English Language courses - shocked by prices

[cluttercup]

Our au pair (due to start in the summer) is keen to start an English language course. I have been looking around for potential schools in Chelmsford where we live and am really shocked by the cost.

Prices seem to be in the region of £25-30 per week. Given that an au pair earns about £70 per week, that seems extortionate. I would love to be able to help out by contributing but sadly our personal circumstances do not allow (having to fork out for various therapies for our ds who has autism.)

I am really keen for her to take a class as it will help her settle and make friends as well as improve her English.

What do other families do?

You could try looking for a local authority run course - our last AP went to an evening course run by Essex LEA (not near Chelmsford though) and paid £200 for a year (1 lesson per week).
Current au pair pays £25 for 3 hours (2 lessons of 90 minutes each) per week which she finds affordable.

try googling ESOL chelmsford - there seem to be 3 places offering courses.

Thanks Millarkie!

Cluttercup - why are you paying privately for your son's autism treatments? These should be provided by your LEA, NHS and Social Services. Contact your local NAS branch who should be able to help you with this. How old is your ds? Well done for finding an AP who is happy to work with a child with ASD. Feel free to CAT me.

Meant to add - my AP pays about £50 for 10 weekly lessons a term, each 2 and a half hours long. We are in a county adjoining yours.

Wow cheapskate Mum - perhaps we'll have to decamp! I will look into the council provided lessons I think. We have been very lucky in our choice of au pair now and hope that the new one will be as good!

Whilst we are already linked in to the services the LEA and NHS provide, there are things that we have not been able to get funding for eg. ds (aged nearly 4) does 7 sessions at preschool per week as encouraged by his specialist teacher. He needs 1:1 support and the LEA will only fund 5 sessions so we pay for a worker to support him for the other two sessions. That's just one example...

Anyway, thinking about the deficit in ds's care depresses me so, I won't bore you with the details!

Now that the immigration category 'au-pair' doesn't exist, I don't think there is any requirement that someone coming to the UK to work, has to attend language lessons.

However I feel you are right to be wanting to encourage her to do language classes and given the low wages, they are unlikely to be able to afford those themselves. Attending a course may also mean that they meet other people working in similar employment, thus helping them to make friends.