The Out of Hours Care Programme will provide an Activity Based Child Care Programme, within an environment that is nurturing, safe and sympathetically supervised. The programme will operate during Out of School Hours for the benefit of the children and families of the local community.
It is our aim at Tea Tree Gully O.S.H.C. to provide a safe, warm, friendly, inclusive and caring environment for your children at all times and a place where they can learn through play and develop intrinsic skills such as cooking, caring about others, sharing, tidying up after themselves etc. We endeavour to create a relaxed club type atmosphere where children have a wide choice of activities, ranging from art and craft, cooking, music coaching in guitar/bass, drums and vocals, eight ball, fun in the gym, board games, creative building games such as Lego, outdoor activities, including a small garden area, Video and Computer games, a wide range of DVDs or just taking it easy watching T.V.
As the importance of middle childhood years is the primary focus of OSHC services, the following principles are encouraged:
Our staff prefer to be known to the children on a first name basis, to encourage positive communications between children and adults. We believe this helps also to create a friendly, trusting and relaxed atmosphere in which ALL children can feel respected and valued.
It is also an important part of our philosophy that everyone (including children, staff and parents) has the right to feel safe at our service and that everyone also feels comfortable about their choice to be actively involved in the day to day running of the programme. (For example, we encourage suggestions for activities, types of food, the OSHC environment etc.)
Although we understand that most parents using the centre are extremely busy, we invite and encourage everyone to have a say and an input into the day to day planning of the programme. The director and Assistant director will always make themselves available for discussion if you feel the need. Please feel free to speak openly with us at any time about any concerns, suggestions, activities, dietary needs or even about the footy on the weekend. Communication is a vital part of our success.
All children will need to wear safety helmets when riding bikes, scooters, skateboards etc at the centre. Tops that cover shoulders are preferable in Summer. Hats are required to be worn in terms 1 and 4 relevant Vacation care breaks.
Quality Assurance is a process of continuing improvement which involves everybody. We invite and encourage all our families and children to bring ideas to us so that we can implement these things and make positive changes within our centre as part of our continuing improvement plan. We have blank surveys available to families at the centre and encourage you to take these and fill them out. This information can then be used by staff and management to implement quality improvement.
Please note that it is a Commonwealth requirement, that all staff at the service are mandated to notify suspicion of Child Abuse and Neglect.
Here at the Tea Tree Gully O.S.H.C and Vacation care programme your children are actively encouraged to partake in the formulating of ideas and activities that are constantly used at the programme. Such as a Karaoke CD cover that was produced at the centre along with a CD that the children also recorded at the centre during Vacation Care. This was the result of a merging of ideas received from the children and extended by the input of some of our talented staff. Each child involved was then given a copy of this when completed.
The service comes under the umbrella of the Governing Council and has a O.S.H.C committee made up of parents and a representative from the school staff. Meetings are also attended by the director and coordinator who report to the committee on the centre's needs and day to day issues, etc.
There are a wide range of policies available on request at the centre. These include policies on Behaviour Management, Nutrition, Sun Protection, Staffing and Recruitment, Staff Discipline, Personal Hygiene, Health and Safety, Grievance Procedure, Financial Management, Confidentiality, Occupational Health and Safety, Excursions, Equipment, Equal opportunity and Administration. The Centre will always endeavour to review and upgrade these policies in consultation with parents and management and new policies will be written when the need arises.
The centre has a procedure in place for dealing with grievances please refer to parent notice board and/or director for clarification. Please note that whilst at the centre, there is an expectation that your child/children follow the necessary behavioural guidelines, for further information on this please refer to our behavioural guidelines as outlined in relevant policy.