Category: nannies

Preparing for interview

A lot rides on a nanny job interview so it’s worth taking the time to prepare it well. Here are ten tips to help you ace that all-important meeting before you even step in the door.

 

1. Plan your route – as soon as you have a place and a time work out how long it will take you to get there and the most reliable route. You don’t want to get lost on the big day so if it’s an area you don’t know it might be worth doing a dry run.

2. Prep your portfolio – make sure you have all the certificates and references you need in one place, as well as any example routines or activities you want to show the parents. Most parents will also ask to see proof of identity and address so have those handy too.

3. Scout out the area – if you don’t know the area then have a look on the internet for local activities and amenities. This will also give you a feel for whether you want to work there or not.

4. List your questions for them – our twenty questions to ask at interview are a good start but if there’s anything particular about the position you want to know be sure to write it down so you remember to ask.

5. Refresh your knowledge – it’s always a good idea to read up on the next developmental stages for your future charges before interview, especially if you haven’t worked with that age group for a while. If it’s an interview with a baby familiarise yourself with the latest weaning guidelines and for a toddler remind yourself about different behaviour management strategies and potty training.

6. Pick your outfit – what to wear for a nanny interview could be a whole separate blog post but your keywords should be comfortable yet smart. You want to create a good impression but still be able to get down on the floor and play if you meet the children.

7. Leave early -it’s better to arrive 20 minutes early and wait in the car or have a coffee than be in a big rush or, worse, late.

8. Go over the details – it creates a good impression if you have the information you’ve been given at your fingertips so you’re able to greet your future boss by names as they open the door and are prepared

9. Scrub up – just before you ring the bell check yourself in the mirror and get rid of any smudges, stains or stray hairs. Its worth keeping a pack of baby wipes in your bag to deal with any last minute emergencies.

10. Shake hands and smile – when the door is opened be smiling and friendly, shake hands confidently and step inside!

Sports day

Thank you, Louise for sending this to us. We’re delighted to share it.

It was my charge’s schools Sports Day today. I think times have changed and not necessarily for the better, and maybe you’ll agree, maybe you won’t but I’d like to share why I’m disappointed.

When I was younger our Sports Day was about friendly competition, about doing our best in races to go really fast and beat our friends. There were three races – the running race, the sack race and the egg and spoon race – for each and every year, with a long race and a short race for the older years, and no-one ever won all of them although we all tried. The best anyone managed was two and that was something to be marvelled at. Whoever was the winner won fair and square, no cheating allowed, and there were points for second and third place. We all tried our best to get points for our house. When you were in year 5 and 6 you got to go to the big athletics ground where we had Sports Day and try long jump, high jump, hurdles and very blunt javelin every fortnight in the summer term and there was a competition that everyone watched on the day itself.

Today there wasn’t a house system so there was no incentive to cheer on other classes. In fact I don’t think they were watching most of the time because each class was busy with their own event. It’s a shame that Sports Day is no longer a time for the whole school community to come together. Everyone got a prize for something, so the value of winning was lost, and the losers didn’t learn to lose gracefully or vow to do better next year because they got a medal for trying. I have nothing against trying but I worry about what children are learning when they get a medal for it!

There were so many events, some traditional and some not, and no consistency across the years, and that made me really think. We liked our simple races. The running races rewarded people who could run, but they often tried to go too fast in the egg and spoon. The sack race was down to luck on the day and not getting tangled in your sack and falling flat on your face. We were all desperate for it to be our turn to be in year 5 to do the Big Events and when we there we felt so special that it didn’t matter who won.

One thing I’m not sorry that they don’t have any more is the Parents Race. I think my charge would have made me run in it, and I like to think I would have lost with grace and shown her how to do that, but it was just too hot.

The six step guide to OFSTED registration for nannies

So the family you’re working for want you to become OFSTED registered? Simple, you think. What do I need and where do I sign up? And then you hit a blank.

Below are 6 steps to OFSTED registration for nannies, au pairs and mother’s helps, which OFSTED groups together and calls ‘home childcarers’.

Continue reading “The six step guide to OFSTED registration for nannies”

Calculating holiday entitlement

Standard holiday entitlement in the UK is 5.6 weeks, which include all Bank Holiday, pro rata for part time workers. But what does this mean? When does it start? What if you work part time or varying days or reduced hours for part of the year or term time only?

 

If you work full time you will get 4 weeks holiday and the 8 ordinary Bank Holidays (New Year’s Day or the following Monday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, the early May Bank Holiday, the Spring Bank Holiday, the August Bank Holiday, Christmas Day or the following Monday and Boxing Day or the following Monday or Tuesday). This give you a total of 28 days holiday.

To calculate your holiday entitlement for part time work, where you work the same days and hours each week you simply divide those 28 days by 5 to get a figure for 1 day per week and multiply by the number of days you work – so for 3 days it would be (28 days / 5 x 3 days)

1 day = 5.6 days or 1.12 weeks

2 days = 11.2 days or 2.24 weeks

3 days = 16.8 or 3.36 weeks

4 days = 22.4 or 4.48 weeks

Holdiay can be rounded up, but not down.

 

If you work term time only then you can use a similar calculation substituting weeks for days. In this example we’ll assume that there are 39 school weeks, so you get 4.2 weeks holiday (5.6 weeks / 52 x 39 weeks). If you have to take your holiday outside of term time then you may have an arrangement that you are paid in lieu of holiday. Alternatively you may be employed for 44 weeks of the year to allow for the holiday to be taken during your period of employment.

 

If you work different hours on different days but still work a fixed number of days per week you may find it more useful to calculate your holiday in terms of hours. For example Monday and Tuesday are 10 hour days but Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are 5 hour days. Taking 5 Mondays off would give double the amount of time not worked but still use the same amount of holiday. To calculate holiday in hours just add up the number of hours over a week, in this case 35, and multiply that by the number of weeks holiday entitlement, in this case 5.6, giving 196 hours (35 x 5.6).

 

The same principle applies if you work part-time in term time and full time in school holidays. In this case you need to calculate the number of hours worked over a year, for example 4 hours per day, 5 days per week for 39 weeks per year ( 4 x 5 x 39,) which is 780 hours, and 10 hours per day, 5 days per week for 13 weeks per year (10 x 5 x 13), which is 650 hours, giving a total of 1430 hours per year. This is then divided ny 52 to get the average weekly hours (1430 / 52) which is 27.5 hours and mulitplied by the weekly allowance for a full week, 5.6, to give 154 hours holiday a year. That means 15.4 days if taken in school holidays or 38.5 days if taken in term time – quite a difference!

 

If  you work varying hours and can’ establish a weekly average then it may be best to calculate holiday using the accrual method, so for every hour you work you earn 12.07% of an hour as holiday.

 

Holiday is distributed according to a leave year. This is usually specified in the contract, and many run from 1st January to 31st December, with a pro rata allowance for the first and final years. That means if you leave a job after working 10 weeks you will get 1.1 weeks holiday (5.6 weeks / 52 x 10 weeks).

 

We hope this helps you to make sense of your holiday entitlement, and remember you can always post on our messageboards to  get advice from other nannies specific to you.

 

 

5 ways with pom-poms

 

Pom-poms are a great tool for promoting all kinds of development. Here are 5 activities you can do with a muffin tray, a small jar or cup, a pair of tweezers or tongs and a load of pom-poms.

 

Pick them up and drop them. This simple activity for younger children promotes the pincer grip, which is vital for holding a pencil later on. Picking up and dropping the pom-poms promotes hand eye coordination and provides a sensory experience too.

Sort the pom-poms acording to colour. Not only is this promoting fine motor development and hand-eye coordination but it’s also working on matching and colour recognition.

 

Extend the activity by using tweezers. If you put the pom-poms into a narrow necked jar they won’t be able to get their hand in their to pick the pom-poms up so they’ll need to use tongs or tweezers. The pinching motions strengthens the muscles in the hand and the added challenge will develop problem solving abilities.

 

Count. It sounds simple but you have a lot of pom-poms so you can at least count to twenty with all of them, count how many of different colours, work on concepts such as more and fewer, and add up by transferring pom-poms from one part of the tray to another. It’s ideal for explaining tens and units if you have different sized pom-poms. The smaller ones are units and when you put the tenth smaller one in you can exchange 10 small pom-poms for a bigger one. Top tip from a primary maths specialist – always start to count from zero. The quantity ‘one’ doesn’t make sense unless there is nothing there in the first place so make it obvious and associate zero with nothing from the start.

 

Blow them. Pom-poms are light and they roll so get down and blow them in a straight line or round a course you’ve drawn out on paper. As well as encouraging children to fill their lungs this also develops the muscles of the face and jaw which is great for speech development.

Real Nappy Week

This week is Real Nappy Week, celebrating the use of cloth nappies and the savings in terms of cash and the environment they can bring. Go Real estimate that parents can save between £150 and £1000 when using real nappies and if every child in England and Wales was in cloth there would be 355,000 tonnes of waste saved (and the £32 million cost of disposing of all the disposables). But cloth is still a pretty unpopular choice – we had to search pretty hard to find nannies who used it –  and there are two big misconceptions.

It’s unhygienic

Nappies need changing whether you use disposables or cloth and they both usually go into a sealed contained in the bathroom. Cloth nappies are usually washed at 60C to kill any germs lurking in the nappy and come out squeaky clean. Out and about you just need to take a washable, sealable wetbag and instead of binning the nappy you take it home.

“I was a bit worried when my new employers mentioned at interview that they used cloth nappies mostly because I was a live in and would be using the same washing machine to wash my clothes as the nappies. But then I thought about it and baby clothes are covered in poo and wee and sick half the time and they go in the machine. The nappies come out clean so it must work.” Sophie

It’s complicated

The only complicated thing is choosing which of the many systems out there to use. You can get all in ones which are just like a disposable nappy only with poppers or velcro. The whole thing comes off and into the bucket. Then there are pocket nappies with an outer nappy part and an insert that goes in the pocket and again you just take one and put it on like a disposable. Two part systems have a shaped nappy, a terry nappy or a square of material that is
prefolded into a rectangle and put in the wrap. These all need an extra waterproof wrap over the top but once you’ve done it a few times you soon get the hang of it. Nappy pins are out too – nifty little T-shaped bits of plastic grip the fabric and hold it together or there are integrated poppers or velcro.

“When I started nannying in the late 1970s it was terry nappies and plastic pants. Cloth nappies now are much more fun and really easy to use.” Julie

Remember you can always compromise!

“I don’t mind changing them but the parents do the washing. That’s the deal. The pocket nappies we have are just like disposables so ir’s minimal effort for me and they actually smell less.” Kate

The Pufflympics

Stuck for ideas? Why not try a themed activity week?! Nanny Claire has done weeks of activities centered around Princesses,  cars and space, and here she shares her Winter Olympic theme with a twist.

 

I’m a nanny and look after 3 children, two girls E 12 years old and AM 6 years old and one boy AC 9 years old. My job is usually part-time, I do the school run and then ferrying around various after school activities and playdates. However, there are times that those who look after children dread…the school holidays.

I had not given much thought as to what we were going to do all week, swimming, movies and playdates were confirmed but they don’t take up the whole week. On Monday the kids were having breakfast and it just so happened that the Winter Olympics were on, so especially with sports obsessed AC, we  were watching the curling. I’m usually quite strict on TV hours, switched off after breakfast until at least 4:30pm, but the Winter Olympics is not on every  week so it’s an exception to the rule.

As most of us who look after children know, it’s not long before we get the inevitable phrase “What are we going to do today?”, one of the kids said that curling looking fun so I said I bet we can find something to do curling with if you get washed and dressed, at which point they vanished like speedy ninjas.

So now I had to find something to play curling with, I wandered around looking at the various toys and then I saw the puffles…If anyone doesn’t know what a puffle is, they are pets for penguins on the popular Club Penguin game, they are basically small round, come in various colours and have fuzzy hair. There happen to be quite a few in the kids collection, kind of curling stone shaped and should slide across the floor quite nicely!

The weather outside was typically pouring down with rain, so I tested some chalk on the kitchen tiles just to make sure it would come off  later (not my floor after all!), no problem there so I sketched out some circles to represent the house in curling, got the brush out of the cupboard  and we were ready to go! There was soon puffles flying in all directions and much laughing, arguing and cheering. We decided that scoring would be whoever got their puffles closest to the middle on their turn, I didn’t expect the game to be such a big hit and the kids asked what other events we could do.

So we looked up the other Olympic sports there were, and I tried to work out how we could replicate them at home, a brief thought of kids  sliding down the stairs on trays entered my mind swiftly followed by thoughts of a trip to A & E. However bob sleigh could work, if we made them for the  puffles and not the kids. So at dinner I told the kids we were going to be making bob sleds for the puffles tomorrow.

On Tuesday morning I was greeted with much excitement, “Are we still making sleds for puffles today? After breakfast I raided my box collection, always have a variety of empty boxes for such rainy days, I cut down 3 boxes to the same size for each of them, out came the glue, and various arts and crafts paraphernalia. There was much discussion about what would make it slide better, runners on the bottom, aerodynamics, making it look pretty, etc.

 

I fashioned a slide out of some cardboard box strips and white bin liners, and put it on the stairs, we then timed each puffle and recorded the time. The kids spontaneously decided to create a team name and made-up country for their puffles, so we then had team Fermat for E, team Mouseling for AM and team I Don’t Know for AC, they created maps for their countries and an event chart went up on the wall, all their own ideas I’m proud to say.

 

 

The pressure was now on me to come up with the next day’s event, thinking of the events involved I decided that the Ski slalom was possible with a little help from a remote control car! This did involve tying the puffle to the car under the pretence of a seat belt, and the kids made crash helmets out of craft foam for them! The kids have a building set called Cranium which is a set of poles and cloths which can be constructed to create play houses, etc. and the poles turned out to be quite useful for slalom flags. We opted for the rule of having to go around 2 poles at least and not all of them, this way they all had a good chance to get around the course successfully. They had plenty of time to practice driving the car before we did individual times and recorded them on the event sheet, needless to say puffles and poles went flying in all directions!

I went home that night and dreamt of puffles, and how to do the next event! I decided that I could recycle the bob sled run into a ski jump  and use the remote control car again; we used a sun lounger cushion so we didn’t mangle the car. I admit the car was very slow but managed to construct  the jump so if you lined up well you could get the car to do a small jump off the end, sufficient enough to get a small measurement anyway. The kids all got  to practice again before we took some final measurements. This wrapped up the final event of the Pufflympics, the next day was Friday and the last day of the holidays.

We decided to host our own closing ceremony; a toy shopping trolley became a puffle parade float with a few adaptions of course. The kids designed their own part of the float to put their puffle on to reflect their team and country. Next was designing their own podium step, E helped me make some medals by gluing some sequins to stickers and then cutting them out. E made a party playlist on her iPod and wrote a speech, AC lined the parade route on the floor with string and AM helped me get some food ready. It was junk food heaven as I let them have full reign on what food they wanted, so we had hot dogs, pizza, chips, cheese sandwiches and squishy tomatoes (AM really really likes cherry tomatoes roasted until extremely squishy)!

So after a busy week hosting the Pufflympics the kids had been entertained all week when it was generally too rainy to go outside, and I hadn’t been driven mad by kids asking what they can do every 10 minutes. Most importantly we all learned a lot more about the winter Olympic sports, lots of fancy new words and rules and at a fraction of a cost compared to the real thing. I essentially used toys and things we had in the house, the kids had a blast and spontaneously  added lots of their own ideas of what they could do. If you fancy hosting your own event you don’t necessarily have to have puffles on hand, cars would also have made great competitors for the Carlympics or a variety of cuddly toys for the Cuddlympics? You don’t need to be confined indoors or to the Olympics either. Why not host the World Cup or the Commonwealth Games outside?

The less than perfect pram

Buying a pram is a huge decision for parents. In fact it’s probably the baby buy that they spend the most time on and among the most expensive items. Parents to be consider their comfort, what they will use the pram for and whether it will fit in their car….. but understandably they haven’t thought about their nanny.

 

Telling parents that you don’t like their pram is one of the most awkward things to do. You might be worried that you come across as petty or picky but a pram is an essential piece of equipment that you are likely to use every day and if you can’t push it comfortably, fold and unfold it, or fit it in your car then you need to tell them sooner rather than later. In a way it can feel like you’re questioning their parenting choices, because a pram is after all not just a mode of baby transport. It’s a very obvious signal to the rest of the world of the image that they want to project and their ideas may not mesh with what you know is comfortable for you. So how do you go about it?

In this case honestly is the best policy and make it clear that these are your personal feelings about an inanimate object, so rather than saying ‘your pram is really heavy’ try saying ‘I find the pram really heavy’. Offer workable solutions: ask them to teach you how to put it up and down, suggest that you take the bus instead of using your car or that they get a ‘car buggy’ for days out and you can use their pram when walking. If the handles are too high you can approach it in a joky manner, but don’t underestimate how serious a problem it is for you in the long term.

If you know of any affordable replacements then if they offer to get a new pram you can be ready with suggestions that will suit everyone. One of the biggest issues is height difference so if you’ve done some research don’t make the same mistake and forget about your very tall DadBoss!

Quick Mother’s Day Crafts

Need an idea for Mother’s Day idea in a hurry?

We’ve got you covered! Here are our 5 top picks:

 

Lollipop stick flowers

 

Butterfly Cupcakes

 

Handprint, footprint flowers

 

Button decorated flowerpot

 

Handprint, footprint ‘love’

 

 

REMEMBER: Families come in all shapes and sizes, and this includes families with two fathers or who sadly don’t have a mother or father because they have passed away or are no longer in contact. Mother’s Day can be a very sensitive time and if you are working with a child who, for whatever reason, doesn’t have a mother then help them to find a ‘motherly figure’ so they can join in.

Emergency planning

If you’re in the UK right now you won’t have been able to escape the weather forescats and the news reports of severe flooding, high winds and power outages, but how many nannies have an emergency plan agreed with the parents in case of disaster?

 

Imagine this:
Your workplace is on a flood plain and you start to notice water coming up through the drains. The river has flooded nearby fields and the road outside has started to flood. You start to worry that if you stay put you won’t be able to get your car out and will be trapped by the water. What do you do?

Or maybe you’ve been out for the day and as you return to your bosses’s house you find that the road is so flooded you can’t get by. Where do you go?

Obviously remaining in your charge’s home, where you employers expect you to be isn’t an option in either of those scenarios, but in the thick of an emergency situation it may be difficult to keep parents informed every step of the way. This is why a pre-agreed emergency plan that both nanny and parents are aware of is so important. Even if you don’t live on a flood plain you never know what might happen!

 

1. Agree a safe place, or two safe places in case one is also affected
If parents return home to find you gone and can’t get in touch with you they will know where to look. This might be your own home, your charge’s grandparents or a nanny friend’s. The idea is that you have somewhere to go away from the disaster, so the next street over probably won’t cut it. Make sure you know several alternative routes to get there too, and take natural obstacles like rivers into account.
 

2. Make a list of what to take with you

When you evacuate a house you need to assume that you won’t be back for a while. Some things, like a change of clothes and any special cuddly toys, you’ll take automatically, but your employer might want you to also take important documents with you too. Ask them if they have a file they would like you to grab on the way out, and if they don’t suggest they put one together.

 

3. Know how to secure the house before you leave

Obviously you and your charges are a priority but knowing how to switch the gas/electricity/water off (especially if it’s a gas leak or a plumbing disaster) could save time later.

 

4. Set an emergency contact

If you can’t check in with your employers for some reason, or they can’t reach you, designate a third party contact. That way if you have to leave your charge’s house and go to your agreed safe place you can leave a message with your employers and another person.

 

5. Have a waterproof emergency kit

Nannies nowadays usually have contact numbers on their mobile phone, and that’s fine until the network gets overloaded or your phone slips out of your pocket into the rising floodwaters. First item in your waterproof kit is laminated contact details for the parents and emergency contact. You should also laminate all your emergency information: your safe place, your ‘to-take’ list and instructions on how to secure the house. You should also have food and water, including baby milk if necessary (you can buy pre-sterilised, pre-made bottles), a first aid kit, and a torch and batteries.

 

It might seem extreme, and we hope you’ll never need to use it, but when it comes to you and your charge’s safety better safe than sorry!