Outside School Hours Care

“Family Update” March 2015

WELCOME! to the beginning of what is sure to be a very exciting and fun filled year where children will explore, discover

and learn in an inclusive play based learning environment. We look forward to working with children and families to

provide a successful program in 2015.

Management News

Team Leader of Family Day Care and Outside School Hours Care

We wish to welcome Jill Jolliffe to our Outside School Hours Care team. Jill comes with a wealth of experience in

children’s services and a background in local government.

Assessment and Rating

We have begun 2015 with two Assessment and Rating Visits. The first at our Moorabbin Vacation Care program and the

second at St Patricks After School Care.

We are very proud and excited to announce that we achieved an overall rating of “Exceeding” at both of our programs!

Assessed against seven quality areas under the National Quality Standard we achieved the following:

Moorabbin

1. Educational Program and Practice MEETING 2. Children’s Health and Safety - EXCEEDING 3. Physical Environment MEETING 4. Staffing arrangements EXCEEDING 5. Relationships with Children EXCEEDING 6. Partnerships with families and communities EXCEEDING 7. Leadership and Management EXCEEDING

St Patrick’s

1. Educational Program and Practice EXCEEDING 2. Children’s Health and Safety - MEETING 3. Physical Environment MEETING 4. Staffing arrangements EXCEEDING 5. Relationships with Children EXCEEDING 6. Partnerships with families and communities EXCEEDING 7. Leadership and Management EXCEEDING

Congratulations to our team of committed Educators for achieving such an outstanding result!!

Upcoming Assessment and Rating Visits

We have recently been advised that St Louis will undergo their assessment over two days, the 24th

and 25th

March. We

wish them well!

Dingley will be the final program to be assessed, we have not yet

been advised what day this will occur but know that it will happen

sometime between the 2nd

-30th April.

Child Care Benefit/Child Care Rebate & Allowable Absences

Under the law, you are entitled to receive CCB and CCR if your child is unable to attend approved child care and you are charged a fee, up to 42 absence days in a financial year. In addition to your 42 days of ‘initial absences’ the Government

may continue to pay CCB (and CCR) on your behalf for additional

absence days approved under the exceptional circumstances

provision.

Please refer to https://education.gov.au/fact-sheet-kit-families-using-child-care for further information.

Federal Government Undertaking a Review of Child Care

Federal politicians need to see just how important child care is to families across the country.

You can sign a petition to tell them to increase funding for early learning and childcare AND maintain important measures

which ensure our children get quality care. It only takes a minute but will make sure our decision makers know this is an

issue many of us care about.

You can sign the petition at http://thesmartstart.com.au/sign-petition and add your voice to ensure our children get

the best start in life.

Vacation Care

We are ready for another very busy Vacation Care program that will offer children many exciting opportunities through

planned experiences, workshops and outings in the community. Activities will promote children’s wellbeing, they will

acquire new skills and knowledge and develop a sense of belonging in our inclusive programs at Moorabbin, Dingley,

Bonbeach and Mill Street.

Program highlights include:

Rock Climbing

Bundoora Park

Movies at Village Southland & Pinewood

Xtreme Air (indoor trampolines)

Animal Education

Carnival Day

Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm

Wild Action

Just to name a few...

For further information, please go to our website

http://www.kingston.vic.gov.au/Services-and-Support/Family-Youth-and-

Children/Outside-School-Hours-Care/Vacation-Care

Program Snapshot

“DINGLEY”

It’s 2015 and it seems like so much time has flown by already. Dingley OSHC

has been very busy this term, settling into our new space and creating a fun

new environment with the children.

We have welcomed many new families to our program this year, along with

siblings that are joining us for the first time.

We have been playing games and getting to know each other, along with baking yummy cupcakes, playing Who am I?

and creating our Dr. Seuss Cafe’ This has been quite popular and may need a few more waiters to keep up with the

demand for food!

This term we have set our self some projects and goals to achieve

Create a Worm Farm

Make a Herb Garden

Fundraise for World’s Greatest Shave

We hope everyone has had a wonderful start to the year and we look

forward to next term.

Jacinta and Dylan.

A child’s interest in snakes has encouraged us to

find out about the many different types of snakes,

explore habitats, create a reference book that has

been added to our book area and role play

opportunities with a large green snake and other

animals!

“ST PATRICKS”

At St Patrick’s after school care we welcomed our new preps for 2015. They are Isabelle, Joel, Stirling, Billie, Madison

and Thomas. Our team of educators are Marie, Chris, Sarah Trish and Nicole.

We started the year in anticipation of our assessment, which happened on 11th

February. A huge thank you to Kylie who

helped us with our inspirational play areas before the assessment. The children were amazed with our indoor sandpit as

part of our beach scene with buckets and spades, shells and sun shelter.

Our natural environment area with green water and dinosaurs intrigued some of our children about the color of the water.

No it is not algae!! Our yoga and meditation area was enhanced with plants, bamboo petition and meditation music. The

music is played at end of pack up for our relaxation time.

We have had lots of activities this term including child profiles, pet rocks,

Chinese New Year and Clean Up Australia Day. Then continuing in Term 1

will be our Autumn mural, St Patrick’s Day and Harmony Day. For Chinese

New Year we have been learning how to say “hello” in Chinese when we

come together at mat time.

Also the children have been painting the Chinese words using black paint on

white paint. Other activities have been lanterns, drawings and afternoon tea

favourite Fried Rice with chopsticks.

This year all children have the opportunity to be child leaders

complete with lanyards. Our leaders are soap and Towel, afternoon

tea (with aprons), plants and bags. They put their names on the list

and are responsible for their areas. We have also have our Wishing

Tree where children attached ideas for After School Care. Some of

the ideas include ipads,

a fairy garden and

visiting an animal

shelter to give the

animals a cuddle.

“CHELSEA”

Welcome to our new families. A special welcome to our “Preps” who are being

very well looked after by our older children who are helping them settle in, learn

about many wonderful things and to feel very much part of our program.

The children currently have a very strong interest in group games which provides a

wonderful opportunity for them to develop their social skills and a sense of being

valued in the social setting. A favorite is “If you have.....” referring to perhaps a

blue shirt, a red bow, brown eyes etc... where you are encouraged to wash your

hands for afternoon tea, move from the mat to play or choose an activity.

Other favorite activities the last few weeks have included – “Zoops” (see below

photo of children lying on the floor measuring how tall they are), mask making and

hama beads.

We look forward to Term 2 and

welcome your feedback and ideas into

the program!

Anita & Team

“MOORABBIN”

At before and after school the children have been focusing on a wide range of new things. With new routines and new children attending the program it has been fantastic to see existing children making the new children feel welcome. Wii dance has been brought into the program and it has been fantastic to see everybody get up and have a go! Seeing the boys bust a move has been quite entertaining. The children have started to build cities and towns with the blocks we have at the program. It is great to see how the children use their imaginations to create such creative scenes.

We are looking to start our very own veggie garden that the children can grow and look after. Hopefully we can eat some of the yummy veggies we will be growing too! If there are any parents or grandparents that have some skills, time or garden equipment that they could donate it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Bec & Team

“SOUTHMOOR”

Hello everyone,

We’re very excited to be working in partnership with Southmoor Primary

School and families to provide a fun and engaging before and after school

care program for your children.

Term 1 has seen a strong focus on our “relationships” – with children,

families, between Educators and our host school. We have invested a lot

of time in getting to know each other, learning names, finding out about

each other’s interests and what we would like to see happening in the

program.

We have very much enjoyed creating new and wonderful play spaces for

the children and have appreciated them sharing their ideas and

thoughts as to how they would like their learning environment to look.

As we approach the end of first term we are able to reflect on the new

friendships that have blossomed, the knowledge that has been shared

and insight into possibilities for learning in Term 2.

Please feel free to come and have a chat about your child and any thoughts you may have about

the program.

Rachelle, Angela and Mary.

“EDITHVALE”

This term educators and children have been focusing on the physical environment: creating spaces for the children to display art work, perform musical acts and collectively plan future activities. The communication board has been revamped and now includes blurbs on the educators. If families have any suggestions for the space we would love to chat with you or alternatively ideas or comments can be written in our parent feedback book located next to the sign out book. The children have been actively involved in the enjoyment of creating music both individually and in groups. Anne (educator) has been sharing her African drumming skills and many children have chosen to participate, with the result being much laughter, bonding and creativity for the group. It has been wonderful to observe the children's growing confidence, skill and enthusiasm. They have requested guitars for the program. If any families have musical instruments they no longer require we would love to give them a new home! Finally a reminder to please return your expression of interest form regarding Before School Care operating from Edithvale Primary School. If you have misplaced your form there will be some at the service on the sign out table. Kind Regards, Louise, Fanoula, Anne and Janelle

Do you have any food boxes that could be used for

construction? We would be happy to accept them for our

art/craft area. Please ensure that these boxes are free of

nuts/nut products....

“ST LOUIS” Welcome to Term 1! We hope everyone had a fantastic break. So far this year we have been encouraging the children to explore the magical world of Harry Potter! We celebrated Chinese New Year with a banquet of fried rice and spring rolls and have further expanded our cooking skills with cheese twists, pastry bites and cupcakes. We are working on fostering respectful relationships between children with experiences such as group games, making play dough and parachute activities. The children are enjoying incorporating electronics into the program once a week where they are encouraged to use their iPads in appropriate ways including educational games, finding hama bead patterns and undertaking homework. We have recently participated in “Clean Up Australia Day” (Monday 2 March) where we observed the children working together as a team to beautify their school environment which was amazing! Both children and Educators have

shown much enthusiasm in fundraising for “Be Brave and Shave”, selling ice-creams and milkshakes. Within the physical environment we have been challenging ourselves and the children by introducing more natural materials into the play spaces and encouraging their use in play.