ice mocha

Just want to get a feel for things over there...

At the mo, my 2 kids go to childminder. One will be 3 and the other 5 next month. It is very common practice here, where the childminder will do everything from sending your kids to school, to providing lunch and then picking them up from school after.

How does it work there? Do you have childminders or do most people send their kids to daycare??

What kind of rates should I be looking at? Hourly, daily, etc. At what age do kids start school there? My 4-yr-old is in reception at the moment, will be in Year 1 from September.

Just want an idea.... thanks

Dreamer

As far as I know childminders in OZ are called family daycarers. Im a registered Childminder here in Scotland and am hoping to continue if we get out to OZ.

paddyo

Yes, they are Family Day Carers and the system over there is very similar to here with the Ofsted system, local supervisors ensuring standards/facilities are of standard and meet regulations. Depending on where you go, each State has its own child care web page.

simsy

We had a brillant childminder in the uk for 9 years.

last year, i decided that i would like to try this. here in south australia you have to complete the Certificate III in Childrens Services before you can become a childminder. They say its flexible learning, but not really because you have to log on a certain day and time, thats if you can actually log on, there were lots of problems with people not being to access the appropriate website and even though i am with bigpond was never able to access it.

anyway, having a degree already, i am well used to studying and i thought it would be a walk in the park, but the volume of work is unbelievable. i think its about 16 assignments, 2 weeks in kindy and 2 weeks with a family day carer and roughly takes about one year.

when you do qualify and have children, you are inspected 12 times a year (it may be different for other states) they have just taken away the rules about how much you can charge, so basically you can charge what you want.

needless to say, i have tried to drop out of the course but they have talked me into just deferring it until march to see how i feel then. its no wonder there is a huge shortage of family day carers.

i was told by the department of education that every other state in australia will allow you to child mind while you are doing the course, but here in south australia they wont let you unless you have completed the whole course.

hope that helps.

Siren & Brian

What other have said, but doubt they would make them lunch, well the ones I know definitely dont.

paddyo

Do the current UK child care NVQ quals and Ofsted certification get recognition in Oz? Sorry for ignorance of locations, but as Sydney is in NSW will they apply the work while you learn principle? Whats, roughly, the average hourly/daily rate over there per child?

ice mocha

I guess I've been really lucky, only paying £2/hour for my eldest and £1.50/hour for the 2nd. And when my eldest is at sch, we dont get charged. So our monthly childcare cost is about £550-£600 depending if there's school holidays that month, etc.

I think our childminder is the one thing I will really miss when (IF) we do move

paddyo

F#ck me that is low!!! My wife charges £3.75 an hour and that is average for round here, Hampshire.

quoll

For school age kids, most families use after school care - most schools have an after school program. Some schools even have a breakfast program so it is possible to leave your kid at school at 8 and pick them up at 6. For younger kids, as others have said, Family Day care is certainly an option. To be registered I dont know that you have to have any qualifications just a police check but that could have changed as it is many years ago since my kids were that age. Child care centres are certainly more policed - more regulations and requirements. I did a ring around in Canberra the other day and ball park is $320 a week per kid before any allowances so for most people it will be way less than that. They have age appropriate programs and many families choose not to send their kids to preschool because the child care centre preschool program often parallels that which they would get in the systemic preschools.

comet555

If your 4 year old is turning 5 next month then they would be going into Prep here (at least in Queensland). You can look up the start dates here. But I just punched in born in Feb 2003 and it said that your child should start in 2008. The new term here starts next week, so they would be able to start right away.

http://education.qld.gov.au/etrf/prep.html

Your youngest would likely be in a kindy of some kind. My daughter was 3 last year and I had her in 1 day a week. It was $48 a day I think at her childcare centre. Then you can subtract whatever you'd be getting from Centrelink. So we got the minimum and I think it went down to $44-45 a day.

I have no idea how much a family day care would charge, so I'm no help there.

Dreamer

I need to put my prices up, I only charge £3.50 an hour lol

ozzydreamer

I charge £4.00 an hour or £4.50 an hour if less than 6 hours a day - plus £2.00 a day, and when I return to C,minding after my Mat. leave Im going to charge £5.00 an hour!

But that means I have a maximum of 3 children at a time, I may have a shock when I try to do it in Oz as I thikn the rate is cheaper over there!

Dreamer

Good Lord!! You're expensive!! Wonder if i could get away with charging that much up here. Ive just lost one of my regular kids so im bloody skint lol

ozzydreamer

Just realised where abouts you are, so expect your area is cheaper all over. I was lucky that I advertised in an area where I used to Nanny, so people liked it that I had worked for people they knew etc. So dont know if people from different areas would pay that, but then I know the best areas to advertise in

ice mocha

I know!!!! And this is the same price ever since we started, 5 years ago!! She hadn't put the price up at all. And she's great, very flexible, no extra charges if we're a bit late picking up, etc. I am really going to miss her...