"Thanks for your advice, it doesn't sound too bad then! I'm quite flexible, though I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with kids under the age of about 2. I'm looking at going to France, so yes I expect they'll want me to teach English. Do you think they would want formal 'teaching' or more just someone to communicate with their kids and let them learn by osmosis?"
- They won't want formal teaching, they want immersion for their children IME, so speaking to the children in English all the time, playing games in English etc. Those who do want formal teaching won't hire you unless you actually have a TEFL qualification or a PGCE/similar. In France you'll be expected to do more in the way of 'educational' activities because parents who have English speaking au pairs tend to want to see progress!
Also, my French is quite basic. Will this be a problem?
- Honestly, yes. Make sure you have enough French to call the fire brigade, an ambulance, do the shopping and open up a bank account before you go. Is the reason you're going to improve your French? How basic is basic?
You will need to at least understand French to deal with the children and you'll probably be expected to supervise homework (dictee, times tables etc) which will require French. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to communicate with children when you don't speak each other's language. I've done it once and am never, ever doing it again. By all means pretend to them that you don't speak French and only ever speak English but you'll need to understand what they're saying, especially if they're upset.
It depends what kind of job you want. A lot of au pairs where I was in Paris did after school pick-ups/Wednesday care for children and spoke English to them. The parents often spoke English too and they didn't learn any French.
That said I know a lovely family moving from here to Brittany who might be interested in an au pair and wouldn't mind if they only had basic French. The mother does speak English and the father is an ex-student of mine but only has fairly basic English. Only snag is the children are 1 and 3!
In France you're not likely to do morning drop off at school, although you may. Children sometimes come home for lunch and school ends around 3.30 or 4. There's no school on Wednesdays but often lots of running around to activities. If you're not in Paris (and even sometimes if you are) then you'll need to drive. You probably won't be expected to cook dinner as they eat quite late but will have to sort out their after school snack and do lunch whenever they're home. Children usually start at maternelle at about the age of 3 so if you don't want children under the age of 2 I'd specify you want school aged children on your profile.
If you fancy coming to the bit of France that's in the Indian Ocean I know a family who were looking for an English speaker here! Own flat and car, school aged children, tropical island....
I agree with squiffy - the market is pretty saturated with childcarers. A lot of them will be graduates, often with child-care related or language degrees, or people with a childcare qualification, drivers and have a good knowledge of the language already. If you have another marketable skill such as music that will help, as will experience of living abroad, previous jobs (especially with children).
One tip - put your profile information in French AND English. A classic mistake for au pairs wanting to go and 'teach' English is just to put it in English and then a lot of the information is lost. Get someone to check your French over (happy to help if you want) to make sure you don't make any heinous mistakes but make sure they don't add anything you don't understand/use horrifically advanced structures or parents will have very high expectations of your French!
Where in France do you want to be?