What Is A Governess?
The word governess is a very old term which has been around for hundreds of years. In the modern age all people working with children from nannies to family 
daycarers to teachers are called Educators.
The role of a governess is holistic as you live within the family home and business. You are employed to facilitate care and an educational program.
A governess helps educate and care for the children in rural and remote areas. A governess can supervise any year or age however the majority of children are in primary school. The work is provided by a school of the air (SOTA) and other professionals however, a governess does at times need to adjust the work or think out of the box to suit and engage the child.
Just as a child in a town school would, a SOTA student does maths, english, spelling, science, art, craft, history, geography, sight words, handwriting etc and if you have more than one student you could be juggling each student doing a different subject at the same time.
A governess, as well as facilitating the program, generally has to liaise with teachers, parents and other members of the school , timetable daily activities, check emails, supervise and assist students with their satellite lessons, mark the children’s work and provide daily feedback to their school of the air teacher, pack and return completed school work to the child’s school of the air teacher implement behaviour management strategies.
Outside of school hours a governesses role can very greatly and it is important to remember that no two governess jobs are the same.
Jobs may include, but are certainly not limited to; caring for students and or younger children out of school hours, helping with chores (feeding chooks, dogs, poddy lambs, calfs, etc), helping bath kids, helping with meals, helping clean up, doing outside work (mustering, yard work, etc), taking the children places when in town or to town, and others will only have to do jobs related to schooling.
The Governess Australia blog is run by Lee-Ann who is an experience ‘Govie’. Another exciting adventure available to Nannies in Australia.
