About the Guardianship Organisation

Stephen and Kathy Arnott have been operating as educational guardians since 2003. They acquired PJ’s Guardianship Services Ltd in 2018 and revised the name to Great British Guardians Ltd in 2020. Motivated by their personal experience of boarding education and the rewards of hosting, they had a strong desire to provide a high-quality guardianship service and to make a difference to the international students for whom they care. As current Directors they own and operate the company which remains a family business. They are supported by a network of 19 carefully selected host families, but the Directors are the educational guardians for all students and often host students themselves so they can get to know them better.

Two levels of service are offered: ‘lite’ for those who do not require homestay accommodation and ‘standard’ for those requiring accommodation out of school on a regular basis. The organisation currently provides guardianship services to approximately 50 children and young people, all of whom are full-time students at English boarding schools. Great British Guardians Ltd has provided educational guardianship for students from countries around the world; most are currently from Europe, China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.

PJ’s Guardianship Services Ltd was accredited from 2013, and in its current form, Great British Guardians Ltd achieved AEGIS accreditation in 2021 and gold standard accreditation in 2023; this is a gold standard re-accreditation inspection.

Great British Guardians Ltd is very much a family-run business, owned and operated by the current Directors, who have over twenty years’ experience of hosting and the educational guardianship of international students. From their own detailed knowledge and understanding of boarding education and that of their children, they identified a gap in the nature of the support available to international students. They wished to offer not only the essentials of guardianship and accommodation but also individualised support and guidance to enable students to make the most of all aspects of a boarding education, including encouragement to seize all the opportunities for social and personal development that the experience can bring.

The Directors recognise that every family’s needs and circumstances are different and so offer flexibility in provision to meet each student’s needs. The small number of students to whom they provide guardianship services enables the Directors to get to know the students well. A key feature of this is their aim to host every student in their own home at least once, enabling them to establish good communication and build the trusted relationships they see as essential to their service. They are supported in their aims by a carefully selected network of homestays, all of whom are recruited through friends and who can offer similarly high standards of accommodation in rural family homes. The host family handbook regularly emphasises the importance of treating students as family members and of including them in family activities during their stay.

All the required safer recruitment checks are carried out on members of homestay households, and they receive appropriate and regularly updated safeguarding training during the Director’s annual visit. Homestays interviewed by the Supporting Inspector were knowledgeable and demonstrated a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities when caring for international students. They offer a nurturing and supportive environment, which was corroborated by the overwhelming majority of comments and responses to the student survey carried out as part of the re-accreditation process. Accommodation seen was spacious, cosy and welcoming. Students are strongly encouraged to participate in family routines, including shared meals and appropriate activities, which supports both wellbeing and cultural exchange.

Students joining the guardianship services do so through word-of-mouth recommendation. Students responded they felt they were well-prepared and given suitable information to support their arrival. All those parents responding to the survey would recommend the services of Great British Guardians Ltd and high levels of satisfaction are reflected in the absence of any formal complaints. A clear complaints policy with reasonable timescales is in place and published along with all the organisation’s other policies on the website, which the Director says is intended to reflect the open and transparent way in which the company wishes to deal with students, their families and schools.

Handbooks written for students, parents and homestays are welcoming and include practical advice and guidance borne out of first-hand experience of guardianship. Questions are anticipated and addressed and explanations offered so that expectations around behaviour, for example, are known and understood by all. Useful tips are provided to homestays about effective ways to engage young people in conversation. The parent and student handbooks contain very good advice to parents about how to prepare their child (and themselves) for leaving home and how to support a child when they are travelling alone. There is a sensible balance between information and advice to ensure that requirements are met but that no one is overwhelmed by information. Experience has also guided the probing questions asked within application forms and checklists to enable Great British Guardians Ltd to gather as much background information as possible, especially to support the health and well-being of the students in their care.

The Managing Director is the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), but both Directors are appropriately trained to carry out this role and can deputise where required. They are knowledgeable about the importance of mental health and the need to support and guide students and their parents through the academic pressures they may face particularly studying away from home. Online safety is a safeguarding priority, and the DSL advises homestays on practical ways in which they can use filtering and monitoring to help students use Wi-Fi and access the internet appropriately.

All policies and procedures are accessible, regularly reviewed and reflect best practice. Great British Guardians Ltd fully understand the requirements of the AEGIS standards and keep abreast of any changes. As part of their commitment to continuous improvement, the organisation used the re-accreditation process as an opportunity to reflect and self-assess their procedures against the standards, thereby ensuring that they could provide examples of how their practice meets or exceeds the AEGIS requirements.

Meticulous, well-ordered records are kept of all travel and homestay arrangements. These are communicated to all parties in a timely and efficient manner. Responses to the school surveys and interviews conducted by the Supporting Inspector indicate schools are very satisfied with the co-operative way in which the organisation liaises with them. The levels of communication and the swift responses received were described as exceptional.

Great British Guardians Ltd provide a caring and nurturing environment to the students who use their services, offering regular support and professional guidance whilst challenging the students to make the most of the opportunities that an all-round boarding education presents. They are recommended for gold standard re-accreditation unreservedly.

AEGIS is satisfied that Great British Guardians Ltd meets the quality standards and have awarded AEGIS gold accreditation on 13th April 2026. Re-accreditation will be due in March 2030.