Find an After School Care Nanny

What is an After-School Carer or Babysitter?

Parents with school-aged children often need extra help before school or after school. A babysitter can provide care for these specific hours.

What hours does a Before School or After School Carer Work?

It depends on the needs of the family. Often a before school babysitter comes into the home at 7 or 7:30am to help with the morning routine. The babysitter will then help walk or drive the children to school by 9am.

In the afternoons a babysitter is usually employed from 3pm til 6pm or 7pm. This is to cover the time to go to the school on time, get home, complete afterschool activities, and perhaps prepare the childrens' meal.

Is this job done by 1 or 2 carers?

It can be difficult to employ the one person to cover a morning and an afternoon shift (known as a 'split shift'). Not many people have work or study that will fit around these hours. So it's possible that families may need to use 2 different babysitters to help manage before and afterschool care.

What duties can the babysitter do?

In many cases, before school carers will be required to make the children breakfast, pack their school lunch, help dress the children and get them to school.

During the afternoon, after school babysitters would usually pick the child up from school or the bus stop, provide the children afternoon tea, take the children to any after school activities or sports and assist them with any homework and join in on a range of age appropriate activities until parents return home from work. In some cases, the after school carers will prepare dinner for the children or the family.

It is often a requirement for families that before and after school carers have a drivers license and car so they are able to transport the children

What do I pay an after school carer?

The pay varies according to the job. It is important to note that after school care is in very high demand and it can be a difficult role to fill, due to the short hours and time of the day. So most roles are paid very well to secure and keep the right babysitter. Most babysitters providing afterschool care are $25-30/hr and over.

Can the babysitter drive my child to school?

Some parents are searching for babysitters to drive children to school. We recommend checking with the babysitters, viewing their driver's license and seeing their Police Check. Parents may also ask the babysitter to do a 'test run' and drive the parents (with or without the children) to and from school to check her skills. Parents will also need to consider insurance and paying for petrol.