QA2 Children's health and safety

Strengths

Healthy & Autonomous Eating

In line with our OSHC philosophy, we encourage our children to make their own breakfasts at 'Breakfast Club'. In addition to them making their own breakfasts we also have breakfast club. Breakfast Club is a step outside the traditional offers of cereal and toast. We offer bacon and eggs, French toast, pancakes and fruit smoothies.

Physical Exercise

Every day in after school care, (when the weather permits), children are encouraged to spend time outside playing for approximately 1 hour. During this time, various activities and resources are available including sports equipment such as footballs, soccerballs, basketballs, tennis rackets and nets, frisbees, pogo sticks, and much more. Additionally, depending on the season, educators encourage children to partake in waterplay and various co-curriculuar activities such as Taekwondo.

At Black Forest OSHC, we also support children to embrace the various co-curricular opportunities available to them through the school. Through our visual schedule of co-curricular activities and sports, and communication with parents, children are able attend co-curriculars throughout OSHC as they wish.

Certifications

Confirmation that we are adhering to all our food health and safety requirements comes from our annual food safety inspection report conducted by the Unley Council.

More recently, we have had two of our staff members complete the Food Safety supervisor certificates. They will be able to pass on the knowledge acquired during this course to other staff members over the next few terms and ensure our food safety standards remain high.

Supervision & Transition Support

Supervision is taken very seriously at our OSHC. We have a lot of systems in place to ensure our staff have a strong knowledge of their supervision requirements. We also spend time (See Supervision Plan) understanding how to assess risk and hazards. The supervision plan was developed with input from all staff at a staff meeting. It identifies out of bounds areas as well as identifying areas for staff positioning.

Forming part of our arrival and departure policy is that we pick up the new students and new receptions for a period of 3 weeks at the beginning of their time with us.

The School has provided the OSHC with access to their Sentral system. This allows the OSHC staff to see attendance records, daily notices and more importantly individual children's profiles. This shows the teachers thoughts about the needs and requirements of each student in their class. This is used by OSHC staff to build a profile on each child. It also enables the staff to gain a picture of each child before they attend OSHC.

Additionally all staff have their Active Supervision certificates from Plink further expanding the knowledge on the topic.

During this staff meeting, Andrea ran the team through an activity designed around supervision. The activity involved assessing processes and protocols applied to specific care types and designated OSHC areas.

Within small groups, staff were required to view the scenario from different stakeholders’ perspectives within the OSHC. These included: staff, children, families, approved providers and an authorised officer.

This allowed the staff to review current supervision practices and gain a sense for the larger care requirements we provide as a service. This activity allowed staff to each bring different perspectives, experience and areas of strength to the discussion to achieve a general consensus of OSHC supervision practice.

Cleaning Days

Twice per year, the OSHC staff plan a dedicated cleaning and repair day. Each of these days involves the staff coming in and doing an audit of the OSHC space. The toys and equipment are all disinfected and sanitized. The pillows/bean bags and cushions are all deep cleaned, and repairs are made to fix any damaged equipment.

Not only is this an excellent way to ensure our space is clear and clean for the following term, but it's also a great opportunity for team bonding outside of our regular working hours!

Links to National Quality Areas

Exceeding Themes

Standard 2.1 – Health: Each child’s health and physical activity is supported and promoted.

Embedded

Evidenced in QA 1- See Menu Upgrades section

Informed

Meaningful

Exceeding Themes

Standard 2.2 – Safety: Each child is protected.

Embedded

Informed

Critical reflection on our active supervision requirements saw a significant change in our Educators workbooks. As seen below we have added a small section in these workbooks for Educators to record their understanding of adequate supervision. This knowledge is then used to guide future practice.

Meaningful

Radios-

The School and OSHC worked in collabration to purchase radios to allow constant communication not only between the School and OSHC but also each OSHC Educator.

The key to ensure this is safe, embedded practice is that purchasing involves getting our own secure network. This means its exclusive to Black Forest PS oshc and school.

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