Category: Latest News

This week at OOSH our theme of mythical creatures will carry on to the ocean.  We have had so much fun making our unicorns, fairy houses, fairies, goblins and trolls to decorate our room, it’s time to move under the sea and the magical land of Mermaids.

We hope you all like our holiday program as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. The children have put so much effort into letting us know what they wanted  to do, already giving us ideas for the January holidays.

To secure your spot for any vacation care follow the link to book your children.https://forms.gle/BdfF1fk2NgfWvsXy8  Please remember to choose your days carefully, we do not offer swaps or cancellations over the holidays.

Congratulations to the Matildas!!!!!!!!!! We had some very excited children arriving at OOSH this morning after watching the game on Saturday night. Their enthusiasm for soccer is overwhelming with games happening every morning and afternoon at the moment. They have even asked for a day of soccer in the holidays.

Our Vacation Care program is almost ready to go and will be available to our current families in week seven. The children have contributed their ideas so we have a pretty full program with lots of fun activities planned.

Please remember to check our lost property bin, on the deck, under the sign in desk. We have taken a huge amount of clothing down to lost property at the school, however, we seem to generate more each time it’s emptied.

We would greatly appreciate it if you could let us know if your child is not attending the centre. Especially if they’re not coming after school. We are chasing up to 15 children each afternoon. This is a huge headache for the staff, especially if you don’t reply to our SMS message as we are legally bound to ensure that your child is safe. We do understand that in the grand scheme of things we are often forgotten, a quick phone call, an email or a text message in reply is all that is required to let us know your child is safe and accounted for.

Thanks everyone for your continued support.

First week of the holidays is almost over and what a week it has been!

Be sure to check out our Instagram and Facebook pages to see some of the fun activities we have provided this week!

We welcomed our chickens on Monday morning with two chicks, a clutch of chicken eggs and three duck eggs. They have progressively hatched each day, we now have 8 little chicks. We are still waiting for our ducklings to emerge.

Our first ‘Minute to Win it’ day was a huge success with lots of crazy games and spontaneous fun. Both the children and the staff thoroughly enjoyed themselves with a resounding request from the kids “please can we do it again”. The pink team won the inaugural gold cup.

On Wednesday we had a great excursion, taking 80 children to Avalon Cinema, now there’s a challenge! They were all very well behaved walking to the cinema and back just in time for Newport Pizza Hut to deliver 30 pizzas. We reckon the staff at the pizza hut were kept busy for a couple of hours getting that order ready for us.

As this week is NAIDOC week, we have been celebrating all week with craft and art activities. The children had great fun designing Boomerangs, Bullroarers and even weaving baskets!

Today (Friday) we had a visit from “Feathered Friends’. The kids all had the opportunity to handle some owls and large birds and learn all about them and their envioronments.

We are fully booked for Wednesday and Thursday next week, we currently still have a few spots available for the rest of the week.

We hope your kids are coming home tired and dirty, having had a great day, we look forward to seeing you next week. Have a great weekend everyone.

Well there you go, how quickly did that 10 weeks fly by? Second term over and done with, a little more than halfway through the year.

Just a few reminders about Vacation Care:-

Yes, we do have spots available for every day other than Wednesday the 5th and Wednesday the 12th. We have a long waitlist for both days.

If you can’t submit a request for a particular day, it’s because we are full for that day.

Don’t forget to supply your children with plenty of food. They will be busy running around and will get very hungry.

Please don’t put your kids in their best clothes, they will get dirty. We want them to have a great time without having to worry about their clothes.

If your child is not going to attend a session, please let us know. Please don’t advise a friend to bring their child to fill in the spot as we have a waitlist of parents who have tried and may not have secured placement for their child.

If you have any question regarding the program please contact us.

Thank you for your support

Only one week left of school and then time to kick back and enjoy the holidays. We have had so much fun this term.  The children have had some amazing ideas for craft activities over the past nine weeks.  You are more than welcome to pop inside the centre to see some of our wonderful creations and to view our visual diary.

Our Vacation Care program and confirmation form can be located via our website:
https://avalonoosh.com.au/vacation-care/.  We are fully booked for both excursions.  Please submit your bookings as soon as possible as remaining spots will fill up quickly as we have some pretty special days planned.

A reminder regarding Before & After School Care Vouchers:-

Any remaining credit on Government Vouchers will expire next week on Fri 30th June, we are unable to submit any fee claims under this voucher scheme after this date. This means that Winter Vacation Care fees will not be covered by the current voucher.

Changes to Child Care Subsidy

We have been asked to share the latest Government information sheet regarding the changes to CCS coming into effect from July this year.
Please use the following link to view the newsletter:
https://avalonoosh.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/230620-Standard-CCS-changes-letter-final.pdf
Please don’t hesitate to email if you have any questions regarding the changes.

Thank you all for your support.

We are almost there!!!!

First term is nearly over, the Easter Bunny is getting all chocolatty, the camping gear is being checked, and Easter Vacation Care is ready to go. The program and the link to the booking form are on the website. You will receive a confirmation email when it’s received.

We hope that your children have all enjoyed their first term, loved their teachers and had a great time at OOSH. Our kindy children have settled in incredibly well. Most of them crying because they need to go home, not when they are being dropped off. They have proved to be a very independent and confident group.

Your current booking schedule for Before & After School Care will roll over for term two. If you wish to cancel any permanent bookings next term, please email us to let us know. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer permanent spots from Mon – Thursday afternoons for term two. If the situation changes due to Winter activities commencing we will contact families on our waitlist to offer requested spots.

Please don’t hesitate to give us a call or send an email if you have any questions at all regarding vacation care or before and after school care.

We are pleased to announce that our Easter holiday program is up on our website today.  Please book your days early as we have a limit on the number of children we are able to accept into the program.   Don’t forget to check your account is up to date as we are unable to accept a request for care if there are any outstanding fees. Please use the following link
https://avalonoosh.com.au/vacation-care/

At Avalon OOSH we believe that children today lead very structured lives. After a full day of school, some starting quite early, they have music, choir, sports training etc. in the afternoons.  Then of course there’s weekend activities.  We feel that our service should offer the kids as much free play as possible and the freedom to choose what activities they wish to participate in, especially after school.  We encourage the children to take part in craft activities but appreciate that not all kids are crafty.  Some would rather sit and read or do a puzzle, play sport and games and prefer to play in the dirt, make forts and generally do their own thing.  Some days they are just tired and want to chill out in front of a movie.  We want them to have freedom of choice as we believe that childhood is a very short time in life and a time to be treasured.  Our program is very loosely structured to allow children to have this freedom.

Each year we complete a Quality Improvement Plan – QIP.  This is done in conjunction with our families, children and staff.  Since  Avalon OOSH is a service run by our parents your input is always needed if we are to continue to provide your children with their best OOSH experiences.  We will be sending a link to a short survey before the end of term. We hope you will take the time to complete it.

As always, thank you all for your continued support, have a great weekend and stay cool.

This week at OOSH we have been continuing our Australia theme. Selena’s tree has grown bigger and bigger over the last week. The kids are coming up with a new idea each day to add to our wall. We have made Koalas, Echidnas and origami snakes to add to our OOSH display.

As we move into cooler weather our tree will change with the season, the kids wanting to add more Autumn tones.

Our Vacation care program is well under way, the kids have had a huge input in what will be happening over the Autumn break. The program and the link to book any days you require will be on our website in week eight.

Please don’t forget to email us if your child will not be attending the centre. This is especially important for an after school session. When your child does not show up the staff go to great lengths to find them. We search the school grounds and the surrounding area including the outside perimeter of the school. This happens before you have your text message. If we are unable to contact you or any of those nominated as your emergency contact by the end of the session, our policy states that the police will be contacted and a missing child report will be made. Our policy is available for viewing on our website. A quick email to our service if your child is home sick, has a playdate or other after school activity will eliminate this issue.

Thank you for your support,

This week marks the end of the early finish for our kindergarten children, staff will pick the children up from the OOSH meeting spot outside the school office at 3.25 starting next Monday.

Please notify your child’s kindy teacher of days they will be attending OOSH. Remind your child in the morning and make sure they have their OOSH band. If you don’t have one, let one of our staff know and we will supply one.

We have welcomed a lot of new children to before and after school care.
They are all settling in really well and showing a great deal of confidence.

You will also notice a few new staff. Some of our staff have finished their degrees and have moved on to pursue jobs in their chosen fields. We would like to welcome Jazmin, Amaan and Robbie. All ex OOSHies and students of Avalon School. Please introduce yourself and feel free to have a chat to make them feel welcome.

This week we have started to decorate the centre with our Australian themed wall. The kids have all had a wonderful time contributing with their artwork. Selena suggested that we use the trees on our mural to track the children’s height, the kids are enjoying learning how tall our staff are and the heights of their friends.

We are still fully booked from Monday to Thursday, thank you to those of you who relinquished spots so that others could take them. Please remember the importance of advising us if your child is not going to attend either before or after school care. Please remember when you have a permanent booking for either before or after school care, payment for the spot is required regardless of attendance. If there are special circumstances an email request will be considered.

This term we have started an After School Sports program on Wednesdays. This is a trial run, if the children show an interest, we may keep it going next term and add another day. Please encourage your children to participate.

We are always looking for new ideas to improve our centre, please feel free to contribute in any way. We would love your favourite recipes, craft ideas and anything interesting to know from your cultural background.

Please feel free to give us a call or an email if ever you have a question to would like answered.

Thank you for your continued support.