The future is bright for Tasmanian children, with the state’s new National Outside School Hours Services Alliance (NOSHSA) representative sharing her commitment to enrich children’s lives, support families and build community.
CatholicCare Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) State Educational Leader Janaya Lawson said the service involved much more than simply ‘minding’ children.
“We want people to know that (the children) are actually engaging in all of these programs that are helping them develop into young citizens,” she said.
“We put all our educators through qualifications, so they do have the deeper understanding of what we're doing. I think with involving families more and doing more exciting things within our programs, they'll start to realise that we do more than just look after them.”
Janaya said NOSHSA, which celebrates 30 years of advocacy, promotion, and advancement of the OSHC sector in Australia this year, provided a national voice and safeguarded the rights of all children to access quality, age-appropriate OSHC services.
“They promote outside school hours care and advocate for our educators, because when it comes to childcare there's a heavy focus on the early years,” she explained.
“Outside school hours care is sort of forgotten.”
That is set to change, however, with Janaya already working alongside NOSHSA to implement state-wide events for OSHC providers aimed at strengthening the entire industry.
“Obviously, we want our OSHC services to be the best they can be, but we want all OSHC services to be amazing,” she said.
“The more we work with other services and the more that work is being seen, that's just going to lift OSHC to the next level. Being able to have our educators engage with people like this – it’s going to be amazing. They'll be able to collaborate with other providers and that's just going to strengthen what we do.
“NOSHSA offers us the chance to collaborate with other services, to hear academic people speak, where we wouldn't necessarily have that opportunity.”
Janaya said CatholicCare OSHC was already implementing some exciting ideas.
“We're putting more effort and more focus into risky play, for example,” she said.
“It'll be the play that, for instance, you would've done growing up before technology came around and everybody stayed inside.
“We think that paired with all the resources that NOSHSA will give us, it will really help set our services apart.”
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The future is bright for Tasmanian children, with the state’s new National Outside School Hours Services Alliance (NOSHSA) representative sharing her commitment to enrich children’s lives, support families and build community.
CatholicCare Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) State Educational Leader Janaya Lawson said the service involved much more than simply ‘minding’ children.
“We want people to know that (the children) are actually engaging in all of these programs that are helping them develop into young citizens,” she said.
“We put all our educators through qualifications, so they do have the deeper understanding of what we're doing. I think with involving families more and doing more exciting things within our programs, they'll start to realise that we do more than just look after them.”
Janaya said NOSHSA, which celebrates 30 years of advocacy, promotion, and advancement of the OSHC sector in Australia this year, provided a national voice and safeguarded the rights of all children to access quality, age-appropriate OSHC services.
“They promote outside school hours care and advocate for our educators, because when it comes to childcare there's a heavy focus on the early years,” she explained.
“Outside school hours care is sort of forgotten.”
That is set to change, however, with Janaya already working alongside NOSHSA to implement state-wide events for OSHC providers aimed at strengthening the entire industry.
“Obviously, we want our OSHC services to be the best they can be, but we want all OSHC services to be amazing,” she said.
“The more we work with other services and the more that work is being seen, that's just going to lift OSHC to the next level. Being able to have our educators engage with people like this – it’s going to be amazing. They'll be able to collaborate with other providers and that's just going to strengthen what we do.
“NOSHSA offers us the chance to collaborate with other services, to hear academic people speak, where we wouldn't necessarily have that opportunity.”
Janaya said CatholicCare OSHC was already implementing some exciting ideas.
“We're putting more effort and more focus into risky play, for example,” she said.
“It'll be the play that, for instance, you would've done growing up before technology came around and everybody stayed inside.
“We think that paired with all the resources that NOSHSA will give us, it will really help set our services apart.”
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