New Year – New Exciting Developments

Smartaupairs is now fully back in the swing of things after the holiday season! 2012 will be a particularly exciting year for us as there are many new developments that will be introduced over the course of the year.

Here are some of the additions to our service:

Easy to use portal for consultation bookings – allows online consultation booking  for up to two weeks in advance.

Informative videos for host families – Smartaupairs will shortly introduce videos aimed to explain the au pair search process in easy steps to host families. The videos are excellent particularly for first time host families who are new to the au pair programme or have not used smartaupairs before. Comprenesive information is also available online on the www.smartaupairs.com website.

Additional au pair interviews & videos – in addition to an interview with the sending agency, smartaupairs interviews candidates also from the UK office.

More Australian Candidates – Our UK manager Tuuli has just returned from her visit to the Sydney office of smartaupairs! Together, the two smartaupairs branches are looking increase the number of Australian candidates to meet the growing demand for native speakers. We have already received excellent Australian candidates for 2012!

Winner of Competition

Congratulations to Anne Verdeuzeldonk (and her little helper) - she is the winner of a £15 voucher for her lovely photo.

New competitions to follow.

www.smartaupairs.com

Popular Polish Au Pairs

The au pair program is seeing a return of quality candidates from Eastern Europe. Our Polish au pairs were always very popular with our English host families and in 2011 we have placed many Polish au pairs again.

With the challenging job situation in Europe, more young people are turning to the au pair program as a rewarding gap year. Au pairs have a chance to really perfect their English skills during their year in the UK. Many of the Polish au pairs have already completed a university degree and are often 21-23 years old so they also have a more mature approach to caring for children and general life skills.

Register with Smartaupairs for more information.

Autumn is here so we have come up with a couple of seasonal activities you could try out to entertain the children

Leaf Rubbing

I’m sure you have all seen some beautifully coloured leaves in the parks and streets of England at this time of year. A lovely activity is to place a piece of paper over a leaf and to rub, using a crayon.  The rubbing can then be cut out and glued onto some coloured paper or used to make a collage.

If your children make a beautiful picture, please do send us a photograph and you may even win a £15 voucher.

Just to give you an idea of how to do this please view the video

How about learning a traditional English children’s game?

Conkers!!  The first thing you need to do is head down to your local park and look for the seed of a Horse Chestnut Tree, commonly known as a ‘conker’.

How to play……..

You only need two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string: they take turns striking each other’s conker until one breaks.

If you have any conkers left over you could even turn them into animals using cocktail sticks!!

We would really love to see some photos of your creations, and remember there is a £15 voucher up for grabs!

Au Pair of the Year Award 2012

It is now that time of the year when we recognise the hard work, dedication and love that our wonderful au pairs put into their time with your families!

It is easy to forget that most have travelled hundreds of kilometres, leaving behind the familiarity of their homeland to spend time with you and your children.

The IAPA “Au Pair of the Year Award 2012″ is one way of giving au pairs the recognition and credit they deserve and
it also enhances the public’s awareness of this demanding yet undervalued cultural experience.

The eighth IAPA Au Pair of the Year Award will be presented during the IAPA Annual Conference and Work Experience Travel Market which will take place in Budapest, Hungary, March, 2012.

How Do I Nominate My Au Pair?

If your Au Pair has assisted you in 2011 and you wish to nominate him/her, we ask that you do the following:

• Write a short essay between 500-850 words (about 1 page), describing the characteristics that make your au pair exceptional.
• We will then forward your nomination to IAPA, where it will be judged by a selection panel comprised of IAPA Board members.
• Entries must be received by Smartaupairs before 30 November 2011

The winning au pair, will be flown (all expenses paid) to the Association’s 18th Annual Conference where he/she will be presented with an award.

If you would like to see one of our favourite ‘au pair of the year awards’ click here, we find this video from the USA program truly inspiring:

http://www.youtube.com/user/AupairAustralia#p/f/4/Kb_isSptcgg

For photos & comments from the 2011 IAPA conference and au pair of the year awards, follow the link to our blog.

Please take the time to recognise your au pair’s hard work and nominate them for this wonderful award!

Kent Au Pair Meeting

It is always nice to meet and catch up with local au pairs!

Our recent meeting was organized in Maidstone and we hope arrange another meeting very soon.

If you are already a smartaupair and would like to suggest ideas for the next meeting, please e-mail us at office@smartaupairs.com or get in touch with us on Facebook

Kent Au Pairs & Chloe from SmartaupairsAnne, Au Pair in Maidstone & Chloe from Smartaupairs

Anne, Au Pair in Maidstone & Chloe from Smartaupairs

Au Pair Get Together & Feedback

What a fantastic turn out! We would like to thank all our Smartaupairs who made the effort to join our get-together in London last Saturday.

Over 75 au pairs (of our autumn arrivals) came to the capital for our briefing and the language course presentation by Eurocentres.

In our presentation we  covered topics such as practical advice(e.g. registering with a GP and opening a bank account), entertaining children of different ages, making the best of one’s time in the UK (travelling, finding friends, finding a language school) homesickness (and how to overcome it) & communication and in particular how to maintain good communication with the host family. Au pairs also had the chance to socialize after the event – many  left with several new au pair friends!

We hope all the au pairs enjoyed the event as much as we did – it was great to meet everyone!

This is what our au pairs have thought of the event so far:

‘The place was perfect as it was so easy to get there from Victoria Station!! ‘ – smartaupair, Germany.

‘You were very kind and obviously open-minded’ – smartaupair, Germany.

‘One had really the feeling that if there are any problems one should not hesitate to contact you’ – smartaupair, Germany.

‘It was really nice to meet some people my age for a change!’ – smartaupair – Denmark.

‘I loved getting to know new au-pairs and what their experiences were like’ – smartaupair, Germany.

‘Your presentation was really helpful and I´d like the “English lesson” ‘ – smartaupair, Germany.

‘Going to the pub was also a great idea! A really fun way to meet each other!’ – smartaupair, The Netherlands.

‘You told us everything we need to know so I find it very useful! I loved it!’ – smartaupair, The Netherlands.

Au Pairs

Stephanie, Tuuli & Chloe from Smartaupairs

Eurocentres Presentation

Return to smartaupairs homepage: smartaupairs.com

International Friends Tours – September – December 2011

International friends offers a variety of tours in the UK and to nearby European destinations. Both day and weekend trips are available!

Attached you may find the tour guide for the September – December 2011 time.

Remember to quote the codes BAPAA5 and BAPAA10 when booking, to get the BAPAA discount of £5 off day trips and £10 off weekend tours respectively.

 

International Friends Tours

Return to Smartaupairs Homepage

Smartaupairs Team is Growing

We are delighted to announce that two new team members, Stephanie and Chloe, have joined Smartaupairs in  summer 2011.

Stephanie is taking over from Audrey as our primary partner agency & au pair support agent. She will also be the contact person for host families alongside Tuuli.

Stephanie has joined our team after spending two placements abroad – first volunteering in South Africa and then teaching English in Vietnam. She previously completed a degree in History and Sociology at the University of Leeds, with one year of this spent at the Universiteit Leiden in The Netherlands. So as you can tell she loves to travel! For now her future aspirations are to settle down in England and develop her au pair knowledge and experience.

Stephanie is a keen swimmer and is now testing out her Zumba skills! Although her main passion is going to music events, her other guilty pleasure is any Disney film.

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Chloe is providing us with general administraive support across all agency functions – au pair, partner agency and host family support.

Chloe has recently graduated from the University of Liverpool with a degree in German. She spent a year working as a Foreign Language Assistant in Mainz, Germany as part of degree course. During this year, Chloe had the chance to travel to other European countries and she enjoys learning about different cultures. She is currently attempting to learn Spanish! Chloe is a football fanatic and enjoys travelling the length and breadth of the country to watch her team play at the weekends.

If you are looking for an au pair, please call us on 0800 917 81 66 or visit our homepage for more information – http://www.smartaupairs.com/ – We look forward to helping to take the pressure away from finding the right au pair by providing all necessary support for the search! If you are not quite sure yet if an au pair may be the right option for you, why not call our office and we can advise you further.

September 2011 Start English Courses as Eurocentres Language school

 

Part-time Courses at Eurocentres: next term Tuesday 13th September 2011

(students can start at any time) 

Easiest way to enrol is for students to just go to the school when they arrive and sign up in person.

Location

Eurocentres London Central (Victoria) – 56 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1PH (phone: 020 7834 4155)

Only £299 per 13 week term.  BUT WITH THE ATTACHED VOUCHER BAPAA AU PAIRS PAY £279

1. Students can start at any time
2. 3 day a week (1.5 hours a day Tuesday –  Thursday)
3. Lessons either at 10:00 – 11:30 or 12:00 – 13:30
4. Central London location  – 5 minutes walk from Victoria Station
5. Cambridge Exam Preparation, IELTS Preparation (both schools are IELTS testing centres) and General English
6. Students have free access to our Learning Centre – computer network with online study material, library, language laboratory etc
7. 60 + years of English language teaching experience and one of the most recognised names in the EFL industry
8. Enrolment fee of £40 – one off booking fee for new students

Eurocentres Part-time Dates and Fees – Autumn 2011

Eurocentres part-time course discount voucher BAPAA September 2011