Work abroad in Andie's family for 1-12 Months starting from May 2024 as an Au Pair and Live-in Tutor to take care of 1 children of 15+ years old in Harefield, Uxbridge, Greater London United Kingdom

Dear potential future fille ou garçon Au Pair

Hello! Greetings!

Vous verrez que j'ai écrit beaucoup, et j'ai donné pas mal d'informations, pour essayer de bien expliquer notre situation familiale, qui n'est pas peut-être ce que vous pensez chercher comme fille/garçon au pair. Comme ça, vous saurez un peu à l'avance et j'espère que cela vous aidera à prendre une décision envers notre petite famille ;-) Je continue en anglais...

We are looking for a compassionate and caring young man (or could be a young woman) who speaks either French OR Afrikaans and preferably someone who is physically active and into kicking a ball around with a hyper teenager!

Harrison (or Harry) is a charming, polite and very affectionate young man, but he is a little bit behind academically and developmentally. He lived on the streets of Cape Town with his birth parents for 8 years and he has FASD (foetal alcohol syndrome) and learning needs. But you wouldn’t know it, as he presents himself as any teenager. He is a little bit young and immature for his age and level of development.

He loves sports especially shooting hoops and playing football. He's not sure if he supports Tottenham or Arsenal! Harrison is obsessed with cars and is already learning to drive. He loves playing indoor games, especially Monopoly and UNO. He is currently spending way too much time on his devices, which is not good for him. He often complains about not having a sibling. It would be wonderful for us to have a young man, a few years older than Harrison, living with us for a month or two (or maybe longer if things work out well). Harry is physically very strong and likes to play-fight with us, and with the dogs, which is not always appropriate! To have a fit and healthy, young, active man to spar with Harrison, like a big brother, would be amazing!

In a past life I was a French teacher and have always tried to speak as much French as possible with Harrison. He understands and speaks a little, but at the moment doesn't read and write in French - even reading and writing in English is challenging for him, due to his special educational needs. So alongside keeping him active, we would love it if you could spend some time teaching him French and speaking to him as much as possible in your native tongue. We know that part of your desire to come to the UK as an au pair is to learn English, so we would obviously find plenty of time for that for you too.

We adopted Harrison from South Africa, and we would also love for him not to forget his Afrikaans. So we are looking for a young male au pair who is fluent in either French or Afrikaans (golden ticket would be in both, but this is unlikely!)

Harrison is 16 (he will turn 17 in May 2024) and needs to take some GCSEs in order to progress to further education. He is late taking them, because of his learning difficulties and tough start in life. He attends a special educational needs (SEN) school, which he will be leaving in June 2024, and will be moving to a new educational setting in September 2024, but we do not yet know where.

We would love for him to take French and Afrikaans GCSEs, so he needs help with conversation and understanding. Lots of chatting and less of structured teaching, but some of that too. I will explain more if we connect. He is also taking the compulsory Maths and English GCSEs and struggles with both of those. In the past I have helped him a lot (I home-schooled him for the first 18 months he lived with us, as he was totally uneducated when we met him), and continued supporting him in the evenings with his learning. Sadly, my health is now such that I can no longer do this on a regular basis.

There would be some daily housework involved, but our house is small, so it wouldn't be too much. Due to my illness, we do not manage to keep on top of the daily tasks, so having someone to make sure the kitchen was clean and tidy, push a vacuum around once a day and to clean the toilets, and such like, would be amazing - so not a lot of work, but it would be of immense help to us. Some cookery skills would be really useful, but not essential.

We will be happy to help you with your English, but you would be more than welcome to take time out to go for language lessons here. I would also be happy to speak with you in French where necessary, if your English is basic, but my husband will only be able to speak to you in English.

You would have a fairly small room, as our house is not large, overlooking our garden, with a double bed, cupboard space and a shared bathroom. There would be some of our belongings in there - a bookshelf and also some bedding etc. stored in the wardrobe, but the room would be yours and private.

If you don't like cats and dogs or have pet-hair allergies, then this household unfortunately wouldn't work for you. We have three of each and they are a HUGE part of our family <3 All are very friendly and loving - they will be jumping all over you! We are also a pretty unusual "blended" family and so if you are looking for a conventional household to take care of young children, then we are not the family you are looking for ;-)

However... we are open-hearted, so we would welcome you, make you feel at home and treat you as part of our family.

With all best wishes
Andie, Andrew and Harrison plus the dogs and cats!

PS:
I have posted this on 10th February 2024. It is an idea we have just started to consider for later in the Spring, into the Summer holiday, so we are looking at all our options... We would need to prepare the house for a long-term guest, so realistically would not be having an au pair to stay until May 2024. Please bear with me if I don't reply very quickly - I am not too well and on some days do not look at my computer or emails at all. I have also not yet signed up to Premium membership, while we consider our options, so cannot yet see personal messages. Once we have made our decision definitely to go ahead with hiring an au pair, we will get in touch.


PPS:
A long long time ago, on and off from 1979 (aged only 16) to 1994 (probably long before you were even born!), I was myself au pairing in many different families in Europe and South America, to improve my language skills, so I know how you must be feeling right now - nervous, apprehensive, but excited! We will treat you with kindness and respect, and certainly not expect you to be like a servant, because I was not always treated as well as I should have been, and I know how terrible that feels... you will be a part of our family and treated as a guest and friend, not an employee.