Teacher childminder

[carriebird]

Hi just wanted to gather some opinions. Most childminders in my area charge between £3 and £3,50. However, I'm a qualified teacher with lots of special needs and primary school experience. I have 2 small children of my own and only plan on minding 1 other. I hope to charge at least £4 an hour. Am I in fantasy land or do you think there is potential for parents to pay this?

[sarah707]

Welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately you can only charge the same rate as other childminders in your local area regardless of your qualifications.

If you undercut you will be very unpopular and if you over charge you will be less likely to get business.

I am an ex teacher so I know the dilemma you are facing however at the end of the day it's down to what parents can afford.

Hth

[The Juggler]

i agree with Sarah hon. def. set yourself at the top end of the local rates but don't go over. work can be hard enough to find sometimes and you will price yourself out of the market. good luck though

[Mamma4Ya]

Hi just wanted to gather some opinions. Most childminders in my area charge between £3 and £3,50. However, I'm a qualified teacher with lots of special needs and primary school experience. I have 2 small children of my own and only plan on minding 1 other. I hope to charge at least £4 an hour. Am I in fantasy land or do you think there is potential for parents to pay this?

I think you would have to go with the average in your area, but why not offer extra tuition to boost your money, some parents may take you up on it if their child is struggling.

[Playmate]

I agree with the others to a certain extent, however if you are not desperate to get started it may be an idea to test the water first. If those are the prices in your area I would try £3.75 and use all your selling points first. If you don't get anywhere you could then reduce to £3.50.
When I returned to Childminding five years ago, I set myself slightly higher than everyone else, it was slow to start but eventually kicked in. I now work full time with my husband and we prefer to have children filling the full day rather than part days as economically to us makes more sence; therefore we charge a daily rate. Sometimes its a matter of looking around and finding what other CM's offer for their hourly rate, alot of our competition don't offer a cooked meal, but we include this in our daily rate.
Good luck and welcome to the forum

[Dragonfly]

Sorry I dont agree, I think if you have a space for only one child i would go for the £ 4.00 per hour.Childminders here are charge different fees per hour, people will go for the sort of person they would like to look after their child first rather than the cheapest.

[tulip0803]

In this area childminders all charge around the same and parents do not expect to pay more than the average. I am the most qualified in the area but I have rarely been asked my qualifications only rates and what I can offer. I have only had one parent in all my years want to pay more (and she did ).

It does however depend on the availablility of childcare in your area - if all the other childminders are full then people may be more willing to pay more - if there are lots of vacancies then you may wait a long time to fill the space. Many parents are not worried about children being "educated" only that they are happy, playing and getting lots of experiences so make sure that you also bring all that into your blurb too IYSWIM.

[funemnx]

I think if you're only planning on having 1 more child each day and your advertising says that you offer something extra like teaching experience then you might well get interest at an enhanced rate - good luck

[doogiebowzer]

Hi

sorry to jump in on your chat but I am also a teacher but want to start childminding, and i want some honest opinions on this - should I stay teaching or should I start a new career in childminding, I am 38

[lfishwick]

I am a teacher turned childminder... I charge the same as most in my area ( higher end)- but a lot of my parents have come to me because I am a teacher. I do also provide private tuition - which keeps my foot in the teaching door abit...

I also have extensive special needs and primary experience and I have a Early Years degree in addition to my teacher training.

Childminding is very different to teaching, there are many pros and cons - you will have to really sit and think about why you want to become a childminder over teaching to see if it is worth it for you.

I wanted to be home more as my daughter is disabled and juggling working outside of home was getting tough... so childminding works for me.

[Carrie1983]

I am a qualified teacher who also has experience in childcare, with EBD children and with disabled children - I've worked with children for 11 years, but I have chosen to charge the same as every other childminder in my area to start with as I don't want to price myself out of the market. There are a few good childminders round here (and some not so good) and I don't really see that because I am a qualified teacher, I should come in and charge more than an outstanding rated childminder who has been minding for 15 years.

I will, however, be looking at my prices every April and already have a full time mindee and her part time brother waiting to start. Their mum is aware that my price WILL increase this April and at that point I will be more expensive than any other childminder in this town (they all charge £3.50).

This mum and others who have contacted me, have told me they have come to me (and she subsequently chose me) because of my experience and qualifications, which show a clear passion and dedication this area of work. Once your knowledge and experience start speaking for you, I then think you can look at charging more than your competitors, but to start with I'm not really sure.

[Optimalstar]

I'm a qualified primary teacher who has just registered to cm. On my childminding course there were 3 qualified teachers out of the 16 people on the course. I don't think qualified teachers cming are all that unusual.

Sam

www.samanthachildminder.co.uk

[rickysmiths]

I was a Home Economist, Catering manager and A Teacher in Adult Education in my other life many years ago!! I had my daughter and was expecting my son and wanted to be at home with them so I registered as a cm.

My work has evolved over the years and very much around my own children. My dh is a Primary teacher and in the last 5 years, now my children are much older, dd is off to Uni in a couple of weeks and ds about to go into 6th form. I have worked much more full time often having 4 under 5s 5 days a weeks and 3 or 3 before and after school. My income has been on a level with my dhs teaching pay. Before the Tax threashold was increased from £30,000 a couple of years ago I was well over the limit and had to do full accounts. I'm not the only one on the forum who was in that position either. Thank goodness the threashold is now £68,000 I don't think I will exceed that, not childminding anyhow!

Sorry I have rambled a bit. I hope the info was helpful.

[cadm]

Was drawn to your post as I too am fully qualified and experienced Primary teacher with two young children which is why *****mind and I have just taken on one full time. Icharge a daily rate which is pretty similar to my area maybe slightly higher. The parents of my mindee are both teachers too so they know my experience. I think childminders need to have that many qualifications and skills that they are pretty much teachers anyway but its entirely up to you what you want to charge and what parents are willing to pay you. Childminding is obviously very different to teaching but it fits around my yoiung family and allows me to use my skills and be with them too plus I too tutor to keep me involved.
Good luck with it all hope it works out well for you x

[Goatgirl]

Hi ,
I charged more than anyone in my local area when I started up. It put some parents off, but actually I think others found it reassuring that I valued my service so highly.

If you can afford to, I'd hold out for a higher hourly rate if that's what you want. Just not too much higher than the highest locally. I knew people in my vicinity were charging £3 and £3.50 so I went for £3.75, including all meals snacks, outings etc. Since then I have introduced ad hoc and fewer hours than available rates, as well as an unsocable hours rate and a slightly higher rate for before than after school to make it worth actually doing the morning school run. My hourly rate for full time year round care is still the same 3 years later, as I chose to stop providing meals instead (I still provide snacks and drinks though).

What you can achieve will depend on lots of other things of course: how you are percieved by parents; the economic group parents are in and what they can afford; what enquiries you get - how many and for what hours - It may be that you can't fill all your available hours with one child and need to introduce session or higher part time rates...

Good luck whatever you decide

best wishes,
Wendy

[mumx3]

I am a primary teacher turned minder too. I did it when I couldnt afford to pay for childcare for my 3 children and teach!

At first I had just one mindee due to 2 under fives of my own. I charged 50p per hour more than most others in the area and could fill my spaces over and over.

Then as a result the other minders put their money up to the same as mine and now we are all on roughly the same.

I think you need to equate it to what your take home money is. £4 an hour is not a lot when you are used to a teachers salary. But if you are getting £40 per day and you are paying zero in childcare costs and you can claim all your expenses back for stuff which you would have to spend anyway as you have 2 young children you are doing pretty well.

And the best bonus of all is you can watch your children grow up!

[jadavi]

Can I ask what people charge for schoolies?