Housemaster/house mistress is also called houseparent, dormitory parent, housefather/housemother. Sometimes when husband and wife share the duty, they are referred to as houseparents.
Housemaster- care for male boarders
Housemistress- care for female boarders.
We shall majorly use the term "Houseparent" in this article.
The houseparent is responsible for duties, ranging from everyday basic maintenance, organizational duties and personal care and monitoring of the boarders. The major responsibility is to care for the boarders' well-being, he/she accomplish this by guiding, supporting and advising the boarders.
Depending on the number of the students in the house, he/she may or may not have a team to work with.
In addition, his/her role may be allied to teaching (this may be less than half of the normal timetable), swimming instruction, sport coaching or he/she might just major on his/her houseparent work. In case, we do not have a husband and wife working together as houseparents, a male houseparent is often given an accommodation that would be comfortable for him and his family.
However, a female houseparent is mostly single, though, some modern schools now provide them comfortable accommodation too, allowing the husband and kids to move in with them also, but this kind of schools are not yet common. In most cases, the school do not expect them to move in with anyone and there may be strict rules for visitors.
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Duties of a Houseparent
Now, you have to multiply the duties of a parent at home by the number of the boarders in your care. That gives you accurate result of the kind of duties you would be dealing with. The duties include :
• Planning of meals
•supervising meals, prep and bedtime
•Taking them out for excursions
•supervise waking up
•Do their laundry, bathe the going ones and feed them.
•Caring for the sick boarders
•Planning the weekend activities
•Do the pastoral duties (if there is no special staff for this )
•Taking them to mosque/church/worshiping places.
•supervise the other house staff ( if the house size is huge, there would be a team to work with) e.g assistant houseparent, cleaners, cooks, drivers and even medical staff.
Duties of a school Matron
Some people think school matron and houseparent are synonyms, whereas, a school matron could be refered to as a person (woman) that assists the houseparents and often support the children, ensure the house runs effectively and administer medication.
Note : depending on the size of the house, not all boarding house have a matron.
Matron do not specifically have a qualification, and if they have, it would be a lower qualification than that of houseparant's. They usually do not live in the boarding house and may not be involved in weekend activities. The houseparent is always a matron's boss.
What qualification is needed to become an houseparent?
Teaching, health professional (nursing, nutritionist), qualification in home sciences/home management, hospitality management, hotel management are all quality backgrounds one should have for this job. Pastoral background or knowledge is always and added advantage.
A houseparent should be energetic, reliable, trustworthy and be of good behaviour with good listening and people skills.
Do you want to be a houseparent? Then, get prepared for a time consuming and demanding job, you wake up very early around 4-5a:m and you only sleep around 10p:m after the boarders are all off to bed (you also have to sometimes wake up in the midnight to watch over them), you can have a nap when they are in school, but this may not be everyday if you also teach, you hardly have free time and even at night, you could be on call when any of the boarders need an attention.
Every other thing about your personal life comes second as these boarders are always the first on your list. Usually, there is no additional payment or bonuses but meals and accommodation are always free.
It is always fun because you always have company and you will be getting involved in many activities, you may not have off days and also work on weekends, but you have all the holiday period to rest.
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