Hilton College Student Exchange Programme
Letter to parents of applicants

Dear Parents

I am pleased to let you know that your son has applied to be considered as an exchange student, and I thought I should write to tell you something about our exchange programme and the process of selection.

We have established annual exchanges with Eton College, Harrow School, The King’s School, Canterbury and Wrekin College, all in England, Gordonstoun in Scotland, Salem Schule in Germany and Scot’s College in Australia. We generally send one boy a year to each of these schools, and receive one a year from each of them in return. In most cases, our boys go either in term 4 of their Grade 10 year, or term 1 of their Grade 11 year, although the Scot’s College exchange is in the term 3 of Grade 10.

I would suggest that you discuss fully with your son the implications, including the financial aspects, of his possible participation.

While a boy is away on exchange, his parents continue to pay the Hilton fees but do not pay the basic fees at the school which he is attending. Parents do, however, have to pay the cost of transport to and from the exchange school, together with any expenses incurred while he is there. These will include pocket money and any trips etc he may go on while there.

The process of selection of our exchange participants is thorough and occurs as follows:

• each candidate writes an essay motivating his selection

• each candidate is then interviewed by a member of the exchange committee, which consists of four members of staff

• following these interviews, and after consultation with Housemasters, Sports Coaches and other members of staff, a short list is drawn up

• a second or third round of interviews, then takes place, where the candidate will be interviewed by a different member of the committee on each occasion

• finally, those boys under consideration are invited to attend a social gathering at the Fleur-de-Lys Club

• following this the selection is made and the committee decides how they should be allocated. It is not possible for boys to decide which school they would like to attend.

Once the selections have been made, I will inform the boys and their parents. Please understand that the committee’s decision is final.

Obviously places on the exchange programme are very sought after, and there will inevitably be disappointments. I do hope, however, that even those boys who are not selected will have benefited from their involvement in the process.

Please let me know if you have any reservations about your son’s possible participation in this programme.

Kind regards

Paul Guthrie
Director: Exchange Programme