what is better do you think after school clubs or au pair/child minder?

[drwitch]

I have two children who will be at different schools both with ok but not brilliant after school clubs. I think au pair/child minder as children will get to play in the park/on their bikes meet others in non structured way, dp is worried about someone unqualified looking after the children. What do you think?

Unqualified? Who would be unqualified?

The au-pair would be unqualified, wouldn't they? I know i was...

Aupair may be unqualified in terms of English Childcare training but they may be a teacher, a childcare worker, a youth club leader in their home country. So it depends on the person.

What training do you and dh have to care for your children? Perhaps look at it from that viewpoint! A childminder, aupair or nanny may have experience of caring for children of your childrens ages and may have some kind of training.

Would a childminder work.if the children are at different schools? You would need to find a childminder who coukd do both pickups, plus whatever pickups they already do. So ask local childminders which schools they can collect from.

How old are your children? Some pre-teens feel they are too old to go to a childminder. School age children can tell you if things are going well, not well and do not need as much supervision as say a baby, so someone starting out in childcare could work.

Do you need a driver with their own car? Do you really want a late teen/early twenties person living at your home? Many things to consider.

Think ds would rather be in after school club than with lots of much younger children so would only have child minder if ours were the only children. (ds will be 9 next year)
Think a qualified child minder would not do it as the hours would be to low (2 afternoons a week) Job would be perfect for student needing some part time earnings.

Do you have a friend looking to earn a bit of extra money? If its for less than 2 hours a day then a childminder doesn't need to register with OFSTED etc, so if you know someone who would be happy to have them for a couple of afternoons to earn a few extra pounds that could work.

Its what I'm about to do for a friend of mine albeit 4 days a week - I would have been happy with 2 or 3 tbh. I will have to register so that I can help during holidays but if you make other arrangements e.g. holiday club/family help on those days it would be fine.

At £3 - 3.50 per child per hour, they can earn £15 - 20 a day and your DCs would get the benefit of a relaxed home environment.

sorry my maths is a bit out there, I was anticipating having an extra child or two at some point when I was calculating potential earnings!

That plan doesn't really work with two different schools involved though. I am a childminder and I look after a couple of children who use both me and after school club as the parents like them to have a mixture of experiences. Seems to work well for the children as they don't get bored in either setting 5 days per week.