Camp Hill Outside School Hours Care

Last Thursday the management team, alongside our OT students from Griffith, were lucky enough to hear a little teaser from our Therapeutic Playworker Liese in preparation for our upcoming Staff Spring Camp in late September.

The Topic? The History Of Childhood. The focus of the presentation was on the history of how society has understood and shaped childhood over the many centuries of human existence. And how these ideas have shifted and changed and how they have helped to create our current views on childhood and the complexities that children face today and into the future. This allows us to then see how we view childhood from a Playworkers approach and how our space impacts on the children in which we care for.

Looking forward to sharing this with staff in the few weeks and to have the chance to dive even deeper with the staff through conversations and reflections!

What a productive, inspiring, thought provoking and amazing networking opportunity over the past two days for the staff at Camp Hill at this years Outsiders Play Advocates Planning for Play Confernece. With over 200 attendees from all across Australia, the team were able to hear some amazing content from internationally renowned speakers, whilst also having the chance at networking and meeting delegates from Schools, LDC, Kindys and OSHC’s from SE Qld to north QLD and all the way down to Canberra and beyond.

Friday saw Managers Isaih and Todd host the Bus Tour event, with 40 delegates visiting 4 incredible play spaces across the Brisbane and Logan region. Including Cannon Hill, Runcorn SS, Wynnum SS and Good Start Shailer Park. Each space offered its own uniqueness in how they manage and create their spaces which meant each service was able to offer some new insight into their Playwork practice. Reminding us of the power of shared knowledge and that our play journeys and stories shouldn’t happen in isolation.

Saturday was the main event and we were lucky to have 8 of the Camp Hill staff attend. This years overall theme was about play and the mind. Looking in depth at the importance and significance of Play and Playing on children’s brain development. We are very much looking forward to bringing back this wealth of knowledge to the staff over the coming weeks, as we all digest the breadth of content that was delivered.

For us, more than anything, the weekend showed the importance of sharing and networking with the many amazing schools, Early Years and OSHC services that are doing some incredible things. Whilst also reinforcing the importance of what we already knew about the synergy between Play and the developing brain.

Hello OSHC community,
We are on the look out for roller blade and/or roller skates.
If you have any you are willing to donate to the service we would really appreciate it!!

Thanks everyone!

OSHC Team

This week we were lucky enough to welcome Daniel Burton from Educated by Nature to Camp Hill OSHC, Daniel came all the way from WA to help us deep dive into managing risk within children’s play and activities. Although Camp Hill OSHC does extensive work, research and training into the risk that is inherently present in children’s play and activities, it is always great to get different perspectives to critically reflect on our own practice and look for ways to improve. This improvement should ultimately aid the development of a space, and practice that allows for children to safely engage in risk in ways that are intrinsically motivated and personally directed. It should be acknowledged that within children’s play there is always an element of risk, sometimes this is obvious to the supervising adults, for example, when children are engaging in something that has an element of physical risk, other times it is not so obvious, this is often in the space of social and emotional risk. Play gives children a safe, imaginative space to engage in a whole range of topics and activities that help them integrate a highly complex and paradoxical world into their being to develop deep relationships with social, emotional and physical realities.
Daniel inspired staff to not only support children in their risk taking, but also to do so in a way that is safe and appropriate. Using Risk Benefit Assessment (RBA), Dynamic Risk Assessment (DRA) processes, understanding the risk matrix and increasing our knowledge about the inherent risk within children’s play and activities are just some of the strategies we use to ensure children are safe as they push their capabilities within their time here at Camp Hill OSHC.
In the PD it was acknowledged that children will play at the edge of their capabilities, as play is a process where children are intrinsically motivated to learn, grow and develop their whole being. This deep understanding of the functions of play allows us to understand that there is an inherent risk within all play. Children play in the moment, and as a result they never know what the next step will be. Again, this process allows children to gain comfortability in the unknown, and confidence to navigate situations, striving toward an end goal that is ultimately aimed at social cohesion and safety in order to continue their play in an engaging way.

Finally, a huge thing that Daniel stressed was the importance of critical reflection and group discussion. This process helps us to broaden our perspective as individual playworkers, ensuring we have the largest tool kit to support children in our space.

Thanks, Daniel, for such an amazing PD and inspiring us to continue to learn and develop our practice as individuals and as a whole team. Reach out to Daniel and the team at Educated by nature if these topics are something you and your team wish to develop further. Educated by Nature

Quote of the day: “It’s like the most interesting rock!”

The kids worked hard today to unearth a rock in Yarning Circle! They were amazed at the little roots sprouting from the rocks surface, and then spent time breaking it apart into smaller pieces, until they had a collection of jagged rocks. Geologists in the making! 🪨

How good! 😋 what a delicious menu for the week. Some new and fun dishes!

Dear Families,

Our phones are down. Please call us on 0403873624

Camp Hill Management

Wow, what an incredible day! We completely underestimated the kids' abilities.

We initially thought the little ones wouldn't be able to conquer the 'Nuclear Rampage Obstacle course’, but it turns out their nimble bodies were actually the key to success!
Stay tuned to see how the staff went.

A big thank you to Bouncy Giggles Jumping Castles for always providing the fun 🥳

Another Go Card adventure in the books, and what a blast it was! The girls definitely brought their A-game and snagged the win today, but the boys put up a great fight and were hot on their heels.

Big thanks to everyone who spotted us out and about and said hello! Brisbane city, we'll see you next year! 🚌⛴️