Boarding school guardianship: by parents, for parents.
Welcome to Portola, a warm, modern and personal guardian service for international students studying at UK boarding schools.
Today, having a guardian is a safety requirement for international students studying in the UK. At Portola we provide valuable wrap-around care and go beyond the usual requirements of a guardian. We are a small company and focus purely on European students who mainly go home for school breaks. As mothers who live in South West London with our own families, we are approachable, practical and on-hand whenever needed. We have easy access to hundreds of schools and offer emergency accommodation at our homes, should this ever be needed. Please scroll through our page and get in touch with any questions you have.
Aline Kamps & Laura Keighley
Why do I need a Guardian?
When international students come to the UK, most UK boarding schools require them to have a UK resident over the age of 25 appointed as their guardian.
While the school is responsible for your child’s welfare during the school term, a guardian is an extra safety net for anything that can not be provided by the school, or when the distance to the parents becomes an issue. For instance:
to provide accommodation should your child need to leave the school for emergency reasons;
to help with travel arrangements for your child to return home safely;
to help if travel plans get cancelled or delayed.
or to simply be at hand for any last minute necessities that you can’t arrange from abroad.
Get in touch
Can we help? Please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help where we can!