Karen Farbus:
Hello, I'm Karen Farbus and I'm principal of Nyora Primary School. We operate a school council operated delivered OSHC program and the fact that we got a grant for this program was really important for us. Being a small school, we have limited funds, so the grant offered us the opportunity to have a program in operation. We wouldn't have been able to do it without that support, and that's had a huge impact on our enrollments too. Otherwise, people would not come to our school if we didn't offer this service.
Tennille:
It's freed up a lot of my hours at work, like I don't have to rush home from work and I can drop them off early so I can get to work earlier as well.
Wendy Noye:
The students love the OSHC service. They love to come to before and after school care. They've taken real ownership of the room, the program, their voice is paramount in the whole setting up of the program. It's been really good.
Sue Izard:
My name is Sue Izard and I'm principal at Napoleons Primary School. The OSHC grant has been really vital to us starting because it's meant that we haven't had to worry too much about a minimum amount of numbers. It's allowed us to just allow people to take advantage of the opportunity without the stress of worrying about affordability, and that has been fantastic.
Melissa:
My son attends afterschool care one afternoon a week. If it was up to him, he would come every single day. He absolutely loves afterschool care.
Daniel:
I really like that it has entertaining stuff after school and it keeps you busy for hours while your parents are doing boring stuff like work.
David Sutton:
I'm David Sutton, the principal of Maryborough Education Center, which is a prep to 12 and special school here in the Central Goldfields Shire. Our students have really benefited from the OSHC program because they're very familiar with the surroundings. There's a great deal of convenience for them that they can finish class and just head straight up to the OSHC program or attend the OSHC program early and head straight down to class. There's a lot of certainty, a lot of familiarity with the staff and with the facility, and a number of our students have disabilities and experience levels of vulnerability, so having that certainty and predictability is really important.
Luke Bennett:
My name is Luke Bennett. I'm assistant principal at Marnebek School in Cranbourne. We're a school for students with mild to moderate intellectual disability and we have over 400 students. The OSHC program we provide here at Marnebek really helps our families to access work. We had a number of families contact the school to say they were actually unable to work due to having to pick their child up from school. Now we're able to provide the OSHC program, parents are able to work and pick up their children after work, so it's not only helping the families but also helping the wider community and our local community.
Mikaela Ramsay:
Something that we have learnt by setting up our afterschool care program is our closely connection with community. It's been great to also allow families to go back to work and have care for their students after school.
Milla:
I enjoy the games and activities and I enjoy just the people that take care of us because they're really nice.
Luke Bennett:
We received a range of assistance through the establishment grant team, through the Department of Education. That was via for lots of phone calls, emails, and conversations through the team. It's really helped us choose the best provider for our students and for our families.
Wendy Noye:
The assistance that was provided by the department was exceptional. Our policies, CCS advice, online forums, the OSHC Central Team were extremely accessible all the time through the whole process. That made it a lot easier.
Summer:
There's so many activities that I can't even remember them all.
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