Russia warns parents over ‘coarse’ UK host families for summer schools

The embassy said it had intervened in each case of maltreatment to ensure
children were moved to new families, and was drawing up a list of complaints
and monitoring “organisations showing negligence over their
responsibilities”.

It appeared to point the finger at Russian agencies, suggesting they were not
informing parents of their children’s problems.

A spokesman, who refused to give further details, told The Daily Telegraph: “Most
visits are trouble-free, but the embassy has had to deal with several
complaints on different grounds.”

Thousands of Russian children attend summer courses in Britain every year,
mostly at private language schools where they learn English while living in
home-stays usually arranged by the school.

Parents often buy the courses via Russian agencies working in partnership with
the schools. A typical course costs £2,000 per month, including
accommodation and food.

As wages in Russia have grown, such packages have become increasingly
accessible for middle class Russian families seeking an educational activity
for their children over the three-month summer break.

The UK has a strong reputation for culture, quaint tradition and academic
excellence in Russia and wealthier Russians also send many children for
year-round private education at British boarding schools.

In order to receive a visa to study in Britain, most non-EU citizens must
apply to a school that is inspected by Ofsted or registered with one of four
accrediting bodies, including the British Council’s Accreditation UK and the
Accreditation Body for Language Services (ABLS).

Diana Lowe, executive director of ABLS, said: “We receive very few
complaints. It’s fine for the Russian embassy to warn parents but I would
urge them to take up these complaints with the schools in question and the
accrediting body, if they haven’t done so already.”

Asked whether arranging for a child to live with a gay couple was appropriate,
Ms Lowe replied: “It’s a delicate question. People who place students
should be culturally aware and they should inform the student of the profile
of the family. But there’s nothing wrong with a gay couple per se, and some
of them are among the kindest hosts.”

One woman posted a description of the home-stay in Oxford where her
15-year-old daughter lived last summer. “The house was disgustingly
unsanitary and dirty and the bath was blocked,” she wrote.

Another mother described her 13-year-old asthmatic daughter being housed in
Bristol “with eight Hindus; it was completely filthy, there was never
any cleaning, they ate without a table, standing up because the floor was so
dirty.”

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