Acknowledgement of the Country
From the OSHC Director
Hello and welcome to our first edition of the OSHC newsletter 2023.
We are excited to have you join us for another year of fun and learning. Whether you are returning families or new to our program, we warmly welcome you.
Our OSHC service is committed to providing a physically safe and emotionally secure environment where children can explore, socialise, and expand their interests through a variety of experiences including arts and crafts, outdoor play, technology opportunities and homework support. We provide a place where children can play, relax, and pursue their interests in a caring and stimulating environment.
On the app, you may have noticed over recent times that messages appear in a yellow box above the sign in sign out function. This is proving to be a useful way to set reminders or add greetings generated by the OSHC leadership team. Please take the time to read these brief messages when they appear on your screen.
The Vacation Care program will be available Monday Week 9. Once published, we ask that you return your completed details ASAP to help us organise staffing, resources and confirm student numbers with the excursion venues and the bus company.
Sadly, our service has recently said goodbye to our Assistant Director Annalisa. Annalisa has been a wonderful contributor to the service, particularly through her efforts with the Before School Care program. I’m sure you will join me in wishing Annalisa all the best for her new and exciting endeavors and thank her for contribution to the St Aloysius College community.
Ms Cassandra Dwyer-Monaghan
OSHC Director
Art Attack
During this term at Before School Care and OSHC, the students poured their ‘arts’ and souls into our special ‘Art Attack’ theme. The students investigated different art techniques and artists styles in-depth to develop their own art skills and they created beautiful decorations to enliven our OSHC centre. The students practiced techniques such as water colour, using geometric shapes, paper joining techniques, 3D art, scratch art, sand art, bubble art, marble painting, raised salt painting and much more. The students also explored artists such as Andy Warhol, Jim Dine and Sonia Delaunay and made their own versions of some of their most famous works of art. The students completed the ‘Art Attack’ theme with reading Marta Altes’ book, ‘I’m An Artist’ and were given creative freedom to make pieces of artwork of their choice. They also discussed the moral of the story which talks about how art can be anything and anywhere and having variation and individuality in art is important.
Ruby
OSHC Educator
MTOP Outcomes:
4.1 Children develop dispositions such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination, and reflexivity.
4.3 Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another.
4.4 Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies, and natural and processed materials.
Vacation Care – December 2022/January 2023
Over the course of three weeks during the school holidays, students from the SAC community enjoyed a range of activities during the Vacation Care Program.
There were several excursions to the movies as well as a morning picnic at the Helicopter Park in North Adelaide and an energetic day of outdoor play and exploration at the Morialta Conservation Park.
Our OSHC centre activities included an incursion with the dance group “Footsteps” where instructors guided the girls through various fun dance styled including hip-hop.
Our cultural day explored the country of Italy. Students immersed themselves in a cultural day filled with Italian food, language, crafts and music.
Many other activities included ‘Santa’s workshop’, ‘games day’, ‘under the sea’ activity day and ‘let’s celebrate Australia’ day. We concluded the program with a fun filled ‘Disney day’. Students came dressed as their favourite character and enjoyed an array of activities, party food and games.
These experiences give students the opportunity to broaden their minds and imaginations, all while having fun – those three weeks of Vacation Care flew by, but we are sure that students will remember it for a long time.
Vicki
Assistant Director
Water Safety
As the college came together in Week 5 to partake in the swimming carnival, OSHC took the opportunity to ensure we knew how to be water safe. Throughout the week we discussed safety around oceans, lakes, rivers, and pools. The students used crafts to learn about this topic, including making life jacket origami, life saver watercolor rings, 3-D floaties and beach scenes that showed swimming between flags.
The students considered the role of surf-life saving clubs in our community and the importance of the roles of as lifeguards at swimming areas. It was a valuable topic for the girls to immerse themselves in.
Emma
OSHC Educator
MTOP outcomes:
1.2 Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience, and sense of agency.
2.1 Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation.
We love our playground!
Before School Care for 2023, Term 1 2023
Students have been very excited to return to the routine of Before School Care for 2023. We have been learning about many exciting themes including sun safety, water safety, and “art attack”.
We have been running a fortnightly ‘art attack’ specific program where students are focusing on different artists, art styles, and developing creativity and fine motor skills. Students have loved working with watercolors, designing their own artwork and using different mediums to create.
Students have also been enjoying the new sensory resources such as the kinetic sand and playdough along with the other OSHC resources such as Lego, board games and puzzles.
We have welcomed a few new faces to before school care this term, and it has been lovely to see the girls supporting each other and making the new students feel welcome.
Annalisa
Assistant Director
Spike App for OSHC Bookings
An online booking system for parents and caregivers for our Before and After School care services is now available.
The online booking system gives parents and caregivers the ability to book and/or cancel OSHC bookings using the SPIKE Childcare App and access other important information.
We are now using the system to send ‘Announcements’ regarding OSHC to families.
Please click here to access the instructions on how to install the App.
If you need any support with the App, please contact the OSHC team on 8217 3200 between 8:00am – 3:15pm or 8217 3254 between 3:15pm – 6:00pm.
