New Au Pair expects to go to language class every day -

[starbucksaholic]

Am I being unreasonable to say 'no way, once a week' - au pair now in tears (for second time in 2 days since she arrived) about this, not sure how much to stand my ground. Help?!

my AP goes twice a week to subsidized council run classes. She could have chosen either 2 mornings, 2 afternoons, 2 evenings or a mixture. I've never had an AP wanting to attend lessons every day and have only heard of that in London for private (read expensive) classes.
Surely if an AP wants to choose that option then it's down to her to pay. But there must be classes that fit in with your AP's timetable no?. Have you checked your LEA and Council websites for ESOL/EFL?

Yes, your au pair is absolutely within her rights to wish to go to language classes every day.

ingles2, I reckon you are right. I believe many aupairs can only afford the council-run ESOL classes. And they tend to be 3x per week. Every day classes are private classes, which I did investigate in my area which has a lot of private language schools: at least a £100 a week, well over the affordability of most aupairs. But even then, you can choose the frequency (linked to cost) of the classes and the timings are probably more flexible than ESOL.

ummm... yes Anna, you're right. But not if it conflicts with her working hours every day. There'd be no point in having an AP otherwise. She's free to do whatever she likes during her freetime Starbucks, it's up to her to make sure she's back in time for work.

No, that's not how it works.

The au pair is in the UK to learn a language - English - and her deal is that she gets to go to language classes and receives board and lodging from a family plus a small amount of weekly pocket money in exchange for 30 hours of light housework and childcare and a couple of nights of babysitting.

It is up to the family and the au pair to ensure before she arrives that their needs (childcare/housework) and her needs (language classes) are reconcilable. In practice, since the family is in England and knows or can find out readily about the logistics of their requirements and the au pairs, the family needs to work it all out before^ employing the au pair.

It is just not good enough to say that the family's needs take priority over the au pair's needs once she has arrived.

Why wasn't this all sorted out beforehand? If she can't/won't compromise on this, you need a new au pair.

On finding out about timings and frequency of ESOL language classes, the council was not able to tell me in advance the exact times or days of the classes because they needed to personally assess the aupair's standard of English and then decide where to place her, if there was availability.

So not everything can be agreed upfront before the offer.

But I did know that the maximum is 3x a week of lessons. So I explained in my correspondence that we would be prepared to work around the aupair's requirements for 2-3 days a week. But not Every Day. If the aupair wanted daily (private) lessons, we would not have offered her because it would be a logistical nightmare and would make my life more difficult, rather than easier.

I used to work in a language school and almost all of the au pairs came either two or three times a week for 3-hour classes - in fact we used to call those 'the au pair classes' - they were cheaper per hour than the full-time am or pm classes too.

No Anna....
As blueshoes says, the council offers classes depending on their ability. This involves registration by the AP not the family, and an initial assesment to determine their level.
A family cannot organise that for an AP in advance!
Seesh!

Then I think the family has to work around the English classes, in that case. Any other way would be total exploitation of the au pair. She is not an employee.

Anna! I've seen you forcing this point home on these threads before! but you seem to miss the actual point every time.
Exploitation! What ARE you talking about!?
It's called give and take, just like in any bloody family, which is what an AP is meant to be.
If the classes are a couple of times a week then yes, the family can arrange a schedule, so the AP can go to her class and everyone is happy,
if the AP wants classes at pick up time EVERY day, that's just not going to work is it! it certainly wouldn't work for me.
In this case, the AP s being unreasonable if there are alternative classes that would suit her needs and provided by the council...AND the OP is being unreasonable, The AP wants to attend a course, so she could get on the internet and find one that potentially fits in with her schedule.
I get the impression this is the OP's first AP....there is an awful lot to learn. She doesn't need to be pompously harped onto about exploitbloodyation!

Relax ingles2.

Attending a regular English class is not an optional extra for the AP but the raison d'être of her coming to England.

it may be the raison d'etre for some Anna but certainly not all,...I've had one long term AP who didn't want to go to college and was happy to improve her English in the home and with her friends. Her choice totally......
AP host families are not charities you know...Shall I open my home, my heart and my purse to a EU girl in the hope that once in a blue moon (on her say so of course ) she might(only might) be available to look after the dc's for an hour.
I know you're in Paris Anna, but tbh you could be on a different planet!

Ingles2 - an au pair who does not want to attend language classes is opting out of the whole raison d'être for being an au pair. If she wants to opt out and the family is OK with this - fine. But it really is not OK for the family to prevent an au pair who wishes to attend language classes from doing so.

Families who think they can deny their au pair the opportunity of attending regular, structured language lessons are exploiting their au pair. The au pair didn't go to England to be a poorly paid domestic servant. She went to attend language lessons, and to pay her way by doing light domestic chores.

Anna,... someone becomes an AP to improve their English! How they achieve that is entirely up to them! I think you'll find the biggest improvements come from regular chat/discussion with their host family NOT the classes...
No....no AP should be denied the chance to attend classes, but the have to appreciate that they might need to attend classes that are also suitable for the family....
Have you actually had an AP in the last few years?

Ingles2 - I come to this from a different position to you as I have a part-time voluntary job placing APs... so I do know their rights, you know .

Is that in France or here?

And placing one is very different to living with one btw

French in England and English in France.

I really do know my stuff on AP's rights and they have a right to attend regular language classes and if that right is denied by the family (not if they opt out, though where I do this that won't happen) the AP can get help either explaining this to the family or be moved instantly. It is breach of AP contract.

ok...so in your opinion then, if AP's need to be extremely careful to avoid exploitation, are not employees but then again can't expect to be treated like any other member of the family for fear of exploitation...what is the benefit to having an AP, bearing in mind in this day and age it cost a considerable amount of money and an awful lot of hard work on behalf of the host mother?

ingles2 - normally an AP works 30 hours a week and does 2 nights babysitting.

30 hours a week can either be five hours a day, six days a week (ie either Saturday or Sunday off all day) or six hours a day, five days a week (normally Monday to Friday).

If an AP does six hours a day, that should normally give her ample time to attend a daily language lesson.

For example: AP does children's wake-up, breakfast and school drop-off = 7 am to 9 am so two hours. Then she does school pick-up, park, bath and supper = 3.45 pm to 7.45 pm, so four hours. She therefore has between 9 am and 3.45 pm to do language classes and does six hours work a day.

Other example:

AP does not have sole charge and is "seconding" a mother of four, two of whom are babies at home and two of whom are at pre-school. The mother must allow the AP at least four hours during the day to get to and from a language class - it is not OK to ask the AP to do several split shifts (eg around school/nursery pick-ups/drop-offs) that prevent her from doing a language class, however much the mother might actually wish for those split shifts.

I'm intrigued. How do aupair rights arise?

I signed a contract with my current aupair at her request and she specifically said she did not want to attend english classes (Swedish, fab English).

As far as I know, families do not tend to sign contracts with their aupairs. So interested to know where this right to English classes every day arises.

blueshoes - you presumably brokered your negotiation verbally direct with your au pair?

Anna have always been told by agencies here that the 30 hours are over 5 days ....
anyway, yes that's exactly what we do, our AP has from 9am-3pm off,, as you say plenty of time for a course...assuming that's when the course is running! and if it s not oversubscribed... luckily for us it does...now, go to London and see if that works! It doesn't....no free courses, and the courses they do have start at 9, so no time to get to college. then what? of course!!!!!! the AP is being exploited!
AS I said try living with one!