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Congratulations to our fantastic educator Caitlin. She ran over 100kms last weekend through the Blue Mountains in the UTA100. We are all so proud of your amazing effort running through the rain and the cold on Saturday night. What an inspiration for all the staff and children.

This week marked our third week of Motiv8 sports. We are so pleased to announce that the children participating have voted it a huge success. Ollie and Shannon have done an amazing job of motivating all the kids.
A big congratulations to Ben Smith who won the trophy this week.

Thank you everyone for checking our lost property over the past three weeks. Any school clothes not given back to the children have now gone to the lost property box at the school. We still have a few odd and ends left for collection.

Our Vacation care program for the July holidays has been completed and will be sent out to our families in week seven.

Please don’t hesitate to email or call us if you have any questions or suggestions.

OOSH NEWS – REMINDER

On Friday 1st of March, our team will be hosting a “Welcome to OOSH” evening. We hope you will be able to join us. This is a very informal evening starting at 6.30, a fantastic opportunity for all our parents to meet one another and have a chat. It’s also a time for our new parents to meet with other families using the centre, to informally chat with staff and for us to showcase work we put into our centre.

We would love to see as many families as possible. We have only had responses from two families letting us know they will be attending. We understand that all our families lead busy lives, however if we are not going to have anyone attending we will have to cancel the evening.

A grazing platter will be provided for the adults and some snacks for the kids. Feel free to bring your own drinks.

Thanks everyone for your support.

Congratulations to all our new kindy children and your parents for completing your first two weeks of school. The kindergarten children have settled in extremely well without any tears so far. We hope their enthusiasm for OOSH and school continues.

We know there is a lot to remember in those first few weeks, however, it is imperative to advise if your child is not attending in the afternoon. When your child does not arrive, our staff are legally bound to search for them. You will be notified by text message when the roll is completed, a search of the school grounds and surrounds will be conducted by our staff. Please advise us immediately if your child is with you. If we don’t hear from you, we will phone, if we have no response, we are obligated to advise the police that we have a missing child.

Now that school is in full swing and extracurricular activities have started, we have had a few spots become available on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. If you are on our wait list for any of these days and haven’t heard from us, please get in touch. First in first served.

On Friday 1st of March, our team will be hosting a “Welcome to OOSH” evening. We hope you will be able to join us. This is a very informal evening starting at 6.30, a fantastic opportunity for all our parents to meet one another and have a chat. It’s also a time for our new parents to meet with other families using the centre, to informally chat with staff and for us to showcase work we put into our centre.
We would love to see as many families as possible. Please let us know if you will be attending for catering purposes. We will provide a grazing platter for the adults and some snacks for the kids. Feel free to bring you own drinks.

Thanks everyone for your continued support.

That’s a wrap. The school holidays are now officially over. Today and tomorrow are both pupil free days and it’s then back to school.

We hope that your children have enjoyed their holidays as much as we have enjoyed having them. We filled our days with lots of fun and laughter, singing and dancing, loads of art and craft activities despite the heat. Despite some very hot days we managed to stay cool with lots of water activities, fun under the covered areas and indoor crafts and games in the air conditioning.

On a whole your kids were extremely well behaved, a pleasure for our staff and our special visitors, who commented on their behaviour and what a pleasure it was to come to our centre and enjoy time with the children.

Our program for the Autumn holidays is already well underway and will be available in week seven of the school term. Please encourage your children to contribute to the program. They can write their ideas on the large whiteboard doors inside OOSH. We have already had some fantastic ideas and requests.

And now we get down to the nitty gritty of back to school. Just a few reminders for everyone so that the school year runs smoothly and without any misunderstandings. Please remember that we don’t always make the rules, however we do need to abide by them.

After School Care Services are now fully booked from Mon – Thurs. There are no casual spots available currently. We can still take bookings for Friday afternoons.
We do have spots available for Before School Care. We understand that families who did not get the days requested are disappointed, we are legally committed to the number of children we can accommodate, if we go over that number we risk legal ramifications.

After the first few weeks of school when the children are settled in, we will be assessing any potential vacancies and offer them to those on our waitlist

Due to our Service being at capacity, permanent spots need to be paid for regardless of absence notification. When you claim Child Care Subsidy on your fees, the system allows you to still be subsidised on these absences up to a certain number of days per financial year. If absence is going to be for an extended period it may be necessary to forfeit your spot to a family on the waitlist.

You must notify the service if your child will not be attending in the afternoon. We have a strict protocol to be followed if your child fails to show up. We search the school grounds, surrounding school area ie bus lines etc then send an SMS message to both parents. You will be phoned if we do not receive a reply to our message. If we are unable to make contact with a parent or guardian we are under government law to call in the police.

You must contact us immediately if you envisage picking up after 6.30 when the centre closes. A late fee of $2.00 per child per minute will be applied to your account after 6.30. Again there are protocols in place to protect your children. Children are to be picked up by someone on your authorised list. If they are to be picked up by someone other than on the list, staff are to be informed, we will require identification and we will sign the child out for them.
Older siblings are not permitted to sign out younger children without confirmation from a parent and staff are satisfied that the children are going to arrive home safely.

Thanks everyone for your support, please don’t hesitate to contact if you have any questions, no matter how trivial they seem, remember, there’s no such thing as a silly question.

First week of Vacation care was done and the kids had a fantastic time. We are very much looking forward to bringing you week two.

On Monday we danced like Moana. Our special visitor from Tahiti
shared stories and music from her polynesian culture. The children also enjoyed making hats and learning traditional dances.

Our lego masters day was a huge hit. The children loved the challenges Caitlin had for them. They had so much fun they spent the entire afternoon playing and creating under the trees in the shade.

We spent Wednesday getting wet and wild, with Zac from Water Wars. They all had an awesome time getting thoroughly soaked and enjoying some great water games and activities.

On Thursday we brought our creative side to OOSH. Thank you to our educator Tallulah for the work she put into engaging the children and teaching them. The artwork they have made is fantastic and a great start redecorating the centre after Christmas.

We have had quite a few parents asking to make changes to days booked over the past week. Our policy states that we don’t offer swaps, refunds or changes over Vacation Care. When signing your booking form you are agreeing to the terms and conditions. We are able to add an extra day if we have the space available.

When you make a booking we staff according to government regulations. If you decide your child will not attend it puts our ratio out, often causing staff to work a shorter shift. We also purchase according to the number of children expected. When we have an incursion we are required to pay for the number of children we have on the roll. When days are swapped or children don’t turn up, we still need to pay for their attendance.
Avalon OOSH is a not for profit service and while we try to accommodate when there are mitigating circumstances we cannot chop and change children around constantly.

Thank you for your understanding.

We are looking forward to another week full of fun activities for your kids to enjoy. Our walk to Dunbar Park for our Picnic in the Park outing, will of course be subject to weather. If we are unable to go to the park we will make alternative arrangements for the day at OOSH.

The countdown just got real!!!!

Only four days until the end of term and school and before and after school care for 2023.

We know there’s a lot on this week for all our parents and children. Please remember to advise us if your child is not attending OOSH. You will be charged $5.00 per child if we have to contact you due to a “no show”.

We are open only from Monday the 18th to Wednesday the 20th only next week for vacation care. Make sure you get your booking in as soon as possible if you need any of those days.

We will close on Wednesday evening for our Christmas break and return on January 8th for our first day of Holiday care. The program and registration form for any days required are on our website.
Once you have booked your days they are locked in, there are no refunds, swaps or cancellations during Vacation Care.

If we are not going to see you next week, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy, Happy New Year.

Thanks everyone for a wonderful year with your kids who make coming to work so much fun. We look forward to welcoming all our wonderful children and new kindy kids in 2024.

OOSH NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 24TH

IT’S HERE!!!!!

The program and booking form are available on our website now!!!

We have some fantastic activities planned for the January holidays, so be sure to get those submissions for any days you require early. We are limited to the number of children we are able to accommodate and we know places will fill quickly.

If you have a child starting kindergarten in 2024, or know of anyone who has, we are more than happy to welcome them in the January holidays.

Even if they are not going to attend Before or After School care, it’s still a great opportunity for a break over the Summer for Mum and Dad and to familiarise the kindy kids with OOSH and school on an informal basis.

We still have a few vacancies for our Pre-Christmas program from Monday the 18th to Wednesday the 20th. The program will concentrate on gift making. We have some very special ideas and some very talented staff implementing some really beautiful craft activities for the kids to enjoy that will be suitable for gift giving and decorating for Christmas Day.

Our annual Family get together will take place on Friday 1st December at 6.30. Please join us for a drink and some nibbles to celebrate another wonderful year at OOSH.
This evening is a great opportunity to connect with families also using the centre and have an informal chat with our staff. Please let us know if you will be joining us.

Thanks again to all our families for your continued support.

It’s week seven and you guessed it, it’s all about Christmas from this week on.
We will start decorating OOSH for Christmas. The children are all very excited to start making Christmas decorations.

Don’t forget our Christmas Party on Friday, December 1st. We hope to see as many families as possible to help us celebrate another great year of OOSH. This is a fantastic opportunity for parents to meet other families whose children attend the centre. Always a lovely end to our year to be able to kick back and celebrate with our families and the children who make our days so much fun.

If you haven’t already done so, please make sure you get your bookings for the pre Christmas program. Places are filling very quickly and we know the week before Christmas is an especially busy one for everyone.

Thank you all for your continued support

We are creeping towards the end of the year, yes it really is week six, with only four to go until the end of the term.

Here are a few dates for your diary:-

Friday November 17th:-
Our Pre-Christmas, three day Vacation Care program will be available along with the link to book the days you require.

Friday November 24th:-
The January program will be available with the booking link.
Please make sure you book the days you need early, as we are restricted to the number of places available.
Please remember that there are no refunds for non attendance during the holidays nor can we swap days.

Friday December 1st:-
We will celebrate another successful year at OOSH with our annual Family get together. Starting at 6.30 after all the children have been signed out.

We hope you will join us for a drink and some snacks with the staff and other families who attend our service.
We would also like to extend the invitation to any new families joining us in Vacation Care or in 2024. If you’re new to our school or Avalon this is an opportunity to meet some families already attending OOSH and to meet our staff.
Please let us know if you would like to attend for catering purposes.

What a fantastic Vacation care we had!!! Lots of outdoor activities, cubbies, building shelters, 9D movie van and magic sand. Plenty of mess and dirty happy faces. The children have already given us plenty of ideas and requests for the January break.

Our excursion to the City and the Chinese Gardens was amazing. We could not get over the incredible behavior of our children. They had all been briefed on our expectations before we left and we must compliment them all as they exceeded our expectations.

This year school will break up on Friday the 15th of December. The centre will open on Monday the 18th, Tuesday the 19th and Wednesday the 20th. We will then close and reopen on January the 8th. Our Pre-Christmas program will be out in week seven. The January program in week eight.

As it’s getting towards that time of year again where we all hardly have time to scratch ourselves.
Here are a few reminders for the fridge:-

Tuesday October 31st – Halloween
We will hold our annual Halloween Party at OOSH. Children have a party afternoon tea, face painting, play Halloween games etc. The kids can bring their own dress ups to change into for the afternoon. The party is strictly after school so children will need to be picked up by 6.30. If your children don’t normally attend on a Tuesday and you would like to book them in, please email by Friday afternoon.

Tuesday November 7th – Melbourne Cup Day
Melbourne Cup day is a pretty busy day for us, if you are going to a Melbourne Cup day lunch and want your children to come to OOSH please make sure you book them in.

Friday December 1st – OOSH Family Christmas Party.
We hope you will join us to celebrate another great year at OOSH. This is our annual gettogether for our families and children before the holidays.

Please email if you have any queries.

Thank you for your support.