St Luke’s Catholic Primary School has recently opened its new out-of-hours school care service.
After its previous OSCH service ended earlier this year, Uniting stepped in to take over and bring its service to the St Luke’s community.
The service opened at the start of term four, with two staff running the service every day after school from 3.30pm to 6.30pm.
Uniting senior manager — growth and director Johnathon Mitchell has been running the service and says the response from parents has been overwhelmingly positive.
“They’re seeing a really strong connection with the children and the experiences that we’re able to provide,” he said.
“They’re telling us that their children are happy to come, and we quite often have situations where they’re asking not to have to go home, which is great.
“What we’re very focused on is that sort of recreation and relaxation for children just to have a moment to breathe because they’ve been learning all day.”
They also have lots of activities on offer for the children to entertain themselves in the afternoon, including a mini restaurant.
“The restaurant set-up has been really popular,” Mr Mitchell said.
“Everything is directed by the children and what they’re interested in.
“We do a lot of outside time as well, which we find really valuable, whether it is ball games or group games out of the oval. It really helps build a sense of camaraderie between the children.”
Currently, the service hosts around 10 children a day, with about 15 families registered.
Work is being done to potentially run a vacation care program over the summer holidays.
“It’s a great opportunity, having the children for more than three hours, to be able to do some really engaging, larger project type work, introducing cooking experiences, and that kind of thing would be a big focus of vacation care,” Mr Mitchell said.
So far, the school has also been happy with the service, and Mr Mitchell is working towards expanding the staff numbers and getting into contact with new families starting next year.
“We’ve got a strong relationship with the school and the principal,” he said.
“We’re working with them towards next year, making sure we connect with the families that are starting next year, and starting to build plans around orientating those children into the OSCH program as well.”
Uniting is an early learning education provider in Victoria and Tasmania, predominantly working in childcare and kindergarten.
St Luke’s Catholic Primary School marks the first OSCH program in Victoria.