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A school houseparent looks after the welfare, safety and pastoral care of pupils in boarding schools.
You could work: evenings / weekends; at short notice
Your job will be to act in place of the children's parent. You could:
You may need to wear a uniform.
You could work at a school.
Your working environment may be physically and emotionally demanding.
You can get into this job through:
You could take a relevant college course that would give you useful skills to apply for jobs. For example:
You'll usually need:
You could start as a trainee houseparent or member of the wider pastoral care team. You could then take on-the-job training, for example through the Boarding Schools' Association, and work your way up.
You will most likely need paid or voluntary experience of working with children. You could volunteer at your local school or search for opportunities on:
You could apply directly for jobs as a school houseparent. Employers may view your personality and life experiences as more important than qualifications. You'll usually need experience of working with young people. Some may ask for relevant training and qualifications, including GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) in English and maths.
You'll need to:
Some employers may look for people with experience of having worked in roles like:nurse; nursery assistant, teaching assistant or nanny; education welfare officer; young people's counsellor or youth worker; mentor or behaviour support assistant
You can find more about working in independent boarding schools from the Boarding Schools' Association.
You could work towards becoming a senior houseparent, a housemaster or mistress or head of boarding.
With experience and further training you could move into related education positions including mentoring, teaching or school business support roles.