Nicole, looking for a nanny - YO30 Overton

We are looking for an after-school nanny to join our family.

I am a single mum of one 8 year old daughter (and one very affectionate but large dog) who works mostly from home so I am present but not always available. At the moment my daughter is walked home from school by a family friend and then spends time flitting between electronic devices and bouncing on the trampoline. I struggle between balancing her needs and finishing a full day's work which means by 6.30/7pm we are both shattered and only have the last hour of the day to eat, get organised for the next day, do schoolwork, and usually end up with a fractious bedtime.

We have made the decision to hire a nanny to support in establishing some independence and healthy habits for my daughter in this next stage of development. We need someone who can be fun, engaged and give her some vital time developing her own interests and leading play based activities, all with solid boundaries and expectations. As an after-school nanny you could be facing a child who has come home tired or wired and you will need to be able to change plans and adapt to this. This is a role to help us as a family and the Nanny will be expected to support us in keeping us in a routine and organised during the school week. My daughter is high-energy and very bright. She is very creative but has not quite developed independent play and would benefit from some flexibly planned activities based around her interests. She normally engages well on outdoor and creative activities, but like many kids does not always see things through and it would be a great part of her development to be encouraged to complete activities.

I am also hoping that a Nanny would be open to facilitate friends for tea and school holiday play dates, that would not be possible without you being here and really missed by my daughter.

I am keen to see my daughter gain independence - she is fiercely so anyway - but really could do with boundaries and support in seeing through decisions and consequences. I am looking for someone who will encourage a decision rich environment and facilitate without enabling and allow for consequences where necessary. A great example of this is my daughter regularly asks to 'be pack up' at school, the answer is no as she knows I do not have time to do this on an evening after work. Allowing her to make this decision would be a way for her to develop independence. Facilitating this would be helping her write a shopping list and either making sure it is on the family shop well in advance or walking to the local shop after school together and picking up a small shop and then helping her prepare the pack up each evening. The natural consequence of her not wanting to do any or all of this would be she gets a school dinner that week, or next day. Enabling would be doing it all for her while she watched TV or plays on Roblox!

Any opportunities that could help us grow and develop family activities would be wholeheartedly welcome.

Our dog is part of our family and cannot be locked away while a nanny is here, so you must be comfortable with family pets and also in ensuring both child and dog respect household rules. There aren't that many!

Daily Duties:
- Pick up from school (or be available when she gets dropped home)
- Prepare a Snack/early tea
- Help Child with daily Chores (feed and walk the dog, quick tidy up of her room)
- Keep on top on the schedule and support the child in being organised for activities and events (packing P.E kits, preparing costume days, packing school bags)
- Planning activities and supporting homework
- Play and burn off some energy!
- Drop off at activities, if possible.

Hours will be 3.30pm to between 6.30pm - 8.30pm Mon to Thursday.
There will need to be some flexibility around this depending on in-school activities finishing later and/or the nanny's ability to drop off at activities. We will aim for between 12 - 15 hours each week and can agree each half-term in advance to meet both parties.
School Holiday Hours will be very flexible and could be a combination of full or part days, and time off where needed, again we can plan well in advance to suit both parties. We are normally away a good deal during the holidays so would consider a mostly term-time nanny if this was preffered, or could be flexible with contract arrangements to facilitate both parties.

We would prefer OFSTED registered so payment could be made through the Government online childcare account.