Sadly I am going to have to get a new nanny for after-school care. Any ideas? Should I ask at the school or something??

I've always found jobs through gumtree and while I accepted an after school job it's only covering my rent - so I've been looking for dog walking / cleaning work in the mornings to enable me to fit around the afternoon nannying.... if you find yourself in the position where you need to advertise, boosting it with those extra hours would surely bring you a whole flood of applications from less experienced nannies like me, or people that prefer older children (I love kids around reception age and don't mind cleaning in the mornings to get that real sparky interaction with a child who's into EVERYTHING and can talk about it!)

It's more of a mother's help role, so it depends on whether you were really wanting a vastly qualified, experienced nanny or someone with a good head on their shoulders but still quite new at it.

ooh you jammy sod . Hooray for your mum!

I'd recommend the undergrad student route (but then I'm biased!). I would say beware of early years/teacher training degrees though as they usually require placements which might play havoc with hours.

CD What are you doing for school hols?

Several friends have successfully used Gumtree to find a local mum of toddler who is happy to do a few hours of "nannying" and can do school pick-up and ferrying to ballet etc. Hopefully if you make clear what the hours would be you may be saved a lot of the pointless applications. CM would be good but you may have to do ballet on your nights not hers. Another mum may be able to pick up slack for inset/sick/unexpected things too.

they didn't come up with too many candidates. one they sent me had a bad reference and they still sent me her details. we did actually hire one from them but she left after 6 days due to family issues. not the agency's fault i suppose - but still, as i said the overall quality of the candidates they had was rather poor. imho. we have just recently hired again for this role and it didn't cross my mind to use them this time.

The hols were not a problem because I always took my 4 weeks unpaid Parental Leave (the entitlement then was up to 16 weeks per child until they were 5 - Gordy may have upped that by now.) As that hasd not prived detrimental to my job, I managed eventually to get my employers to agree to make it contractual, so work term-times only now (with a pro-rata reduction in salary, tho' am available via phone and blackberry as required)

I think that is definitely doable. And I think you will be a lot happier with the flexibility that an employee provides. You just need a nanny who is willing to do a bit of housework and likes big dogs. That shouldn't be too tall of an order.

we have a nanny with her own child who works 1-7 for us - doing laundry etc for a couple of hours before the school pick up.

we got her through Tinies.

she also does extra hours in school holidays and covers sick days, inset days etc.

it's worked well - and will stop next sept only because her child starts at a different school to mine.

might something similar work for you or do you not need the housework side of things covered anyway

sorry, slight hijack CD but kookaburra, the thing is (with after school nannies), what do you do in the school holidays? do they then do the whole day or do you organise something else?

i have used after school nannies and the quality of the candidates was not good plus the rates were pretty inflated.

I mean AfterSchoolNannies

I live in SW14 and used an agency called AferSchoolNannies based in Battersea for about a year a couple years ago (3.30-6pm). The first one they supplied became unreliable - not their fault (I ignored gut feeling when I interviewd her), but they immediately replaced her with a fantastic girl - she was so reliable that on 7/7 she rang me during the day as soon as she heard the news to say if I was stuck in town she would stay as long as it took and if necesary stay all night till I or Dh could get back, and would keep the TV off etc so DC did not hear. Only after we got back did she reveal that she'd had no news from her dad (in town)all day and was hoping to get news when she got home. She had not betrayed any inkling of this to us or the children - whattagirl.
Sorry - off topic, but hope you get similar.

aah I see. Don't forget to check St Mary's college (think it is called that...) - it's here in Strawberry Hill and seems to do lots of teaching/childcare related courses.

are you working part time (had in the back of my mind you were back full time)?

are you sure you don't need a nanny? just thinking about sick days and school holidays etc.

we are pondering this too at the moment. Shame we aren't closer!

u/grad students - don't need long hours, pms usually ok. have an incentive to stick at the job, intelligent etc etc.

Thechildminder might be willing to take her. My DD does ballet in Twickers and there are several kids inher class who are brought there by their childminders. Find out what childcare arrangements other kids in the ballet class have.

I must say choosing my kids activities is a definite advantage of having a nanny. But, I think for your short hours, that a child minder will be much more stable than a nanny. Unless you can find a friend with a nanny who would be willing to share the nanny with you.

we have used gumtree and recruited undergraduate students. beware gumtree - lots and lots of responses - lots and lots of dross.