we had to sack our nanny!

hmmm poor, poor woman to just be fired like that. Sorry to go on but that is bloody awful.

funnily enough, laboheme, i'd wondered exactly the same thing...

Just come accross this do you not realise exactly what you are asking her to do? Are you so blind to see things from her perspective? and to just fire her on the spot. I'm sorry but having experience of looking after children myself that is disgraceful.

I hope she finds another employer who treats her with respect and pays her accordingly. Something tells me she may not have been aware of the minimum wage in the UK or her rights....

it's not a wind up- she;s posted elsewhere and the stuff about the autistic dd sounds very true.

I just think she's misjudged the amount of work it is really.

Oh this was such an obvious wind-up. Honestly this last week there have been so many totally fake/bizarre threads .... Have you seen today's special? The chap openly coming on MN for dates?

Siny hasn't come back to this.

Maybe her solicitor told her not to comment further on the matter, as Nanny has wisely sought legal counsel for her unfair dismissal and Sindy's facing the joy that is Employment Tribunal.

i need a job like that

fedup, if she was suffering from stress then she could go on sick leave with Sindy paying and go and renovate her own house...

Wow, Sindy! I'm surprised she didn't leave skidmarks before you sacked her, because there'd have been cirlce of dust in my wake had I had to work under such conditions.

Your husband is off long-term sick but renovating your house?

Hope he's not claiming benefits!

I'd like to take some time off and renovate houses, too, whilst being paid.

That'd be cool.

You don't need a new nanny, what you need is a reality check.

If I had been your nanny, I'd have had Social Services on your back like a duck on a beetle.

why dont you ask your children what they want! they are not babies. you could ask the nanny to come back, pay her more and get a proper contract set up. get extra help in. you never know, she could be suffering from stress!!!! i know i would be.

she would win, work time directive / brach of proper dismissal codes / minimum wage

no contest

i certainly hope this is a wind up.

how anyone would lay the responsibility of sole care and education of 4 children (let alone the fact one has SN) with a person who was not their parent is beyond me.

if both you and your Dh had to work away from the home then would it not have been a lot easier for all concerned that the children attend a school? would you not have felt it better to work your schedules so that at least one of you gets home everyday?

if this is for real i would imagine you will have a hard job finding ANYONE to fill this position.

i suggest you re evaluate your lifestyle and decide what it is you really want.

Why do you have to work such long hours anyway?, Just downsize, move out of London for a start and start living like a familly.
Why home educate? whats wrong with mixing with other children?
No wonder your DH is stressed.

It's a wind-up. Betcha

Nd mine's all funded by children in need and the charity newstraid- so I ahve to thank them

Ah no credit to me, I don't really do much of the home programme myself (I can't because of having 2 year old ds3 at home still; he tries to join in 'me do work' and does it faster than 8 year old ds1), we pay psychology students to come in (paid for my social services). Hats off to his school though, I've been in his classroom quite a bit this term for a research project and they do a wonderful job.

Very illuminating. Gess and Peachy - hats off to you both.

ditto gess. Apart from the basic employment alw contraventions here, DS3's home ed is also 1-1 and the unit he may well be attending is 1 adult to 3 children (a school for non verbal children)

His home ed schooling until he has aplce around Easter will be tun by me and and also will require 1-1 and lots of prodfessional input from varios therapists.

Tahts note ven counting DS1 (also SN, HFA) and DS2 (NT who go to school.

We may get a Nanny in a few years time (probably the only childcare open to Sn kids) and we are wella ware that we need to pay above the odds and be very very generous with hours etc if they will cope. We are happy to do that fro the right person, and that would only be a part time after school posting.

And paid holidays aren't a bonus they are a legal right

Ds1's home teaching programme requires 1:1 and is very full on and very intense. Very hard work. We showed his school some video of it and they said they couldn't replicate it because they didn't have the staff ratios (and their ratio is 6 children to 4+ adults). (We knew they couldn't btw and would never ask them to). The sorts of things that are done without 1;1 (but with 1:2 max) at ds1's school would be things like snack time. But often one child does require 1:1 whilst the others sit and wait for their turn (and some can't do that- hence the4y take up a few staff emmebers who are dealing with getting them to wait). It would be a very slow pace for NT children. Other lessons I've observed without 1:1 basically consist of the children taking turns in being 'taught', the actual teaching bit would be 1:1.

The problem we have at home is that when ds1 doesn't have someone working with him he is completely unable to occupy himself, so he's climbing things that he shouldn't climb, asking to walk up and down the street, raiding the food cupboards. It's why he requires full on supervision at all times. And one reason why it's so exhausting even without other children. Add other children in and it becomes impossible.

Children who have some capacity to work alone, and have a decent attention span could work independently for a period of time, autistic or not, but neither of those things tends to go with severe autism. TEACCH is a teaching method that aims to get autistic children working independently, but ds1 doesn't manage much more than about 3 minutes in a very structured environment- and its taken him years to get to that.

juuule....

29 children

1 with asd and has 1:1 support from his LSA
1 with EBD (Emotional Behaviour Disorder) and has 1:1 support from his LSA

this means that the teacher and TA can concentrate more on the other 27 children

a child with severe autism needs 1:1 support. The nanny was supposed to just assist but both parents have full time jobs so I'm not sure who is teaching the children.

My 8 year old daughter can cook simple meals so I'm not sure why the OP was upset at her older children having to cook?

OP also said the nanny was having a bath at 4pm....she needs to have a bath at some point in the day and maybe that is a "quiet" time for her to have a bath? She has 4 children, one with SEN, and is there without a break for 4 days and 3 nights. When should the poor nanny get a break or a bath?

This position sounds like it should be a governess position and therefor, the pay should reflect that.

a big, fat

My understanding is that a severly autistic child requires 1 to 1 support, not 1 to 4 or any other number.

So you think they should be able to cook a meal regardless of where they are educated. That's okay then Just wondered why you'd included the home-ed bit.