nannies and school age children

[hatstand]

Has anyone managed to organise nanny-type (ie in your home) care for school age children, covering after-school in term time and all day in holidays, without paying for a full-time nanny?

It can be found - eg language school students who are past the initial au pair stage, so have the same kind of termtime vs holiday time availability but are also able to help with homework.

When we advertised for what you're describing on gumtree we had around 50 replies, but the best of them were keen to end up with a fullish time job - so we employed our first choice as a housekeeper/nanny (so no savings to be honest - but she is fantastic).

no savings but - I assume - a very clean house, shopping, dry-cleaning, maybe even some cooking? mmm I can see the attraction

I think we're in a similar position to Binkie. We moved from live out daily qualified nanny to live in unqualified Australian au pair/nanny. The move to live in meant that it is cheaper but more importantly for us we get better coverage at the ends of the day, including 2 nights babysitting a week.

Our nanny doesn't do cleaning but does keep the house tidy and do other housekeeping jobs such as laundry and errands.

She has full time responsibility for the children in the school holidays but we do try and balance the increased work with more days off when the girls go to grandparents etc and it seems to work well.

Yes - if you're considering the housekeeper/nanny route I should add, with MrsW, re holiday time we do have to make sure we are flexible about the housekeeping work - ie while she's looking after children fulltime the house does not need to be sparklingly clean too. I also have a sort of part-time arrangement with work so that I can take off some of the school holidays, which helps the balance.

The problem also is, if your child is sick and off school would you want the nanny to be there and on call if the school rings for an ill child to be picked up?