange partner into their own home, creating a meaningful and lasting cultural connection.

This program is designed for children aged 12 to 16 years, providing them with an enriching, immersive experience that fosters both language development and international friendships.

Comment ça fonctionne ?

Notre programme d’échange offre à votre enfant une opportunité unique de vivre au sein d’une famille d’accueil britannique ou française, en s’immergeant pleinement dans une nouvelle langue et culture. En retour, il accueillera son correspondant chez lui, favorisant ainsi une véritable connexion interculturelle enrichissante.

Ce programme s’adresse aux enfants âgés de 12 à 16 ans, leur offrant une expérience immersive qui développe à la fois leurs compétences linguistiques et de précieuses amitiés internationales.

Our Careful Matching Process

We take great care in ensuring a thorough and thoughtful matching process. This can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on demand for exchanges in a given year. We carefully consider age compatibility and shared interests to create the best possible match.

As part of the process, we provide:

  • A detailed family profile – highlighting the exchange student while also showcasing the home and family environment.

  • A full vetting service – ensuring the safety and suitability of both families involved.

  • Travel guidance and support – offering advice on sourcing flights and transport if needed (please note: Belaf provides recommendations only and does not book travel for homestays or exchanges).

Un Processus de Jumelage Soigné

Nous accordons une grande importance à un processus de jumelage minutieux et réfléchi. Cette étape peut prendre quelques jours à plusieurs semaines, en fonction de la demande pour les échanges au cours de l’année. Nous veillons à ce que les enfants soient jumelés en fonction de leur âge et de leurs centres d’intérêt communs pour garantir une expérience enrichissante.

Dans ce cadre, nous fournissons :

  • Un profil familial détaillé – mettant en avant l’enfant participant à l’échange tout en présentant son foyer et son environnement familial.

  • Un service de vérification complet – garantissant la sécurité et la compatibilité des deux familles concernées.

  • Un accompagnement pour l’organisation du voyage – avec des conseils pour réserver les vols et organiser les transports si nécessaire (veuillez noter que Belaf fournit uniquement des recommandations et ne prend pas en charge les réservations de voyage pour les séjours en famille d’accueil ou les échanges).

Costs and Application

Fees and Hosting Information

  • Registration & Vetting Fee (Non-refundable): £150

  • Weekly Exchange Fee (Payable): £500

  • Weekly Host Fee (Paid to you as a host): £200

We require both an Exchange Fee and offer a Host Fee to ensure your child’s exchange experience can proceed, whether or not a reciprocal exchange is arranged.

Once your family has been vetted as an Exchange Host, you are welcome to remain in our database and host individual students as a paid host family in the future, should you wish.

As sourcing and organizing a tailored exchange takes time, we kindly ask for your patience during the matching process. Finding the right match may take 30 days or more, depending on availability within our database.

Frais et Informations sur l’Accueil

  • Frais d’inscription et de vérification (Non remboursables) : 150 £

  • Frais d’échange hebdomadaires (À payer) : 500 £

  • Frais d’accueil hebdomadaires (Rémunération en tant que famille d’accueil) : 200 £

Nous demandons à la fois des frais d’échange et offrons une rémunération aux familles d’accueil afin de garantir que l’expérience de votre enfant puisse avoir lieu, avec ou sans échange réciproque.

Une fois votre famille validée en tant que famille d’accueil pour les échanges, vous aurez la possibilité de rester dans notre base de données et d'accueillir des étudiants individuels en tant que famille d’accueil rémunérée, si vous le souhaitez.

En raison du temps nécessaire pour rechercher et organiser un échange correspondant aux besoins spécifiques de votre enfant, nous vous remercions par avance de votre patience. Le jumelage peut prendre 30 jours ou plus, selon les disponibilités dans notre base de données.

FAQs

  • Previously, Belaf offered exchange programmes whereby families and students were matched and would then organise their own exchange experience for a small fee.

    Unfortunately, we are unable to continue offering this type of exchange programme.

    As Belaf has now been taken over by Belaf International, our procedures have changed to help us ensure that children are as safe as possible when engaging in international travel. We therefore can only support organising exchanges and homestays to families who have undergone a vetting process and which adhere to our full safeguarding procedures.

    Our procedures for vetting homestays include interviews, home risk assessments, safety checks, viewings, and Police checks against adults in the household.

    This way, we can provide parents with the reassurance that checks have been carried out and their children are visiting homes which have passed a vetting process.

  • Your child will need access to a computer or other device, ideally with microphone and/or headphones/speakers so that they can engage in video calls if they wish.

    Our classrooms are based on Microsoft Teams, so children will also require an e-mail address to allow them to log in.

  • No, your child will not explicitly have a teacher who will teach English/French.

    However, they will be provided with conversational starters, resources, and prompts which support language skills for both parties.

    Via our Support, the students will be encouraged to support each other to develop skills and improve vocabulary and grammar.

  • A Belaf Support Worker will be allocated to your child’s classroom. They will ‘pop in’ to the chat on a regular basis, at least once per week to provide monitoring and prompts.

    They will monitor to ensure the conversation remains sensible and that personal details are not shared.

    If the Support Worker has concerns about shared information, they will contact the parents of both children to inform them.

    The Support Worker will provide prompts, resources, and conversation starters to keep the conversation going and to support the children to help each other with language acquisition skills, with a focus on vocabulary and grammar.

  • Yes! Within our classroom, your child will be able to video call their Penpal E-Ami at their leisure.

    In line with our procedures, we recommend that any video calls are monitored by parents.

  • Please check out our ‘Keeping Safe Online’ page, as linked above. This page will detail how we work hard to ensure our Virtual Exchange remains safe online.

    Please note that Belaf International are only involved in the Virtual Exchange when the communication occurs in the given classroom under the view of our Support.

    If children or parents remove the communication from the classroom, Belaf International’s involvement becomes void and we will notify of our one month’s notice to end the Exchange.

    We accept no responsibility for communication outside of the Belaf International classroom.

  • We wish for this exchange to be a safe and ongoing form of communication for our students.

    We therefore offer it as an subscription-based service so that we are able to provide staffing to monitor and support the classrooms, respond to emails, and be available to complete the vetting process if you wish to organise an ‘in-person’ exchange with your Penpal E-Ami.